Phillip Tracy

Case Study: LED Smart Lighting

Clothing retailer looks for?lighting savings at distribution center.

We have all seen a pair of jeans with an eagle stitched in them, or at least seen that iconic Americana logo during a trip to the mall. American Eagle Outfitters is a U.S.-based clothes and accessories retailer with revenue of more than $3 billion. What we do not see window shopping?are the company?s nationwide distribution centers, massive warehouses filled with goods ready to be packaged and shipped out. AEO was in the process of building a new distribution center in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, but before the lighting layout was finalized, the facility management team decided to look at alternate options that could provide energy and maintenance savings. It turned to GE for a large-scale smart lighting solution, according to a case study provided by GE.

Before choosing GE, American Eagle was faced with a 14,000 fluorescent lamp installation for the factory’s pick-module alone. Because fluorescent lamps have shorter shelf life than light emitting diodes, AEO would have required a full-time maintenance employee to replace tubes. Identifying GE?s LED solutions as a lighting choice took them down the path to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification, while improving light output and cost savings.

A GE LED smart lighting solution

After determining LED smart lighting was best for the pick-module areas, the facility management team reviewed other areas ? inside the offices and warehouse space, as well as the exterior of the facility ? to identify ways LEDs could help them achieve LEED certification.

?We?re very happy with the results,? Brian Poveromo, senior maintenance and facility manager at the distribution center. ?Our employees say the lighting is less harsh and helps to better illuminate their work areas. We?ve also seen that maintenance hasn?t been a concern because fixtures are lasting longer.?

The distribution center opened with 7,200 GE Albeo ALC4-Series fixtures mounted and arranged to illuminate conveyor belts and pick-module areas. These were designed to save energy by using an ?on/off? dimming schedule when associates are not in factory aisles. GE?s Albeo ABV1 LED high bay fixtures were installed in a 200,000-square-foot section as part of a second phase of construction. GE provided lighting in the warehouse with T5 fluorescent tubes, Lumination ET Series recessed LED troffers and LED downlights in the building?s office space as well as some Evolve LED lights and wall packs for the parking lot and outdoors.

The benefits of efficient lighting

Upon completion of the project, the distribution center became LEED certified at the silver level with nearly half a million dollars in E-power rebates from PPL and $128,000 for PJM capacity credits expected.

The World’s Most Intelligent Smart Building: the Edge in Amsterdam

World’s most intelligent smart building

Twenty-eight thousand sensors. That is how many it takes to create the world’s smartest, most environmentally friendly building: The Edge. An office building in Amsterdam whose main tenant is consulting firm Deloitte, has been rated the most environmentally sustainable smart building in the world since its 2014 opening.

“When the board asked me to construct this building, I made sure it has everything ? like “internet of things,” sensors, sustainability and integrated those into a data analysis platform,” said Eric Ubels, former CIO of Deloitte.

Deloitte is collecting gigabytes of data daily to see how the smart building interacts and adapts with the employees working inside. The consulting company uses its data-filled dashboards to track everything from energy usage to when food needs to be restocked.

source: HOMIJ Technische Installaties/Youtube

The Edge has unparalleled vision into the behavior of its inhabitants and an artificial intelligence-like ability to provide them whatever is needed when it is needed. For instance, The Edge uses a mobile app to track when an employee leaves their house to go to work so when they arrive it can direct them into an open parking spot. It also sees when fewer employees are expected in certain areas of the building so sections can be shut down if deemed not in use, cutting lighting and heating costs. At every location the building will adjust lighting and temperature to an individual?s preference. For example, if someone is more sensitive to bright lighting, The Edge can dim the lights to a predetermined point the moment they enter a new location.

The building?s 6,000 light emitting diode panels, made by Philips specifically for The Edge, operate using an Ethernet-powered lighting system. The panels themselves are filed with sensors ? motion, light, temperature, humidity, infrared ? to create a digital ceiling. The Philips LoE LED system was used in all office spaces to reduce the energy requirement by around 50% compared to conventional TL-5 lighting.

