INTELLIGENT GREEN TECHNOLOGY
conventions and syntaxes coming from a
variety of devices, sensors and systems. As a
result, gathering, processing and analysing
the information may not always be easy.
Two drivers will make this data integration
happen despite these difficulties:
1. Utilities are expanding energy demand
response programmes that offer varying
energy pricing based on time of day
2. Energy mandates to increase efficiency
by adjusting consumption are
becoming more standard
Responding to either of these requires
collecting and reacting to information,
often lots of it and sometimes very quickly.
Consequently, there will be a strong
incentive to harness the power of IoT.
The arrival of IoT means that the old way
of doing things will not work. Overall
building technology will have to evolve.
Anybody involved or concerned with
managing a building needs to anticipate
and plan for changes brought about by
the IoT. Navigant Research reports that
end users are going to be conditioned by
their experience with intelligent devices to
expect smart buildings.
With the added data and intelligence
IoT brings buildings, facility owners,
managers should not underestimate the
potential risk of security breaches. All of
the protections and best practices of a
standard office network will have to be
part of the software package.
While being robust enough to ward off
attackers, building management software
should be able to collaborate with multiple-
and third-party systems and devices. A not-
so-obvious aspect of IoT and the experience
with smart devices is that users expect to
be able to take any device, get it on the
network, and then have it work.
To make IoT a reality, buildings need to
be more efficient, comfortable and easier
to manage. Changes in software and its
integration into hardware devices will
make this possible. IoT-ready products,
such as sensors, actuators and controllers,
that are connected to a building
management system, need to deliver
efficiency and optimisation impact at every
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Above and previous page: The arrival of IoT means that the old way of doing things will not work.
Overall building technology will have to evolve. Anybody involved or concerned with managing a
building needs to anticipate and plan for changes brought about by IoT.
level of smart building operations. When
software and hardware systems connect
and communicate via a central Internet
Protocol backbone, buildings become a
hub or network that enables connected
things to come into the building from the
outside and vice versa.
Sensors are a very large component of
the IoT - eventually they will be connected
to everything, everywhere. As noted in
the Navigant Research report, the cost
of sensors and actuators is dropping.
However, you cannot go by price alone.
Reliability and ease of integration are key
factors when choosing the right IoT-
ready products to go with your building
management system.
Part of what IoT can enable is system
health and predictive maintenance. A
building management system should be
future-ready and have the ability to grow
and adapt as the technology advances.
IoT enables system health and preventive
or better yet predictive maintenance.
Repairs can be scheduled when there
is less disruption and less expense. It is
important, to get IoT-capable hardware
for a new build or when doing a retrofit.
That applies to everything from the control
devices up to the building management
system. Most current managed service
offers focus on platforms for predictive
energy optimisation. They use algorithms
and predictive analytics to automatically
reduce operations in commercial
buildings. The benefit comes from
managing and monetising all the data
gathered from the plethora of sensors we
talked about earlier.
For managed services to be of value,
they must ensure the sensor data is
gathered, stored, managed, optimised,
safeguarded and monetised in the cloud.
IoT offers the ability to coordinate the
response in different areas.
Building services will become more
vital. Part of the reason for this is that
government regulations call for increased
energy efficiency. The US, for instance,
is pushing for a nearly 30% reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions within 10 years.
Companies will therefore increasingly turn
to sophisticated and optimised building
energy management systems to meet these
requirements. Building services will help
produce significant energy savings. They
will also deliver better running smart
buildings that make IoT a reality.
Issue 16
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS