– A Completely Natural Part of Being a Professional Landlord

– We are focused on having control. That is why we want as much insight as possible into the indoor climate and energy use in our buildings. For us, this is a completely natural part of being a professional property operator, says Martin Johansen, Facility Manager at Polaris Eiendom.

Found several faults
The company is headquartered in Tromsø and has a total of 39 properties in several Northern Norwegian cities. This makes Polaris Eiendom one of the leading property operators in Northern Norway. Already a couple of years ago, the company began using wireless sensors to ensure control of the indoor climate and energy use in their buildings.
– We found several faults. Some of the air handling units were running around the clock, even though they had control systems. It turned out that setpoints and settings did not match reality. This was impossible to detect without the wireless sensors, which among other things revealed the air exchange rates in the buildings, says Johansen.
Today they are collecting data in seven buildings, and in three office properties they have begun active demand control.
– We have connected the air handling units via EC Connector, which makes it possible to control them based on CO2. The buildings have, in other words, become demand-controlled, says Johansen.

Fewer complaints and significant energy reduction
The consequence of Johansen and his colleagues gaining better control of the indoor climate is fewer complaints from dissatisfied tenants.
– It has been a long time since we have heard anything. That is a sign that the indoor climate is good, says the facility manager.
Not only that, they have also seen significant energy reductions.
– Compared to before we started with management, we have already seen an energy reduction of 20 percent. Some buildings more and some less, but so far we are averaging around 20 percent, says Johansen.
In one of the buildings they have just integrated heating management and the result there has been substantial.
– We immediately saw a reduction of 40 percent compared to before.
Tommy Hagenes at Energy Control explains that the seven buildings the company is currently working on show significant potential.
– We have just got started with management. As Polaris themselves point out, we found some faults that have been rectified. I am therefore quite certain that when we really get going with management, we will see much greater savings. In some of the buildings we will likely be able to double the energy reduction, says Hagenes.

Achieving a lot with little
Facility Manager Johansen explains that they are continually assessing which other buildings to roll out the Energy Control solution in.
– We will probably not do this in all of our buildings. We have some apartments that may not be relevant, but the rest of the building stock is. We are therefore far from finished rolling out the EC solution, says Johansen.
One of the decisive factors for Polaris Eiendom is that, according to the facility manager, they achieve good results for relatively modest investments.
– With a more traditional approach involving a lot of cabling and heavier systems, these would have been relatively expensive interventions. The Energy Control approach means we achieve a lot with little. The fact that it is also so easy to use makes it simple for us to adopt the solution, says Johansen, who adds that he has installed the solution in one of the buildings himself.
– Ready-made projects come from Energy Control, and for me it is just a matter of installing the sensors in the relevant rooms and connecting them to the cloud. Once that is done we start collecting data from the building. It is actually very quick and easy, says Johansen.