Intelligent Building Technology: The Smart Way to Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Sustainability Series #6)
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INTELLIGENT BUILDING TECHNOLOGY: THE SMART WAY TO LOWER GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS (Sustainability Series #6)
This is the sixth article in Signals+ Sustainability Series, a series that aims to illuminate how innovative technological platforms and software solutions are enabling climate tech and invite dialogue with others on the future of energy and sustainability. See here for article 5, “Fueling The Digital Factory with Data to Unlock Efficiencies.”
To help decrease greenhouse gas emissions, many people have installed solar panels on their houses, or at the very least, use energy-efficient appliances in their kitchens. This will undoubtedly impact the environment positively, and likely help people save on energy bills. But when thinking about scale, one must consider the potential environmental impact of large, commercial buildings and how leveraging intelligent building technology can help drive efficiency, safety, and emissions reductions.
Increasing energy efficiency and managing demand on the energy grid from commercial buildings will help businesses progress towards the 1.5°C threshold in the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.1
The key to achieving potential energy efficiencies in commercial buildings is to manage the entire building through comprehensive, collaborative technologies to leverage data-driven insights. One way to achieve this is through digitalization and connectivity.
"Today, building managers are facing mounting pressures around safety, operational efficiency, and energy efficiency. Automation breaks down operational barriers to give building managers more control over the efficiency of their buildings, ultimately helping improve the occupant experience while advancing energy management goals."Steve Kenny
Vice President/General Manager | Honeywell Building Management Systems
WHAT IS AN INTELLIGENT BUILDING?
Intelligent buildings, or smart buildings, integrate technology and processes to enhance safety, comfort, and productivity for occupants while boosting operational efficiency for owners. They deploy interconnected sensors, devices, and control systems for real-time data analysis and optimization, merging HVAC, lighting, alarms, and security into a unified IT network.2
A BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: HELPING BUILDINGS BECOME MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT
The commercial buildings sector has a tremendous opportunity to reduce energy use, as an average of 30% of energy in these buildings is used inefficiently or unnecessarily on HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, and hot water heating.3 Implementing a building management system (BMS) is a key method to help reduce waste and enhance energy efficiency.
A BMS automates control of a building’s electrical and mechanical systems, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, fire safety, and security. In the U.S., nearly 60% of large commercial buildings (>50,000 square feet) have a BMS, while only 13% of smaller buildings do.4 These gaps illustrate a significant opportunity for building managers to employ enhanced energy and cost savings from a smart system.
Installing or upgrading a BMS with advanced sensors and communication modules can yield an average of 10% to 25% energy savings.5 These systems optimize based on occupancy, help streamline operations, and enable remote fault detection, ensuring spaces are heated, cooled, and lit only as needed. Automation helps minimize energy use and reduce peak demands, while real-time remote diagnostics help enhance energy efficiency.
CONNECTIVITY IS KEY TO A PRODUCTIVE, EFFICIENT BMS
Connectivity is central to a BMS, linking control panels, sensors, and actuators for the efficient management of HVAC, lighting, security, fire alarms, and power systems.
Single-pair Ethernet technology enhances connectivity in commercial or industrial settings by supporting long-distance communications offering higher bandwidth, increased node counts, and advanced security compared to legacy systems. It operates on a single pair of wires (common in existing buildings), minimizing the need for wire replacement, reducing waste, and cutting installation costs. Designed for industrial use, this technology maintains signal integrity despite interference and allows power transmission over the same wires, streamlining installation.
The Advantages of Bringing IP Communications to the Edge of a BMS Help Unlock Greater Insights
Full Duplex Communication
Localized Decision Making
Eliminating Data Silos
Reduce Downtime for Upgrades
It’s possible to go a step further and connect edge devices to assist BMS in unlocking greater insights. When bringing single-pair Ethernet to the edge of the BMS, devices can do more. They can conduct 2-way conversations of status information vital to the optimal running and management of the overall building. By connecting edge devices with single-pair Ethernet, you can ensure that previously siloed systems like HVAC, lighting, surveillance, and fire extinguishing can all provide information to the central BMS to create a single view for all the data in the building.
Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies into a BMS may further optimize energy consumption by enabling predictive analysis and intelligent algorithms to help automate processes and enhance energy efficiency. New patterns and efficiencies can be gleaned that previously may have been hidden when not viewed as a whole set of data points.
INNOVATIVE BMS TECHNOLOGIES: THE BRAINS BEHIND THE BRAUN
A modern BMS is reliant upon a foundation of advanced technologies powering it, including configurable input/output (I/O) devices, which enable interaction between a human operator or another system and a computer. Configurable I/O devices simplify a BMS installation and offer future adaptability while safeguarding investments. Input examples include temperature sensors, and smoke and motion sensors, while output examples are variable speed drives (VSD) and alarm bells/strobes.
In addition, improved power supply and motor control enhance energy efficiency while diagnostics for equipment maintenance can help spot faulty equipment and minimize maintenance and/or downtime. Together, these technologies can help reduce the energy required to run the building’s equipment such as HVAC, lighting, and security systems.
Adopting heating and cooling technologies like heat pumps and variable refrigerant flow systems (VFR) can help further reduce emissions. These systems outperform traditional gas or oil boilers at converting energy to heat, and are electric, allowing for renewable energy use.8 They make space heating and cooling less energy-intensive and, because they’re electric, they can operate completely by renewable energy sources. Transitioning to heat pumps today and making them standard in new construction will help reduce carbon emissions as the electric grid shifts to more renewable sources.
What’s more, the EU considers heat pumps key to enabling their clean energy transition and achieving the EU’s carbon neutrality goal by 2050. With 3 million heat pump units installed in 2022 alone, the EU’s objective is to install at least 10 million additional heat pumps by 2027.9
INTELLIGENT BUILDING TECHNOLOGY FOSTERS HOPE FOR CONTROLLING GHG EMISSIONS
The opportunity is clear for commercial building owners wanting to address their climate goals and reduce emissions: Adopt an advanced building management system that utilizes digitalization and connectivity technologies. Governments can also play a key role by implementing legislation, incentives, and building standards like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
While these initiatives can have a dramatic effect on the environment, they may appear daunting to some building owners. But by leveraging this ecosystem of public entities and intelligent building/BMS technologies, building owners can rest easy knowing these energy-saving solutions can help them achieve their goals.
References
1 United Nations, Paris Agreement.
2 Smart Buildings: Four considerations creating people-centered smart, digital workplaces.
3 Dept. of Energy; Commercial Buildings Integration Program.
4 NREL.gov; Commercial Building Sensors and Controls Systems: Barriers, Drivers, and Costs
5 ACEEE.org; Smart Buildings: Using Smart Technology to Save Energy in Existing Buildings.
6 IEA; Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2023.
7 US Dept of Energy; Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewal Energy.
8 IEA 50; Heat Pumps
9 European Commission; Heat pumps are key to enabling the clean energy transition and achieving the EU’s carbon neutrality goal by 2050.
