U.S firm Transformative Wave, a specialist in HVAC energy efficiency and building automation solutions, has unveiled “Cobalt”, its next-generation building automation platform.
The company said that the new platform has been developed using the latest internet of things (IoT) technology, without the limitations and costs associated with historic automation products.
The Cobalt controller features an on-board Wi-Fi capability, which can scale to whatever equipment it is applied to, regardless of complexity, size, or features, Transformative Wave said.
Cobalt can communicate with existing legacy building automation products using standard industry protocols like BACnet and Modbus, but it is accessed via modern API-based cloud communications. The company said that this capability allows Cobalt to act as a bridge to the future where database-driven IoT standards will become the norm for every connected building appliance or device.
“Traditional building automation often is filled with proprietary “got-cha’s” that are designed to keep customers bound to specialized programming tools or a manufacturer’s hardware. These products purposefully restrict the availability and access to valuable operational data. Cobalt changes that,” said Danny Miller, president of Transformative Wave.
“We have purposefully designed Cobalt to empower any operator seeking vendor independence, interoperability with other IoT or internal data systems, and unfettered access to their own facility and energy data,” the executive said.
“Think of Cobalt as similar to any Wi-Fi device in your home that can be simply accessed by a browser on any mobile device or computer. It has no external dependencies because it is a completely autonomous mini-computer with everything it needs already inside. This means operators can have all the power and advantages of traditional building automation but at much lower costs and with unhindered access to their data. This makes it possible for even the smallest buildings to enjoy a robust automation solution, leading to greater energy efficiency, insight, and control over any asset,” Miller added.
Cobalt’s user interface (UI) provides energy savings, fault detection, remote diagnostics, email alerts, portfolio tools, performance histories, dynamic charting tools, service cost reductions, humidity control, space pressure management, and performance histories.
Cobalt supports Transformative Wave’s CATALYST, a HVAC retrofit technology, and is compatible with Transformative Wave’s eIQ Platform, an enterprise-level reporting and navigation portal for multi-site clients with large portfolios.