courtesy  :  buildings iot

Best Practices in IOT for Green Building Management

Buildings consume 60 percent of global electricity. In the United States, that number approaches 70 percent. Because of the high percentage of electricity used by buildings, researchers have focused intensely on finding ways to reduce consumption through the use of technology. This has resulted in extraordinary innovations that expand building management system capabilities, including the introduction of smart technologies that enable efficiency-focused automation.

For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that airflow in HVAC systems works constantly to provide sufficient ventilation. Without sensors, rooms must therefore be ventilated under the assumption that the maximum number of people are occupying a room. With occupancy sensors, however, ventilation can be adjusted according to occupancy in real time, reducing a building’s carbon footprint and its negative effect on the environment. Similar and even more complex automation strategies can be enacted for high-consumption building systems, resulting in significant energy savings.

But while optimizing energy efficiency has traditionally been the primary function of an automated BMS, smart technology can take you even further. Advanced analytics can allow for proactive maintenance, protect occupants’ health, and even enhance productivity. After all, green buildings are not just about conserving resources, but about making indoor environments safer and supporting people.

A prime example of this is indoor air quality. Air quality sensors integrated with an analytics-driven BMS can continuously measure particulate matter (PM) concentrations and other airborne contaminants in the air. This data can then be used to determine the causes and effects of PM levels, and automation strategies can be designed to ensure occupant safety. In other words, when a simple IoT device is combined with a smart BMS, you can create healthier buildings.

Green IoT Devices & Software

The rapid development of computing power via the cloud has made IoT a vital part of the green building movement. And in addition to making buildings greener, IoT technology is in itself becoming greener. A number of technological innovations and new operational approaches have helped advance the idea of green IoT (GIoT). Best practices include:

• Adjusting transmission power at nodes.
• Energy-efficient routing techniques for wireless sensors.
• Implementing activity scheduling and energy harvesting at data centers powered via renewable energy.
• Minimizing the size of data sent by sensors to use less energy.
• Optimizing radio transmissions.
• Reducing the size of IoT devices to decrease the amount of non-biodegradable material used.
• Using low-power sleep modes when inactive.

All these contribute to lower energy usage and greener buildings.