Remember when building automation was the domain of science fiction and cartoons? While we aren’t quite up to that level, yet, building control has come a long way. We’ve got everything from smartphone apps to control your air conditioning and lights to complete systems for building automation. In fact, not only can you deploy building automation and controls, it can save your business some money.
Electric and Gas
Energy usage in commercial buildings is coming under more intense scrutiny every year. It’s not surprising since those buildings waste around 30% of the energy they use. Advances in sensor technology and cloud computing make building automation and controls a viable alternative for saving on energy costs. With the right setup, your building will automatically adjust heating, cooling, and turn off lights. Taken together you can expect to see a significant lowering of your energy costs.
Improved Productivity
Air quality plays an important role in employee health. Improved air quality has been linked to better cognitive performance, reduced illness and fewer headaches. All of which improve overall employee productivity. Building automation allows you to optimize air quality and ventilation during working hours. This reduces employee absences and boosts productivity related revenue.
Extend Equipment Life
A nice side effect of raising or lowering the temperature in your building during off hours is that it extends your equipment life. Reducing the total number of times the equipment needs to cycle on and off in a day means more time before the equipment needs to be repaired and replaced. Similarly, lights bulbs have a relatively fixed life. Turning them off during non-working hours not only saves electricity, it extends the working life of the bulbs.
Preventative Actions
Depending on how sophisticated your building automation and controls system is, it can warn you when things start going wrong. Everything from notifications when a bulb burns out to alerts when equipment fails. Some systems even use machine learning to gauge when equipment needs servicing based on changes in performance. Catching a problem before it turns catastrophic can often mean the difference between an inexpensive repair and a very expensive replacement.
Building automation is a money saving investment. It lets you reduce energy costs, improve productivity and extend equipment life. It’s also a good PR move. Making your business greener is something many potential customers like to see.
Call O.C. McDonald today (408) 295-2182