ADVICE & OPINION
REMOTE CONTROL
FMJ AIMS TO SUPPORT TECHNICAL EXPERTISE IN THE FM MARKET
James Palmer of global associates explains how a remote monitoring system can help
facilities managers create more energy effi cient buildings and a healthier, more productive
work environment
Instant access defines the modern
era. Whether it’s via 24-hour
news channels, social media or
live streaming websites, we have
information at our fingertips.
Monitoring technology has already
been put to great use in the world
of sport. Motor racing teams can
use telemetry in the pit lane to
assess a car’s performance and
respond accordingly, and so ware
allows an athlete’s fitness to be
constantly measured. By monitoring
the athlete’s heart rate, mood and
performance, trainers and coaches
can identify the problem areas among
their teams and take the necessary
action as early as possible. If a
sportsperson is underperforming
or recovering from an injury a
training programme can be adapted
specifically to help them reach
their optimum performance. With
stringent energy e iciency targets in
place, and an increasing demand for
space utilisation and wellbeing data,
isn’t it time we started managing our
buildings the same way?
E ective management of commercial
properties of any size can be a
challenge, especially if you have a
limited number of maintenance sta
covering a large number of properties.
It is also crucial from a landlord-tenant
point of view. A badly managed building
will not sit kindly with tenants who need
reliable building services in order for
their sta to be happy and their business
to be running smoothly.
When a building, or portfolio of
buildings is managed poorly, valuable
time and money can be wasted on
menial problems that could be solved
without a visit. This can be exacerbated
by more serious problems in other
buildings that require urgent attention.
If a problem has not even been reported
yet by a member of sta , then the
fault could get worse, leading to more
downtime and potentially more costly
16 SEPTEMBER 2019
repairs. Remote monitoring systems
enable a building’s services to be
managed remotely through sensors
that can immediately alert the building
manager when a fault occurs.
There is nothing new about remotely
monitoring plant, and li safety systems
in buildings. However, there’s a big
di erence between dialling out an alarm
and being able to intelligently analyse a
set of conditions and decide how critical
the situation really is before escalation.
OPTIMISATION OPPORTUNITIES
As technology systems within a BMS
Building Management Systems (BMS)
and Internet of Things (IoT) environment
become increasingly connected and
generate vast amounts of data, it is vital
that this information can be used in a
way that proactively drives optimisation
opportunities across your building or
estate.
The latest IoT technologies allow lower
cost connectivity and makes the deeper
integration of systems more a ordable.
With more data available, and more
a ordable intelligence analysing that
data, you could significantly reduce
call outs, while increasing first visit fixes
dramatically.
For example, a fault in a DX
unit cooling a server room would
traditionally cause an escalation,
requiring an engineer to visit site.
However, what if the ambient
temperature in the building is only
16°C as it’s 4am? What if the outside
air temperature is 4°C and there’s free
cooling available? What if there’s a
second air conditioning unit more than
capable of taking up the load?
Wouldn’t it be great for the engineer,
and for your maintenance budget, if
the monitoring system was configured
to look at a variety of factors before
determining when to escalate to a
call out? Wouldn’t it be even better if
the engineer could see a full history
of alarms, temperatures, starts and
other factors leading up to the alarm
before attending site, so they have
some clues at the very least, before
setting o ? If there’s a dirty filter in AC
unit 1, and the Planned Preventative
Maintenance (PPM) visit is scheduled
for next week anyway, does the
engineer even need to attend? Or it
could make more sense to make sure
the PPM engineer has a clean filter on
the van before setting o !
Of course, the opposite can
also be true. A small fault may be
insignificant on its own, but when
taken in context with other small faults
in other areas, the net e ect could
be catastrophic. Very few BMS are
configured to aggregate faults from
third party systems and analyse their
potential long-term costs, to identify
a potentially critical situation on the
horizon.
ESCALATION PROCEDURES
This is where intelligent monitoring
systems can help. Intelligent
monitoring solutions allow data from
multiple systems to be analysed and
compared to sets of rules, which
improve escalation procedures. This
reduces unnecessary call outs and
increases the e ectiveness of all
remedial visits. The
data aggregated on
hours run, frequency
of maintenance and
call out outcomes
then feeds back
into PPM routines,
allowing you to
understand which
areas are truly
critical and to focus
resources on them.
The benefits of a
system such as this
go far beyond what it
can o er the building
manager. Although
an e iciently run
building with minimum downtime for
all its services will obviously result in
sta satisfaction in their place of work,
they can also use a remote monitoring
system to improve their working
environment, and at the required times
too.
Take for example a large o ice
building with many shared meeting
rooms. No longer do we have to
book a room by writing it down in
a diary or even emailing a request.
Our global spaces solution interfaces
room booking systems and BMS, to
optimise the environmental controls
for specific sessions or clientele. The
room is booked through the booking
system and the reservation is then used
to intelligently optimise the meeting
room’s services through a library of
BMS and lighting interfaces. This means
a group can turn up for their meeting
knowing that the room is already
prepared to their requirements.
COMFORT DEMOCRACY
Global spaces can also allow occupants
to democratically control their own
environment, without spoiling it
for others, thus creating a comfort
democracy. The system knows how
many people will be using the space
and uses thresholds to determine
whether heating, cooling or fresh air is
required. Over time, as the system gets
used, the building manager will be able
to see people’s preferences and habits
as well as the savings being made in
real time.
Most importantly, you will create a
working space that people enjoy being
in, enabling them to focus on the job in
hand without being distracted by their
environment and creating a healthier,
more productive workplace.
FAST FACTS