But The Edge isn?t just a smart project, it is seen as a cultural revolution turning traditionally static work environments on their head. No one who works in the building has an office. The Edge application keeps a schedule for employees, making sure they are in the right place at the right time ? in meeting rooms, workstations (as close to a traditional desk as you will find, and all within 7 meters of a window), concentration rooms, etc.

the-edge5 — source: HOMIJ Technische Installaties/Youtube

The smartphone is a main link between people and The Edge. Employees can use it to find colleagues, adjust climate controls?or manage their gym routine. Those devices can be wirelessly charged on desks, which are all equipped with built-in QI wireless chargers.

What is a Smart Stadium and How Does it Get Fans In Seats

A fight against the living room

Stadiums are in trouble. In a 1998 ESPN poll, 54% of sports fans said they’d rather watch a game at the stadium than at home. By 2011, only 29% of respondents to the same poll said they preferred being at the game.

“We compete with the?high-definition TV?within the comfort of their homes,” said Tery Howard,?chief technology officer for the Miami Dolphins, to?InnovationNewsDaily. “We don’t want it to be an effort for fans to come out because of issues with parking and standing in line to buy a hot dog.”

So how can stadiums compete with the comforts and conveniences of our own homes? By turning to the industrial IoT and making them smarter.

What is a smart stadium?

According to Intel, smart stadiums are the answer for stadium operators hoping to give their fans a more captivating experience while gaining higher returns on their sports complex. Smart stadiums provide fans and staff with a wealth of information on parking availability, bathroom and concession lines, seat upgrades, special offers, and more. Fans receive a convenient, personalized experience with shorter lines and directions to navigate faster through a crowded stadium. This is all?provided?to attendees immediately through the use of IoT technologies.

Smart stadiums use a large number of sensors, cameras and digital signs that connect to wired and wireless networks. These allow for up-to-date information on available parking, lines at concessions stands and in-stadium merchandise pricing.

IBM’s stadium?system allows staff to quickly redirect fans to?free parking spaces?and shut off full parking lots. But the stadium could someday also have sensors to track each incoming car, rather than put someone on the roof to count traffic using a pair of binoculars, Howard said.

Solutions like big-screen monitors, augmented reality and interactive seats, are going head-to-head with household consumer electronics like big-screen, high-resolution TVs and surround sound systems.

Making a profit

According to Intel, there are a number of ways smart stadiums relieve the pressures put on stadium operators to profit off of multi-million dollar tax-payer funded venues. Making purchases more convenient for merchandise and concessions is one of those ways. Giving fans the ability to purchase from their seats increases their likelihood of spending money. Loyalty?programs can be implemented that reward customers for spending more, and data analytics can be used to make personalized suggestions to stadium-goers.

Stadiums house anywhere from a few thousand to more than 100,000 fans, and having the infrastructure to properly accommodate those fans can be expensive. The industrial internet of things is saving building owners ?money?by optimizing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC). It does so by matching occupancy patterns to energy use?and monitoring for any problems in a building’s infrastructure.

The stadium is really a microcosm of what we’re experiencing with?smarter cities,” said Michael Gerentine, global vice president of channels and midmarket marketing at IBM. “Traffic, security challenges, weather, crowd control; a lot of these issues exist in a small or large cities.”

Smart stadium components

Intel details the solutions that are required to make a stadium smart:

Sensors: parking, sound, temperature, and other snesors detect and meaure what’s happening in and around stadiums.

Cameras: Infrared and video cameras are used to monitor crowd behavior, detect movement in parking garages, capture plays, secure entry into restricted areas or premium seating zones, etc.

Gateways: connect sensors, cameras and other devices in the stadium to one another and the cloud.

Network and cloud: Ethernet, Wi-Fi and mobile networks send stadium data over the internet to the cloud, which is capable of collecting and processing massive amounts of sensor and video data generated during live events.

Conclusion

Today’s technologies are making the stadium experience more personalized, convenient and engaging for sports fans. Stadium operators can only hope their efforts will be enough to win the fight against the technologies invading our living rooms.

