Three Reasons Can Justify New Building Automation Technology
February 7, 2012
Today's tip from
Building Operating Management comes from Rita Tatum, contributing editor: Three reasons may justify an investment in upgraded building automation or energy management systems.
The past few years have seen a substantial amount of innovation in building automation and energy management systems. In some cases, the innovations have come from suppliers of the automation systems; in other cases, the new applications have been developed by third party software developers.
Three economic forces are moving more buildings into modern building automation or energy management operations, says Jack Althoff, owner of ProjX, Inc.
First, tenant comfort can be significantly improved, because building management can monitor building components more thoroughly than older building automation or energy management applications could.
"With today's technology, you really can see everything you need to see at a high level to ensure your building’s occupants are comfortable," says Althoff.
The second force is control of utility costs. Facility managers can react quickly to address usage anomalies. "So if tenants add a new lighting system that causes their usage to jump by 1,000 kilowatts, you know immediately," says Althoff. "You have time to see if you can do something to correct the matter or possibly adjust the contract with them for the additional usage."
The third motivator is manpower savings. Alarms and sensors keep building operators aware of what's happening via the building automation or energy management network, before staff are dispatched.
Soft diagnostics, built into today’s controls, identify potential glitches before they become problems. Sometimes the diagnostics can correct the problem directly. But even when the controller cannot fix the problem, it can note early warning signs. "For example, the controls will note the water pressure is dropping before the basement is flooded," says Althoff.
This has been a
Building Operating Management Tip of the Day. Thanks for listening.
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