Real-Time Building Data: Find Out What You Don’t You Know Right Now

The adage “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is spot-on when it comes to managing energy costs in buildings. However, in today’s connected world, it’s no longer enough to collect data after the fact. Receiving critical data in real time about your building’s operations and energy use significantly increases your opportunities for cutting costs — and can even help you head off maintenance or safety issues.

Does the idea of getting energy and system information in real time sound like a futuristic fantasy? It’s not. Wireless technology is enabling devices of all kinds to continuously transmit critical data to the people who need it.

For facility and building managers, this means that installing electronic sensors in a connected building can help you run your property more efficiently. You can meet the needs of your tenants promptly, avoid costly equipment failures, and monitor and lower energy costs. According to research from monitoring software maker Lucid¹, real-time data provides building managers with savings of 8-13% from operational efficiency improvements.

How it works

A connected building uses a variety of simple sensors and monitors to deliver data to a centralized software system. Consider these examples:

• Smart meters — Smart interval meters provide data that shows your building’s unique energy profile, or signature. This profile tells you details such as your building’s energy demand throughout the day and across longer time periods, its base load and peaks, and what mechanical equipment is responsible for energy demand.

  According to Lucid, peak demand accounts for, on average, 40% of commercial building energy costs. Thus, the data you get may help you position your building for energy savings and implement a comprehensive energy management plan for your commercial multifamily building.

• Smart sensors and monitors — Smart sensors and other smart building technologies collect data around the clock to help multifamily building owners avoid costly repairs and replacements. We call these cost-cutting devices “Wearables for Buildings.” Consider a simple example of the advantage these devices provide:
  • Load-monitoring sensors provide information about the amount of electricity the HVAC system is using and the efficiency of its different components.
  • Sensor data that shows a significant change in power consumption for any part of the system (e.g., a component starts using 2 kilowatts instead of the normal 1.5 kW) can indicate a problem that needs attention.
  • Fault detection, made possible by smart monitoring, preempts the failure, saving building owners potentially thousands of dollars in major repairs or new equipment purchases.

  Lucid’s research shows that real-time fault detection like this saves organizations an average of 18% on their energy consumption.

• Web browser-based data delivery — The information collected by smart meters and sensors is collected in a dashboard that makes the data accessible and understandable. You can look at data any time, from any device; the Sensorz Smartphone app literally puts the information directly into your hands, and provides alerts to on-site staff when an issue needs to be addressed immediately.

Use your knowledge

Once you start measuring and monitoring your building, real-time data gives you the power to progress toward your goals. ETS can help you make the most of your information — we don’t leave you guessing what to do next. We help you:

• Set up your dashboard so you see data in real time. The dashboard will let you see what’s currently going on in your building. You can also use it to see trends over time.

• Avoid data overload. We help you analyze the data to make sense of it. That way, rather than tracking lots of data, you can track the important data — the data that you can use to measure your progress in achieving your energy cost reduction goals.

• Make it actionable. Once you know the important data to measure, we help you identify actionable next steps to make positive changes in energy use and costs.

Most building managers aren’t measuring energy use at all. It’s not because they don’t want to but rather because they don’t have the means to do so.

ETS gives you the means, and it’s as simple as downloading any app. Isn’t it time to find out what you don’t know?

[cta]How much money could you save by implementing smart technologies in your building? Contact ETS to learn more and schedule an energy-savings evaluation.[/cta]

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¹ 4 Reasons Operations Teams Can’t Live Without Real-Time Building Data, eBook, Lucid, 2015.