WiFi-as-a-Service and Its Importance for Small Enterprises

The need for a managed Wi-Fi solution

According to Cisco?s Visual Networking Index, more than half of all monthly traffic from mobile-connected devices will be offloaded to the fixed network by means of Wi-Fi and other solutions by 2018. But implementing a building-wide Wi-Fi system isn?t a simple or budget-friendly task. Many small-to-medium sized enterprises struggle with the complexity of deploying such systems, and face a steep learning curve to manage a high performing infrastructure. Still, smaller enterprises want the security and visibility?of enterprise-level Wi-Fi without the IT expertise that is required.

There is a large gap between enterprise grade and consumer grade access points (APs), according to PowerCloud Systems. ?Additionally, management and security also lag behind with consumer grade APs, so it is especially important for smaller businesses to upgrade their systems.

A managed solution can help

WLAN equipment makers have recently begun to offer simplified management and operations models with enterprise features to small enterprises. This shift has largely been defined by the change from hardware in controllers and management appliances to a cloud-based approach. The cloud offers more simplified management as well as lower-cost implementation, reducing a company?s capital expenditures, or capex.

These less expensive and easier to manage tools?includes hardware procurement, device availability, installation and notification SLAs, an integrated management infrastructure, reporting, managed implementation/test/turn-up, and ongoing management, according to Verizon Wireless.

They give customers the ability to monitor their network using real-time statistics which provide information on usage, security, performance, and capacity.

7Signal gives its take on the top requirements for a successful “managed Wi-Fi” deployment:

Ease of deployment? managed Wi-Fi services must be easy to deploy. Cloud-based solutions have evolved to address many of the challenges, enabling a plug and play infrastructure that is easy to get up and running quickly. The best solutions fit?different environments, whether indoor or outdoor areas, large or small, with a consistent architecture.
Measuring the customer experience? a huge challenge is understanding the quality of the customer experience.? Are end-users able to attach to the network? What data rate are they using? Can they achieve the performance that enable their applications to work well? Are they able to reach web sites and server locations and what is the quality of experience with those sites? The?Wi-Fi network management?system won?t tell you this without the assistance of a performance management solution.
SLA-based reporting? most service contracts contain Service Level Agreement (SLA) metrics. Basic SLA metrics such as uptime and response time parameters are usually required, and now businesses are asking for SLAs pertaining to the customer experience (throughput, delay, jitter, packet loss, and voice quality). It helps when the?WLAN performance?dashboards and reports are organized to provide the SLA metrics so this information is easily conveyed.
Centralized troubleshooting? a managed service that requires truck rolls to address issues is doomed to struggle with response times, finger pointing and costs. With comprehensive centralized management, issues can be detected proactively before the customer complains, and resolved without the time and cost to send someone on site. The best solutions provides ways to sectionalize issues ? is it the client, the Wi-Fi or the wired network? Even more important is automated data analysis that can provide the steps required for problem resolution.
Scalability? managed services are cost effective only if they can scale. A solution must support multiple customers and grow easily for large deployments. Many?enterprise?systems struggle with the concepts of hierarchy and information filtering, but solutions built with the service provider in mind incorporate these concepts into their architecture from day one.

Some organizations don?t have the in-house IT expertise or resources to design, deploy, and manage a Wi-Fi network. That?s where a managed solution can help. Here are some additional qualities to look for in a managed Wi-Fi solution, according to MegaPath.

Versatility
Look for a Wi-Fi solution that will support both a private Wireless LAN for employees and other internal users and a public WiFi network for customers and other guests?using the same access points for both,
Advanced technology from an industry leader
As you shop for providers, ask whether the solution integrates the latest in network monitoring technology and can be managed remotely. Access points should support more than 100 users each and feature advanced, enterprise-class emerging-generation wireless technologies. Ideally, the Managed WiFi Access Points will receive the latest firmware and software updates?without your intervention?over the Web.
Diverse product portfolio
To simplify vendor management, consider looking for a provider that offers more than just WiFi. Other, related services you may need to support your business include broadband, networking, voice, managed security, and cloud services

A fully-managed use case

Last year, Rogers Communications announced new managed services aimed at the medium-sized?enterprise markets, “opening up a new umbrella for its subscription model services that it intends to grow wider in the near future.”

The Canadian telecommunications company now offers fully-managed Wi-Fi as a service and what it?s calling a Rapid Application Development platform. The platform will have pre-built solutions for specific verticals, such as the retail industry, that help gather analytics about customer interaction with technology touch points and take action on that information.

