How Smart Building Tech is Working for Greater Energy Efficiency

Commercial buildings could save up to $60 billion if investments in energy efficiency were ramped up by just 1 – 4%, according to a study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The ability to save money is one of the major reasons smart building technology has exploded over recent years. This is because technology in the smart building industry works to improve something everyone is obsessed with, and that is efficiency.

Smart building technology is producing energy savings of 8 percent to 18 percent in the commercial building sector, according to a new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Occupancy sensors, smart thermostats, and HVAC and lighting controls can help reduce energy usage in unoccupied offices, conference rooms, and other spaces. Not only does it help optimize energy usage in a building, smart systems have been shown to improve worker productivity and even increase property value according to the same study.

So how does smart building technology reduce energy waste and raise efficiency? Smart building solutions are able to centralize and correlate data from building systems, corporate data warehouses, and external sources, such as utilities and weather data feeds. Through analytics tools, building engineers can find anomalies and manage energy use holistically. Companies like Vilisto, provide efficient heat control through self-learning radiator thermostats with integrated presence and room climate sensors. The technology learns the usage behavior and the building parameters individually for each room, so that the radiators are controlled automatically, taking into account things like weather data. This can lead to proven savings of more than 32%, as it works to only heat when needed. Another company that has developed tech that help buildings save energy is Currant. Currant has created smart outlets that helps buildings manage and alter there energy usage. After plugging it in and connecting to the app, Currant will get to work analyzing usage on the devices you plug into it. It’s powered by AI, so it offers personalized, easy-to-implement suggestions to reduce energy consumption and save money. Not only that, but it can remotely shut power of to the devices plugged in, allowing users to manage their energy consumption from anywhere.

The insurance industry could benefit greatly from mass-adopted smart building technology, as it will help isolate problems before they happen, thus lowering risk of issues related to outages, fires, etc. Also insurance companies can more accurately price premiums based on data collected from smart building devices. If a building has data that suggests a low risk for theft, fire or any other potential occurrence, than the pricing of the premium can reflect that.

All of these things are why Upward Labs has created a Smart Building specific incubation program. We want to help nurture the next wave of innovation in this industry by providing first-rate resources to startups working to modernize our building infrastructure. By offering knowledgeable mentors, pilot programs and so much more, we believe that the innovation of buildings will be happening right in our space in downtown Hartford, Connecticut.

For more info go to: https://www.moveupward.city/smart-buildings-lab