Heating and cooling can consume in excess of half of the overall costs to operate a building. The remaining portions are divided up into appliances, lighting and other systems. Centrally managing and automating these systems and appliances to work together can provide benefits including cost savings and convenience.
Cost savings can be realized by allocating resources only to areas that need them. For example, lighting unoccupied office or conference space is a waste of energy and consumables. Electrical energy is wasted by illuminating empty rooms while consumables are wasted because the light bulbs or ballasts will require replacement more often than if they were turned off while not in use. Occupancy detection monitors activity in an area then provides that information to the control system. Based on various conditions like time, date or specialized variables, the control system will manage the lights and save energy and money. The same is true of the HVAC and other systems as well. Shade control can work in conjunction with the HVAC and lights to make the best use of sunlight to heat or illuminate spaces. Daylight harvesting is popular in today’s building designs and a requirement for buildings attempting a USGBC LEED certification.
Not having to remember to turn off lights, turn off the heat or close the shades at the end of the day are a few conveniences that a comprehensive building automation system can provide. The control system handles it all based on conditions that you define or environmental variables like an atomic clock, schedule or sensors. When a building manages itself, it means you don’t have to.
Of course building automation doesn’t have to stop at the HVAC, lighting and shade systems of a structure. Audio & video systems can be handled this way as well. We offer solutions for room monitoring, scheduling and control from virtually anywhere you have access to the Internet. In addition, other packages include the ability to monitor power and resource consumption in real-time with the ability to produce reports that can be used to document your energy efficiency over time.
Crestron’s liveVIEW Interface Provides real-time energy usage as well as history