Rogers executives billed its new managed services offerings as a way for enterprises to relieve their own IT staff from keeping the lights on and instead have them focus on creating business value.
?Things like IT infrastructure and network services should be no different from other utilities run inside your organization,? said Nitin Kawale, president of the enterprise business unit at Rogers. ?Our goal is to fundamentally disrupt the industry with leapfrog products and services.?

For its Wi-Fi as a service offering, Rogers will handle everything from setting up access points and switches on site to managing them remotely and ensuring security. Patches and upgrades are delivered through the cloud automatically. Businesses will pay for the service via a subscription model and the monthly price will include installation. Rogers didn?t release pricing details yet ? that?s planned for the go-live date about a month from now.

?Wi-Fi within your business is no longer a nice to have, it?s mandatory,? says Paul Monaghan, director of cloud and managed services at Rogers. ?If you want your employees to collaborate, you need Wi-Fi to do that.?

How IoT Lowers the Cost of Building Management Systems

Control and savings with building management systems

Building management systems (BMS) are the backbone to smart buildings. They are the systems put in place to allow building owners and tenants to monitor, maintain and manage the mechanical, electrical and electromechanical functions within a structure. BMS deployment usually involves the installation of sensors, software, a network and cloud-based data store. BMS?functions include management of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC), as well as lighting, security and safety operations. But perhaps a building management system’s biggest appeal is its proven ability to lower energy usage, and therefore, save money.

A costly problem

Companies like?Johnson Controls,?Trane, and?Honeywell?make BMS systems tailored for applications in very large buildings, typically focused on HVAC system management. Unfortunately, BMS is expensive and requires specialized installation, programming and maintenance. So while operational expenditure (opex) remains low, capital expenditure (capex) costs can make returns on investment (ROI) seem like a daunting task. The average cost to deploy a basic BMS is at least $2.50 per square foot and can be?as high as $7.00 per square foot, equivalent to at least $250,000 for a 100,000-square-foot building. The very high cost of traditional BMS means ROI is a challenge for all but the largest buildings; often it takes at least four years to recover the cost of a BMS installation. Low ROI limits the willingness of owners to invest in BMS deployments in more than 90% of buildings. Where BMS is deployed, it is usually only to control the HVAC system in high-traffic areas in the very largest buildings, well over 100,000-square-feet. And these buildings make up only 10% of the U.S. commercial real estate stock. Even in these buildings, BMS usually isn?t applied to low-traffic areas such as warehouses, stockrooms or garages, or to distributed equipment such as pumps, generators or parking lot lights on campuses and industrial sites,?according to an Intel report titled Affordable building automation system enabled by the internet of things.

An IoT solution to save money

Now, thanks to the internet of things, those capex costs are significantly decreased, and continue to become more affordable. The internet of things, with its low-powered networks and inexpensive sensors, is helping to keep smart building costs down. According to?Buildings, adding IoT-based controls and monitoring to a building can cost from just $5,000 to $50,000. Intel says an IoT-based approach using wireless sensors can reduce deployment cost by around 30% when compared to a traditional BMS.

The company’s own solution, in partnership with HCL Technologies, offers a lower-cost alternative to proprietary BAS solutions. It uses low-cost wireless sensors, on-premises gateways and cloud analytics. Instrumentation involves installing an independent network of actuators and sensors (e.g., temperature, light) throughout a building, which eliminates the need to retrofit existing equipment. A centralized portal provides building managers with the analytic tools needed to increase energy efficiency and productivity through data gathering and analysis, comprehensive reports and system-wide alarm management.

“The internet of things will play heavily into the true value of smart-building systems,” said Pramod Dibble, industry analyst for the energy and environment market at Frost & Sullivan, according to TechTarget. “By having a comprehensive catalog of all objects and people contained within and around it, the building can optimize its role to suit the best purposes of its state at the time.”

A sustainable future for buildings of all sizes

As internet of things devices like submetering systems continue to drop in price, traditional building management system will lose the power they once had and be replaced by a more cost effective approach fueled by cloud analytics and inexpensive sensors.

