Is your Building lacking in a BMS and Smart capabilities?
In today's commercial office environment, smart buildings equipped with advanced Building Management Systems (BMS) are of interest to Landlords and Occupiers alike for their energy efficiency and sustainability.
It's estimated that around 90% of buildings under 100,000 sq/ft don't have any form of BMS which makes life more difficult when it comes to optimising energy usage and improving overall building performance. However with the combination of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and a new low cost BMS system for small buildings that's about to change.
Building Management Systems (BMS) have long been recognised as essential for HVAC Control, optimising energy consumption, improving efficiency, and enhancing the overall performance of large commercial buildings. Because traditional BMS solutions were mostly designed for these larger buildings, that left small and medium-sized buildings with limited options for control, energy management and energy reduction.
In this article, we will explain the importance of installing an affordable Small Building BMS & IoT system for small buildings and how our EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS solution, can unlock energy savings and revolutionise building operations.
The HVAC Challenges with Small Buildings
Small and medium commercial buildings under 100,000 square feet, represent the largest portion of the commercial office market. Despite their quantity, these buildings will most likely not have an effective control and building management system. This is usually due to the high cost with traditional BMS systems, limited budgets, no dedicated building management, and regionalised locations make it difficult to make consistent manual changes and ensure efficient operations. therefore smaller buildings often suffer from higher energy costs, compliance issues, and equipment breakdowns.
Why The Need for BMS in Smaller Buildings?
The energy consumption of small buildings accounts for a substantial portion of the overall energy demand. Studies globally have shown that less than 10% of small buildings haven't implemented a BMS, leading to unnecessary energy waste of up to 25%. In the US alone that translates to an incredible 750 trillion Btu's wasted annually!
The potential for energy savings in smaller buildings is immense, making an affordable low-cost BMS product available for smaller buildings and the implementation crucial for reducing energy waste and helping in achieving sustainability goals.
The Advantages of the EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS
The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS is a smart building management solution that harnesses the power and low cost non-wired battery powered Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and data analytics to optimise building performance and unlock energy savings.
Unlike conventional BMS solutions, The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS is adaptable to small and medium-sized buildings, offering a low cost-effective and scalable alternative that delivers great results.
One of the pillars of smart building management is IoT integration. The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS leverages the power of LoRaWAN to enable seamless connectivity among various building systems, including metering, HVAC, occupancy etc.
This provides greater efficiency, improved building performance, and enhanced occupant comfort. By integrating isolated systems, The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS creates a single unified platform for remote monitoring, management and controlling building operations.
Remote Monitoring and Control for Enhanced Efficiency
Cloud-based IoT platforms and mobile applications have been around before Covid and have revolutionised building management by enabling remote monitoring and control. The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS leverages these technologies to provide facility managers with real-time access to building systems from anywhere.
This allows proactive decision-making by stakeholders and timely interventions to ensure optimal performance. Remote Energy Management can be provided by EnviroLogik.
Prioritising Occupant Health and Wellbeing
Since Covid, In today’s commercial buildings, occupant health and wellbeing are of increasing importance. The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS connected with IoT sensors goes beyond energy optimisation and focuses on creating healthy and comfortable indoor environments.
By monitoring and controlling Ventilation, indoor air quality, temperature humidity, and occupancy, The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS ensures the wellbeing and productivity of building occupants.
Implementing the Mini Smart BMS
The EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS offers a streamlined approach to building automation. The Mini Smart BMS provides a control process similar to a full blown BMS, but at a fraction of the cost. This flexibility allows building owners to choose the level of automation that best suits their needs, ensuring optimal performance and energy savings.
Why you should consider our Mini Smart BMS for small to medium sized buildings.
Building Management Systems (BMS) aren't now just limited to large buildings. The energy-saving potential of small buildings shouldn't be overlooked, and implementing a BMS tailored to those needs is essential.
The Mini Smart BMS, with its IoT integration, control strategies, remote monitoring, seamless automation, and occupant based energy matching approach, offers a revolutionary solution for small building management.
By installing the EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS, building owners and facility managers can attract energy conscious tenants, unlock energy savings, improve operational efficiency, and create healthier and more sustainable environments for occupants.
EnviroLogik's IoT systems using LoRaWAN is well proven technology in commercial office HVAC and energy monitoring capabilities, and its potential impact on BMS systems is no exception. By connecting devices, sensors, and systems, IoT provides real-time monitoring, alert notifications, data collection, and intelligent decision-making. This opens up a world of possibilities for energy optimisation and building performance enhancement.
Whilst it's accepted that IoT holds tremendous potential, without a BMS in most commercial office buildings, this has been a significant barrier to widespread adoption.
Full BMS systems are complex, expensive, and require specialised expertise for installation, implementation and adjustments. This leaves the majority of smaller buildings without the means to make the most from IoT technology for energy efficiency and sustainability.
Use Case in practice
A retirement housing complex in Worcestershire built in the 1980's built over 3 floors with multiple rooms of different sizes, communal areas, office, cleaning and cooking facilities.
It has a basic heating system with two 180kW Atmospheric boilers supplying hot a Domestic Hot Water tank for hot water supply to the residential spaces. The site is heated using radiators fitted with TRVs.
The plantroom had a Honeywell weather compensating boiler sequencer for heating and direct fired water heaters for hot water (HWS) generation. In the summer of 2021 the control was replaced with the EnviroLogik Mini Smart BMS.
We also installed our LoRaWAN Smart Radiator Control solution that connects to the BMS allows the temperature in individual rooms to be controlled remotely, allowing the automatic control system to set day and night-time target temperatures, without disrupting the comfort of the occupants, whilst optimising the central boiler room. Unoccupied rooms/areas are switched off after a set amount of time or if a window has been left open.
Results
The energy use for the 2022/2023 heating season where the building was under Mini Smart BMS control was compared with energy use for the period 2019/2020 which is the last heating season before the Covid pandemic.
Like-for-like comparison of energy use was achieved by using the Degree-day data to adjust monthly energy data so that the monthly energy use for each heating season are for an equal number of degree days. Energy savings due to reductions in heating energy use were then estimated by removing the base load due to hot water generation energy use. The results were as follows:
36% Heating Energy Saved 25% Total Energy Saved
It is assumed that the requirements for hot water in the building are equal in the two analysis periods and are unrelated to external climate conditions.
However, details of the control of the hot-water system in 2019/20 are unknown, and the Mini Smart BMS control of the hot water system is designed to minimise boiler operation. In particular, the Mini Smart BMS uses thermostatic tank temperature control with night setback which results on lower boiler usage than continuously maintaining the tank temperature at a fixed value.
Therefore, there may be a further reduction in HWS energy costs due to reduction in losses associated with Hot Water generation. However even if the HWS energy use was reduced by 10% due to the Mini Smart BMS control optimisation, this would still result in a reduction in heating energy use of 30%.
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