Theo Smulders talks about increasing sustainability through building management systems

Theo Smulders is director of the Celsius Group: supplier of knowledge and technology for building management systems. Celsius is one of the exhibitors at the Digital Building of the Future conference. We give you a preview of the story that Theo will share during his pitch on June 20.

Smart building management systems

“At Celsius Group we work on sustainability through smart building management systems. We use sensors to see where people are present in the building at what time: we send fresh air there,” says Theo. “With the trend of hybrid working, there are not always people everywhere in the building. You also do not have to provide fresh air to unused rooms.

This is where the biggest gains can be made at the moment. Where a building used to be fully occupied five days a week, people now often work from home for part of the week. Suppose that this is 200 percent less attendance during the week, compared to a full-time week of 500 percent, then you can save a lot in terms of energy.”

Batteries instead of solar panels

One of the topics Theo will share about is the grid congestion problem. Theo: “The solution seems very simple to me. We have to get started with batteries. We also test this at Celsius Group. We connect batteries to the building management system to neutralize the peaks and valleys, as it were.”

During the Digital Building of the Future, Theo will talk about:

• how Celsius Group works on energy-efficient utility buildings;
• why the government should stop subsidizing solar panels and should instead subsidize batteries;
• how smart building management systems offer winning opportunities in this time when hybrid working is becoming increasingly popular;
• how companies can become more sustainable by looking at smart air renewal.

“As an energy company you prefer to see a horizontal line in terms of energy consumption. We create that by absorbing both the peaks and the valleys. If the government stops subsidizing solar panels and starts subsidizing batteries instead, it will become more attractive to install them. Solar panels are already very cheap, so that is a good idea. With the batteries they can save the generated electricity for off-peak times, such as the weekend. When the working week starts again, they can use the collected electricity to charge the cars, for example.”

Together towards a sustainable future

Theo: “During the event I will share my vision. But that vision is based on what we learned in almost thirty years of entrepreneurship and thirty-four years in the profession. It is knowledge and experience built on running projects, rethinking and innovating. I hope listeners are inspired to think long-term rather than short-term solutions. Like we do at Celsius Group: challenge yourself to think differently. In this way we work together towards a sustainable future.”

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