“By 2020, component costs will have come down to the point that connectivity will become a standard feature, even for processors costing less than $1,? said Peter Middleton, research director at Gartner. ?This opens up the possibility of connecting just about anything, from the very simple to the very complex, to offer remote control, monitoring and sensing.”

How Honeywell Turned a Stadium Into a Smart Building

Preparing for the Olympics with a smart building

Honeywell created what it called the “intelligent system”?for the National Stadium in Beijing, China, turning the venue for the opening and closing events at the 2008 Summer Olympics into a “smart building.” Designed by highly controversial artist Ai Weiwei, the ?Bird?s Nest? remains one of the most impressive feats of stadium architecture in the world. The 250,000 square meter structure housed more than 100,000 athletes and spectators at a time. To accommodate such capacity, China turned to Honeywell?s EBI Integrated Building Management System to create an integrated ?intelligent system? for improved building security, safety and energy efficiency.

Signed in February 2007, this one-year project was designed to not only accommodate the 2008 Olympics, but also the events the stadium will continue to host decades into the future, including the 2022 Winter Olympics.

A Honeywell solution

Honeywell used its EBI Integrated Building Management System to integrate the building’s automation system; the fire alarm and fighting interlock control system; and the security automation system with distributive database technology. It also integrated the office automation system, the ticket management system and public address system with OPC technology to improve spectator management.

beijing national stadium honeywell — source: Honeywell

Helping fulfill the promise of a “green” Olympics

There was much talk about China creating a ?green Olympics? by ensuring the event had a minimal impact on the environment. The stadium itself features built-in rainwater recycling, cooling heat pumps with underwater source and an energy management strategy. Honeywell helped the effort by providing an automation system designed to integrate and control the various equipment and devices that affect comfort levels or consume vast amounts of energy. They looked at three main areas for controlling energy use:

Air quality
- Air handling units, fresh air units, and air supply and exhaust systems.
Drainage.
- Water supply and drainage systems which monitor the rain flood control systems, the outdoor waterscape systems and the reclaimed water systems.
Power Generation
- Power supply for illumination systems and the elevator systems, the cold and heat source systems such as chillers, heat exchangers and ground source heat pumps.

The building automation system includes three central management stations designed to streamline data from more than 7,500 controlled points and uses 82 direct digital controllers, 769 sensors, 37 water valves and 106 air dampers.

Safety measures help prepare for the worst

Safety is always a concern at events where hundreds of thousands of people pack tightly into a building, so Honeywell decided to integrate the structure?s safety equipment.

national stadium beijing — source: Honeywell

The National Stadium?s fire alarm and interlock control system consists of an integrated central management station, 13 fire alarm controllers, 3,232 smoke detectors, 231 thermal sensors, 564 manual alarm buttons, 1,629 control modules, 2,559 single-input monitor modules and 187 double-input monitor modules.

The security solution from Honeywell integrated the video surveillance and control system, the access control system, the intruder alarm system, the guard tour system, the park management system and the integrated security control system.

Extreme security measures track every individual

The company?s integration system used personalized tickets and face-identification systems for both the Olympics and Paralympics Games. If an alarm was triggered by a false or unauthorized access card, the nearest security cameras could pinpoint the area and have staff quickly on the site.

With all that is going on during the Olympics it is very easy for people to get lost or to wander off into areas they shouldn?t be in. To help streamline the influx of 90,000-plus spectators, Honeywell installed its Temaline authentication systems as well as use an electronic ticketing system in the turnstiles and security checks so individuals could be tracked from the point of entry. More than 200 analogue, Honeywell-manufactured security cameras were integrated with the company’s Digital Video Manager.

The Honeywell-designed security automation solution also covers six security subsystems including a digital video surveillance system connecting more than 800 cameras, a Nexwatch access control system with more than 162 readers, a large intrusion detection system, a car parking management system covering more than 800 parking spaces and a connected tour guard system.

Benefits of Owning and Working in A Smart Building

The smart building: A laundry list of potential benefits

Smart buildings are expected to save money in more ways than one might think. Yes, they can significantly reduce energy and operating costs, but there are a number of expected not-so-obvious?benefits gained from implementing a smart building system. These could give a boost to a building owner?s return on investment while providing occupants with an intelligent work environment.

