How Smart Building Technology Is Changing Facility Management
Recent technological advancements, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) offer new possibilities for more efficient facility management. IoT stands for the network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies, and are capable of sending and receiving data. In the context of facility management this can be for example an air quality sensor, measuring the CO2 contents in a respective room, telling the building’s HVAC system to increase the ventilation rate if necessary, or a water detection sensor, informing you about possible leakages. IoT devices improve the quality of facility management and make the facility manager’s jobs easier, by grasping a better handle on their scope of influence and keeping an eye on performance and pointing out potential issues. Implementing IoT to a facility comes with many benefits: Firstly, the implementation of IoT can reduce utility spending and operating equipment costs. What’s more, it can improve the overall uptime of building equipment which further influences productivity of the building’s occupants.
IoT technologies offer new possibilities for efficient facility management.
If you are considering implementing smart building technology, there are a number of questions you should ask yourself first:
1. What building system issue are you trying to solve?
Understanding the issue at hand is essential in order to target it with an appropriate solution. If you are starting with your HVAC system, for example, are you on the lookout for a system that optimizes air flow accordingly with occupancy ? Or would you only like to adjust the room temperature? Would there be added benefits from adding fault detection and/or diagnostic capabilities? Depending on what you are trying to solve, the solution and the types of sensors required might be entirely different.
2. Is IoT the answer to solving my problem?
In order for IoT to solve your problem effectively there are often other support processes that need to be enhanced as well. IoT can replace traditional methods of inspecting equipment and provide these facility managers with alerts. This use of an IoT solution provides more time for these managers to focus on occupant requests and starts the transition into an IoT-based approach.
3. How can investing in IoT help save costs?
When it comes to a good IoT solutions, they should have no recurring costs. Furthermore, they should enable a quick payback.
IoT devices enable building staff to have more context, so they can react more quickly, not only saving time, but also money, all the while ensuring that the facility’s occupants are not significantly affected by possible building system issues. IoT provides facility managers with crucial information about what is going on in the building, e.g. via monitoring dashboard that can analyse a building’s worth of sensor data and turn it into actionable insights.
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Sources: BAKOM, Buildings.com