October 23, 2015 - Building Automation
Question: What are the benefits of the IoT for building occupants today?
Answer: Building owners can use the power of the Internet of Things to connect existing equipment to technology solutions like fault detection and diagnostics to greatly improve tenant comfort levels and save on energy costs. Tenants won’t even know that any work is being done because everything happens behind the scenes without requiring costly retrofits or capital expenditures. No longer is it necessary to bring in a team of mechanical contractors to rip and replace equipment, disrupt the workspace and reduce productivity. One of the more visible benefits for tenants is a reduction in hot and cold calls or complaints, making for a more comfortable workplace environment.
Question: What advantages does IoT technology provide for facility professionals today?
Answer: Leading edge IoT technologies, such as ICONICS’ Facility AnalytiX®, immediately add value on top of the already in-place building automation systems and equipment, to the tune of ten to twenty percent in savings on their annual utility bill, with an ROI typically between twelve to eighteen months. Facility professionals can now rely on mobile connectivity to understand their current building issues, equipment diagnostics and work order status in real time.
Fault detection and diagnostics provides insight to equipment issues and is a recent technology-based solution that was not there just a few years ago. Knowing the issue before an alarm occurs and proactively managing maintenance work rather that reacting after the fact is a great improvement. Fault detection and diagnostics even calculates cost savings potentials automatically for equipment faults, which enables the facility professional to better prioritize technicians’ workloads.
Question: Are the benefits and advantages of IoT technology being realized today, and can you provide a specific example?
Answer: Fault detection and diagnostics solutions like ICONICS’ Facility AnalytiX are a great example. It connects to the IoT-enabled sensors in a given building, campus or facility and applies a set of fault rules and algorithms to equipment data on-premises or in the cloud to drive savings of ten to twenty percent on utility bills. This technology can be used to address the same equipment issues in large campuses as easily as in smaller deployments of just a single school. Examples include the largest industry case study, Microsoft’s corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., with over 100 buildings and millions of dollars in energy savings per year. This same technology has also helped Peirce Elementary School in Arlington, Mass., to save 10 percent on their energy costs in one of the harshest winters on record, when all other schools in the town went over budget.
Source: Oliver Gruner, Director of Cloud Business Development, ICONICS.
For more insights on the products, technology, benefits and challenges of the Building Internet of Things, visit www.FacilitiesNet.com/IoT