Some potential advantages of owning or working in a smart building include:

Tenant retention
- The better your building is at keeping its tenants comfortable, the more likely they will want to be there. Smart buildings could offer unique perks to employees and in turn help reduce turnover.
High-speed connection
- Your building isn?t connected unless the people inside are. Smart buildings can be outfitted with high-speed internet and voice over internet protocol services. Since businesses increasingly rely on the internet, an increase in speed could mean an increase in production and revenue.
Self-monitoring
- Smart buildings are designed to constantly gather data and monitor themselves for problems in the structure?s facilities. So, for example, if an elevator breaks down, the building could find the problem, self-diagnose and communicate with the appropriate organization to get it fixed. Smart buildings can also monitor system performance?to increase energy savings. Overseeing these processes could decrease complaints about inefficient or failed facilities, reducing time spent addressing potential problems.
Comfort factor
- Smart buildings are set to adapt to the way people live. They have control of?heating, ventilation, air conditioning?and lighting, learning the schedules of those who operate these systems in order to optimize comfort.
Increased safety and security
- It is becoming increasingly important for people to feel safe at the workplace, and smart buildings?can help in those efforts. Take, for example, a situation?in which?a fire alarm goes off. A smart building can detect smoke, tell occupants to evacuate the building, contact the correct authorities and prepare the structure for minimizing the spread of risk. Security also is an important issue, and the deployment of cameras and the ability to stream footage from a surveillance camera to a laptop can increase safety and provide peace of mind to tenants.
Big data, big reward
- Data can help enterprises make sound decisions, and owning a smart building means being updated with the latest data on operational costs. This data is sent to a network operation center where appropriate changes can be made.
Brains turn a building into a green building
- With decreased energy usage comes a favorable impact on the environment. Intelligent efficiency measures if applied to 35% of the eligible commercial floor area in buildings with 50,000 or more square feet could save upwards of 50?terawatt hours by 2030, assuming a conservative savings estimate of 20% ? more than 1% of U.S. projected energy use by that year. Combined with 17 other common-sense efficiency measures, the U.S. could save 22% of its total projected electricity use in 2030, according to Buildings. The ability to adjust power consumption to be used only when needed as well as the potential for the installation of reusable energy decreases the need to burn fossil fuels.

Energy saving: Increased return on investment and environmental friendliness

The best pitch to any building owner on why they should implement a smart system starts with energy savings. Smart buildings can use less energy compared to those without automated processes. These adapting systems can learn to know when demand for lighting or HVAC and automatically decrease use when demand is low. They can use accurate, intelligent monitoring and its control of energy intensive facilities to reduce operating costs. It can also regulate the flow of incoming air from outside to regulate temperature. This can results in energy savings of between 10% and 30% according to Energy Works.

Commercial buildings could save up to $60 billion between?2014 and 2030, with a ?comprehensive building labeling and benchmarking program.? Benefits gained from adjusting corporate tax legislation to encourage the replacement of inefficient equipment and from removing regulatory barriers to combined heat and power projects alone could reduce national energy consumption and save the economy close to $300 billion, according to a study by the?American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

cisco smart building — *Source: Cisco/Youtube*

In living spaces, like apartments, tenants can implement sub-metering, billing individual tenants for their specific utility use based on readings from meters. These readings are logged and sent via an internet connection to a computer or tablet. This provides building owners greater detail in how energy is being consumed.

Savings up, costs of entry down?

Building management systems are installed in older buildings or built-in to new constructions to make them smart. BMS usually requires high?capital expenditure?and operating expense. In fact, the average cost of using a BMS to turn a building smart is around $2.30 per square foot, or $250,000 per 100,000 square feet, according to?Intel.

New technology brought on by the “internet of things,” with its expected low-powered networks and inexpensive sensors, is helping to keep smart building costs down. According to?Buildings, adding IoT-based controls and monitoring to a building can cost from between $5,000 to $50,000, significantly less?than traditional BMS costs.

Smart Building Technologies that Reduce Energy Costs

Reducing costs with smart building

Thanks to the smart building, today’s structures are alive, equipped with technology that allows for automated processes of things that have, for hundreds of years, lived in dormancy.

