Making an impact with smart building and smart living

Making an impact with smart building and smart living

Making an impact in building automation: this is possible thanks to smart building and smart living. Thanks to these smart systems, installations within buildings are connected to each other, respond to the needs of users and can then be set up more efficiently. Vincent Flick, Innovation Manager Connected Services at Johnson Controls, tells us more about this. 

Smart building

Vincent has been working in the world of building automation for years. “We create connections between multiple smart systems that respond to and according to the needs of users. Based on that, you can improve processes and save costs,” he says.  

Vincent gives an example: “When is someone present in which room? Only then do you turn on the heating, air conditioning, lights, wifi, computers and printers, if necessary. After work hours or on home working days, they are of course all turned off. All systems are set up so that this happens automatically. This is a smart way to save energy and therefore costs.” 

Data are key

When a company is considering working with (more) smart systems, Vincent always advises talking to an expert in this field. “It is important to know the ultimate goal of the smart systems,” he says.  

To achieve solid improvements, you need to look at current data, says Vincent. “Suppose a hospital comes to us. We first find out the mission. In this case: a healthier indoor climate, so that patients heal better and faster. Then we look at the current dataset that the hospital generates and together we draw up a plan.” 

Energy Management Systems (EMS)

After retrieving the required current data within a company or organization, it must be converted into an efficient installation. To achieve this, many companies start working with energy management systems. Such an EMS enables the combination of hardware and software. It makes the entire energy management readable at one central point, for example via a dashboard. 

Vincent sees that many companies are busy implementing sustainable systems in their buildings. “At Johnson Controls, we offer a complete package of solutions: OpenBlue. One of these solutions is Indoor Air Quality, for example. This allows us to see where the air quality is worse in a building. From there, we adjust the installations to each other, so that the air quality is and remains good everywhere in the building.” 

Secured systems

Due to the growing need to digitize building automation, security is becoming an increasingly important issue. “Place all data under lock and key, so that only the people who are allowed to have access can access it. No uninvited guests. This is possible thanks to good security that keeps hackers and cyber attacks out. Of course, you don't want a DDoS attack to take place via the smart installations.” 

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