With new climate emergencies
appearing every week, attention is
increasingly turning to the hidden carbon
factories that are commercial buildings.
When it comes to carbon reduction
strategies, the Building Management
System (BMS) is the quickest and easiest
starting point. It plays a crucial role
in carbon strategies because the BMS
controls and/or monitors the operation of
heating, ventilation and air conditioning
(HVAC) and in some cases, other systems
such as lighting and metering. This means
that BMS optimisation is vital in reducing
costs, improving property performance,
reducing energy consumption and
monitoring asset performance.
This optimisation is not a one-o project,
but an ongoing process to ensure that your
properties continue to work as they should,
and not haemorrhage energy and cash.
BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - AN
INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE GAP?
Earlier this year, we conducted a poll for
delegates at the Reimagining Real Estate
conference(i) asking ‘Does your carbon
strategy include BMS optimisation?’ Of those
polled, Demand Logic’s survey found that
while 46 per cent said they had included BMS
optimisation in their carbon strategy, 15 per
cent said they had not and the remaining
39 per cent did not know about BMS
optimisation.
Our survey suggests that there is a lack
of understanding about the role that a
BMS optimisation strategy has in reducing
operational carbon emissions. This means
that many property and facilities managers
are missing out on an e ective and simple
mechanism to reduce the operational carbon
emissions of their buildings, and raises a few
questions to consider.
If you aren’t measuring a building’s
performance correctly then you could be
unknowingly responsible for increased
carbon emissions and costs impacting
bottom line performance. When it comes to
carbon reduction strategies, the BMS is the
quickest and easiest starting point. However,
this is veiled with historical issues such as
a lack of access, visibility or the usability
of the BMS itself – which is o en di icult
to navigate and provides little in terms of
analysis. Therefore, it is important to ensure
you have an appropriate system in place to
access the thousands of insightful data-sets.
THE ROLE OF BMS OPTIMISATION
Building services are complicated, with old
buildings in particular using a diverse range
of interconnected systems, aimed at making
spaces comfortable and productive but with
a minimum environmental impact. However,
FOCUS BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
KNOWLEDGE
IS POWER
Mike Darby CEO and Co-founder of Demand Logic argues
that facilities managers can simplify the operation of
complex buildings by analysing previously untapped
building data to save energy, increase comfort and
improve maintenance effi ciency
40 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2021