Smart buildings help us make better decisions

Due to changing regulations, rising energy costs and technological developments, the desire to make our buildings smarter is increasing. But where do you start with 'smartening' your building? Karthik Gunderi, Smart Building Engineer at Deerns, contributed to the development of the Smart Building Assessment tool within the Brains for Buildings project. This questionnaire helps building owners, facility managers and tenants to get started with a smart building and enables them to make data-driven decisions.

 By: Eline te Velde

 A brain for buildings

Brains for Buildings (B4B) is an innovation project focused on developing methods to utilize data from smart meters, building management systems and IoT devices. By giving buildings a brain, as it were, building owners and users are enabled to collect data, process it into useful information and ultimately make better decisions. Karthik explains that there are multiple reasons to opt for a smart building: “A smart building helps us save energy, but also improves the health and well-being of its users. We want our environment to provide for our needs and well-being. In addition, there is also a push from the government to build smarter by drawing up regulations and issuing subsidies.”

The Smart Building Assessment tool was developed as a starting point for building owners and property managers who want to get started with making their building smarter. “The Smart Building Assessment is a quick scan, so that users can assess how smart their building is. From there you set goals and determine the action points. Because creating a smart building is a long-term process, in which you respond to changing technology, legislation and the needs of the users,” says Karthik.

The Smart Assessment approach examines the level of smartness within six domains:

HVAC (heating, cooling and ventilation)

Health and well-being

 Energy and environment

Connectivity

 Monitor and control

Data and user experience

Data-driven decisions

Smart technologies give building owners and managers more control over their buildings. They help optimize processes and make choices based on data. This contributes to a comfortable and productive working environment for users. In addition, smart technologies play a key role in saving energy. By collecting data on energy consumption and the current occupancy of a building, a significant amount can be saved on the energy bill.

Two-way communication

According to Karthik, the collaboration between different systems within a building is often still a challenge: “You have different devices and systems within a building that collect data: the ventilation system, the lighting and the security installation all collect data, without sharing it between them for improved functionalities. For example, there is one sensor for the lighting system, but another for the HVAC systems. If two-way communication is possible between the systems, they can share and use information with each other.”

To anticipate changing technology in the future, Karthik emphasizes the importance of open source. “If you use open communication protocols, you have more certainty that the systems will still be able to communicate with each other in the future. If you choose proprietary“You are, as it were, chained to that technology and it can cost a lot to upgrade.”

Visit the Brains for Buildings website for more information about this project. Want to get started with the Smart Readiness Assessment Tool? Please contact Deerns to see how smart your building is and what steps you can take.