Energy Management is a No Brainer

In a recent Automation World blog entitled Making the Case for Energy Management, Grant Gerke discusses his impressions of eSight Energy Groups 4^th annual summit, including his sense that commercial building owners now buy into the concept of energy management. Similarly, a recent survey by Johnson Controls found that 85 percent of building owners and operators worldwide today depend on energy management to drive their facilities’ operating efficiency, up a whopping 34 percent in two years.

It’s not difficult to understand why building owners find energy management a compelling investment:

It’s Easy Thanks to wireless energy management products, including Millennial Net’s Wireless Energy Management Solutions, deploying an energy management system across one or many buildings is quick and inexpensive. No need to pull cables through walls or ceilings or disrupt operations in any way. Energy management devices work with most legacy HVAC systems, and other building fixtures and appliances and discover each other and centralized energy management systems automatically across a robust, self healing wireless mesh network. Installing these energy systems can take as little as a few hours or a few days.

Knowledge Power Power from the sun, wind, and other renewable resources has a lot of sex appeal, but the quickest, least expensive, and best way to start saving energy is through the power of knowledge. Immediately after installing energy management systems you’ll start getting valuable fine-grained visibility into how, where, and when electrical power, water, or gas is used and wasted throughout different building zones and equipment—much more valuable information than you could ever get from utility bills. Immediately you’ll start identifying scores or hundreds opportunities for small changes or larger investments that can bring significant savings with little to no effect on the quality of life of building inhabitants. You can also use this information to raise the awareness of your building tenants, which can lead to more savings. Then you can measure the effects of your energy efficiency initiatives in real time and tweak them to make them even more effective.

Quick Return After just a few weeks or months of monitoring building systems, temperature, humidity, and energy use, and making control adjustments, you’ll start reaping significant savings that bring a quick return on your investment, often as short as one or two years. Building owners are often shocked at how much power is wasted every day lighting or cooling unoccupied rooms or running non-essential equipment. Savings from energy management systems are typically 25 to 30 percent of utility bills. You can then invest those savings in other more valuable areas, such as hiring teachers in a school system, avoiding layoffs or program cuts, or growing your business.

Tax Benefits Thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, building owners can reap tax deductions of anywhere from $.60 to 1.80 per square foot by implementing energy saving measures to address heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as lighting and the building envelope. Utility companies also provide financial incentives for energy management projects.

Tenants Want It A 2010 survey by GE Capital Real Estate found that green initiatives are key influencers on tenants’ decisions to sign a lease. Fully half of respondents in eight countries, including the U.S., said green initiatives were a priority, with energy efficiency coming in first.

Public Image Sustainability initiatives are good public relations that enhance the public perception of your business and can lead to higher sales.  See example here – how Tynsgborough High School is Already Saving Money!

It’s the Right Thing to Do Conserving energy and reducing your carbon footprint is good for the environment, the economy, and the future of the planet. But I didn’t have tell you that.

 

Giedrius Svencionis

Millennial Net

Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat Wi-Stat IIIp

Companies are always seeking ways to reduce costs and gain better economic advantages. Reducing energy consumption for heating, cooling and ventilation (HVAC) can save a lot, but what do you do if your building has a pneumatic ally controlled HVAC system?

The conventional wisdom is that full conversion from pneumatics to DDC is the only path.  Clearly DDC enables better control and optimization, but in most cases the existing pneumatic systems themselves are still functioning properly.  This conversion path is too expensive and disruptive to existing tenants to be followed by most building owners.  Their focus on financial performance and limited capital make it nearly impossible to entertain the 5 to 10 year payback estimated for such a conversion.  One public school official described a 15 year plan to replace the pneumatic controls in 30 school buildings as untenable.

The ideal solution in this scenario is Millennial Net’s wireless pneumatic thermostat, the Wi-Stat IIIp – a middle ground solution where the existing pneumatic infrastructure is utilized with a DDC system, without having to install network wiring.  Installation is as easy as replacing your old pneumatic thermostats with Wi-Stat IIIp devices and installing a few routers to relay wireless signals to the gateway for centralized controls.  Such a solution is a fraction of the cost of a full DDC system conversion and can easily save up to 50% on energy – read how GE Capital Real Estate is already benefiting.

Sound too simple?  Don’t be alarmed.  I assure you that we did not just add an electric motor and a radio to a conventional pneumatic thermostat.  In fact, we completely rethought how to address the challenges of pneumatically controlled systems.  Unlike conventional bi-metal pneumatic (mechanical) thermostats, the Wi-Stat IIIp uses solid state valve technology, operating without mechanical parts.  It does not utilize the maintenance-intensive control mechanisms of the conventional pneumatic thermostat.  The solid state valve works in conjunction with a branch line pressure sensor which continuously monitors pressure and modulates branch line pressure according to actual sensor readings rather than conventional diaphragm calibration.  Combining wireless with solid state valve technology, the Wi-Stat IIIp can easily transform pneumatically controlled buildings into smart facilities.

Additionally, with Wi-Stat IIIp, the time and cost of installation are significantly reduced as there are no wires, no adjustment screws and no need for calibration.  Wi-Stat IIIp is equipped with an 802.15.4 wireless radio, the network forms itself and data communications enable remote monitoring, adjustment and trending to ensure long term performance.  Devices are immediately accessible bi-directionally to manage temperature set points, schedule setbacks, receive alarm conditions, etc.  Also, Wi-Stat IIIp thermostats can be integrated with Building Management Systems via BACnet or Modbus.

In addition, demand response, smart climate control, and preventative maintenance – yes all of this and much more can be achieved with Wi-Stat IIIp.

Read more about it next week.

Welcome to Millennial Net Blog!

Hello and welcome to Millennial Net’s energy management blog!  Since 2001 we have been providing state of the art wireless energy management solutions for easy retrofit in commercial, industrial and public buildings.  Our solutions help manage peak demands and deliver dramatic savings in energy and costs.  Regardless of the age of your building, simply replacing the control layer (thermostats, switches, etc.) with our smart wireless devices, will gain you full visibility into how and when energy is being used, and especially where it is being wasted.  Millennial Net’s energy management solution will also enable you to have full control over operational schedules, zone temperatures and local controls.

At Millennial Net, we know the ins and outs of two things very well – seamless and non-invasive wireless communication between any sensing devices and how to apply that technology to achieve significant energy waste reduction in your facilities.  The latest developments in wireless energy management technologies and the ways they can be used to benefit virtually any building, with or without centralized controls, is exactly what we are going to focus on in this blog.

Energy savings and cost control begins with monitoring.  If you cannot monitor something, you cannot control it.  There are a vast number of wireless energy management technologies that can benefit any HVAC architecture, i.e., pneumatic controls and manual electric or high voltage thermostats.  Any of these and others can be monitored and controlled wirelessly, but not all are created equal.  Navigating through the options can be confusing and time consuming.  Whether you are a facilities manager, building automation engineer, energy consultant or simply concerned with the way energy is being used in your workplace, through discussing the many energy management options we will strive to help you make sense out of all of it and assist you in making an educated decision for your facility’s needs.

This energy management blog will cover topics from the latest developments in wireless controls for pneumatic and electric thermostats, energy sub-metering and bench-marking to the importance of centralized controls or even a simple room by room energy policy.  Any such discussion is welcome, so please bookmark our blog, visit us often and do not forget to leave your comments!

Sincerely,

The Millennial Net Team