Join Caroline as She Makes the Building Self-Managing

– It is actually both simple and quick, smiles Caroline Hope.

A large number of existing buildings use significantly more energy than they need. Ventilation units running around the clock are still commonplace, even though many believe they have things under control. This leads to unnecessarily high energy use and electricity bills that can keep people up at night. Not least, it is bad for the environment. We joined Caroline at Energy Control as she — in the service of the building, sustainability and tenants — makes a building in central Bergen demand-controlled. She has packed her bag full of wireless sensors. These have been pre-assigned to the specific building and each specific room.
– Before we head out, we have planned the relevant premises based on the building’s floor plans. We have placed sensors where it makes sense and given them individual names based on which rooms they are going into, says Hope.

‍Climate and energy use to be managed on demand
With ten sensors in her bag, she heads towards the light rail. After a short journey and a quick walk, she arrives at the building in question. Here she is met by the building’s facility manager, who is looking forward to gaining even better control of the indoor climate and energy use for the relevant premises. He shows us up to the third floor and the spaces that are now to be demand-controlled.
– Being demand-controlled means the indoor climate is automatically adjusted according to need. If there are no people in the office or the meeting room, ventilation is automatically turned down to a minimum. The moment the sensors register that someone is present, ventilation is automatically ramped up, so that the good indoor climate is maintained. Energy use is thereby adjusted in line with actual need, says Caroline.

‍Correct installation is important
Up in the premises, she opens her laptop and brings up the floor plan for the office areas. She then takes out the sensors and lays them out in front of the door to each of the rooms to be managed.
– I tend to lay them out before I start, so that I can check everything matches the floor plan. It is important that we place the sensors in the rooms they are labelled for. Otherwise, the indoor climate data from the sensors will show the wrong room in the EC Go app and in the dashboard. In practice, this means the indoor climate in the meeting room may be poor, but in the app it looks as though it is a private office that is struggling — not the five meeting participants who are about to get at each other’s throats due to the dreadful air quality, says Hope.
But before she mounts the sensors, she connects the Hub. This is the physical control unit that collects data from the sensors and sends it to Energy Control’s control centre.
– It is the Hub that makes the sensors talk to our system, which in turn talks to both ventilation and heating. It is one of several important pieces in the work of making the building self-managing, says Hope.

‍Connects automatically
When she places the sensors in the individual rooms, there are a couple of important things to consider.
– I always check where the supply air and extract air are located. We want to place the sensors near the extract, as that gives the best measurements of indoor climate quality. It is also important that the sensors are not in the sun baking away, says Caroline.
She adds that she also takes aesthetic considerations into account and therefore places sensors where they blend naturally into the surroundings.
– The sensors are small and do not draw much attention, but I always try to place them at nose height and so that it looks nice too, says Caroline.
When the sensor is mounted on the wall and the batteries are activated, it automatically connects to the Hub. The sensor then needs to be named and connected to the relevant room, so that sensor and room correspond in the dashboard and in the app.
– It is important to be a little precise here, says Hope.

‍Everything lights up green — the building is self-managing
When all the sensors are on the wall and connected to their respective rooms, she goes into the dashboard and checks the status.
– Everything lights up green here – that means all are connected and have started collecting data for the indoor climate of the premises. In less than a couple of hours, the premises are connected and we have started getting to know the spaces, says Hope.
The next step is of course to let the sensors take over the management of the building. When that happens, the wireless sensors are connected — via Energy Control’s technological solution — to the ventilation system of the premises. That means when a sensor signals that the air quality in a room has passed a threshold value, the ventilation system automatically receives an instruction to increase airflow.
– This now happens entirely by itself. Neither the facility manager, building owner nor tenant needs to think about it any more. The building effectively manages itself, says Hope.
Should a fault occur, the facility managers automatically receive a notification in the EC Go app.
– They therefore do not need to go around wondering whether everything is alright. Should they become curious, they can go into the app and confirm that the indoor climate values for the premises are within the pre-set threshold values. The facility manager has gained better control and can at the same time be confident that the tenants have a good indoor climate. It is a win-win for both building owner and tenant, says Hope.