In shared spaces like offices, people’s reaction to the temperature of the place varies. That’s why it’s not uncommon in the same office to have someone sitting in a short-sleeved shirt while the person next to them is wearing a heavy jumper or cardigan. This doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with either of them. It’s the heat distribution of the traditional system that’s at fault. It is estimated that we spend around 90% of our time indoors. The good news is controlling the temperature indoors enhances our comfort and consequently our productivity. But the bad news is it’s not always possible to do that with traditional heating systems. As a building owner or manager, imagine if you can optimize the energy usage of the building using smart sensors to cut down on the operational costs. Energy bills go down, people don’t waste time fiddling with the heat or air conditioning, and less energy is wasted on unoccupied rooms or units in the building. That’s what smart buildings have to offer. Let’s take a look at some of the other benefits.

Saving energy with occupancy analysis

Using technology, smart buildings can interact with the occupants and make energy-saving decisions without human input. In other words, the system tracks people entering and exiting the building to help it analyze the occupied areas of the smart building. Using that data the system can make effective decisions to save energy. At the same time, it allows people to choose alternative heating systems. Choosing indoor bio-ethanol fireplaces over traditional heating systems makes more sense because they save power and are more efficient and clean.

Optimize heat and lighting

Heating and lighting are the main reasons for the rising costs of operating a building. But a smart building can determine the occupancy levels and the times people arrive or leave the building. Based on that information it will optimize the heating and lighting usage. This analytical data can also help make cost-efficient decisions like combining office space and scheduling staff operations.

Cutting down on costs

By design, smart buildings offer more thermal comfort, better air quality, security, sanitation, and heating to increase productivity and decrease operational costs. All while having the least possible environmental impact. Using sensors to continually measure the indoor temperature, the system utilizes the energy more efficiently to lower the operational costs.

Improve the smart building layout

Knowing which are the most used and crowded areas of the building, decisions can be made to optimize the space and design of the smart building. Also tracking people entering and leaving the building allows for more balanced energy usage thus eliminating peak periods and wasted energy.
With the rise of global energy consumption, there’s growing need for energy saving technologies like smart buildings. The goal of a smart building is to have a system that tracks, analyzes and make energy-saving decisions on the fly. Smart building help keep people comfortable, reduce energy consumption and keep the environment clean.

This article was authored and contributed by Jackie Edwards. Now working as a writer, Jackie Edwards started her career in Environmental Health in the Public Sector, but after becoming a mom refocused and decided to spend more time with her family. When she’s not writing, she volunteers for a number of local mental health charities and also has a strong interest in ecology, wildlife and conservation.”