Many older buildings have the capability to become smart buildings, but owners and executives often overlook the?perks?of?automation. Taking advantage of the smart building can lead to significant financial gain for property owners, and increase production of those working within these structures.

Smart building systems can also improve building operations, sustainability and decision making. There are several ways these increasingly less expensive systems can help save money by optimizing operations and increasing efficiency. Some of these money saving processes, according to the Building Efficiency Initiative, include:

Matching occupancy patterns to energy use??A smart building will run leaner when there are fewer people inside.
Proactive maintenance of equipment??Analysis algorithms will detect problems in performance before they cause expensive outages, maintaining optimum efficiency along the way.
Dynamic power consumption??By taking signals from the electricity market and altering usage in response, a smart building ensures the lowest possible energy costs and often generates revenue by selling load reductions back to the grid.

Here are some more specific use cases for smart buildings, according to Buildings.

Smart lighting – Pair networked lighting with a building energy management system for a building that can not only switch lights on and off at optimal times and vary light levels, but also do a comparative analysis of whether the impact on HVAC energy use that results from adjusting smart windows to let in sunlight will be smaller or greater than darkening the windows and turning the lights up.
Smart HVAC –?The report,?New Horizons for?Energy?Efficiency, recommends tying HVAC into the building energy management system as well to maximize savings.
Other smart building components -?Smart windows that lighten or darken depending on sunlight intensity are recommended, as they can help reduce the HVAC and lighting loads and reduce glare. A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory cited in the ACEEE report described savings of 19-26% on?cooling?and 48-67% on lighting if smart windows are implemented.

Additional savings may be possible by using advanced power strips to reduce plug loads, smart ceiling fans that help regulate the thermostat, destination dispatch controls for elevators, and televisions, refrigerators and dishwashers that interact with a power grid to assist with peak load management.

Decreasing costs with a warm welcome to the IoT

No, one doesn?t need to build a building from the ground up to implement smart technology. Older buildings can use building management systems (BMS), like those from Johnson Controls, Trane or Honeywell, to wake older buildings from their sleep, and teach them to become smart. Unfortunately, BMS implementation is generally?expensive, difficult to implement and requires specialized installation.

The average cost of using a BMS to turn a building smart is around $2.30 per square foot, or $250,000 for 100,000 square feet, according to Intel. This makes a building owner?s return on investment a bit tricky.

Thankfully, the internet of things, with its low-powered networks and inexpensive sensors, is helping to keep smart building costs down. According to Buildings, adding IoT-based controls and monitoring to a building can cost from just $5,000 to $50,000, a?small portion?of traditional BMS costs.

Standalone building systems need equipment rooms and cabling, as well as cabling pathways. ?With smart building concepts, you can reduce the cable and pathways by coordinating infrastructure,? said Jim Sinopoli, managing principal of Smart Buildings to Siemens.

Energy efficiency and big savings

A combination of lower costs of entry and increased savings (and therefore favorable ROI) makes implementing a smart building as tempting as ever.

Commercial buildings could save up to $60 billion between?2014 and 2030 with a “comprehensive building labeling and benchmarking program.” Benefits gained from adjusting corporate tax legislation to encourage the replacement of inefficient equipment and from removing regulatory barriers to combined heat and power projects alone could reduce national energy consumption, and save the economy close to $300 billion, according to a study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Intelligent efficiency measures applied to just 35% of eligible commercial floor area in buildings with 50,000 or more square feet could save upwards of 50 TWh by 2030, assuming a conservative savings estimate of 20% ? more than 1% of U.S. projected energy use by that year. Combined with 17 other common-sense efficiency measures, such as smart manufacturing and voltage reduction, the U.S. could save 22% of its total projected electricity use in 2030.

MGM Resorts International acquired several hotels with various types of building automation systems, all of which saved hundreds of thousands of dollars with efficient energy systems.

?When you pay in excess of $1 million monthly for energy, even 5% savings is a huge amount of money,? said John Leslie, manager of energy and building automation at MGM Resorts, to Siemens. Leslie?s smart building management system at The Mirage in Las Vegas uses load-shedding programs to keep from operating during peak demand times.

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