The global smart building market continues its steady, unrelenting growth — and for good reason. Investing in properties to make them "green" provides a quick return on investment by lowering operating costs, increasing property value, and raising tenancy rates.
What Makes a Building Smart?
Intelligent buildings integrate building control systems, IT systems and metering platforms to provide a detailed picture of a building's operational state. These systems are designed to maintain a tight operating window, identify deviations from the norm, and hi-light areas for improvement.
The following roadmap for creating attractive, smart buildings from retrofit opportunities borrows heavily from The ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Step 1. Create a Metering Fabric
Deploy an open system, revenue-grade submetering fabric coupled with an Energy Management Information System to create benchmarking, verification, visibility, analysis, and data mobility.
Why open, revenue-grade meters? An approved, open metering system built on industry standards will work today and tomorrow — and be ready for new and emerging energy initiatives.
Step 2. Benchmark
Measure and benchmark a building's energy use with data points from the newly installed metering fabric.
Step 3. Analyze the Results
Analyze results, modelling ideal versus actual to quantify resource-saving opportunities.
Step 4. Recommendations
Make recommendations (with targets) for physical plant and process enhancements.
Step 5. Verify and Implement
Verify and implement identified improvement areas — behavioural first, then building.
Step 6. Repeat
Repeat steps 2 through 5, continuously.
There is an enormous opportunity for property managers, building owners and system integrators to turn existing buildings into efficient smart properties. The process is simple enough but takes some planning and patience.
For more on how to deploy a submetering system in your existing building, check out Submetering for Energy Managementor Submetering for Tenant Billing.
Or, if you want to fast-track your properties to becoming tenant attractive, smart buildings, drop us a line.
