COMMERCIAL OFFICE BLOCKS
The Acutrace Energy Measurement System is a platform which measures all utilities in a building providing building owners with full visualisation of where and when their energy is being used allowing them to pinpoint wasted energy and make changes.
We have completed many projects in Commercial Office blocks and we are preparing case studies to highlight these projects and the savings and other benefits achieved.
Here are a few examples of buildings we have worked in.
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The Landmark Building – Dublin
Testimonial
“The energy monitoring platform has allowed our team to identify significant energy users, which we have implemented an energy policy to enforce optimisation around. The real bonus point for us is how flexible and user-friendly the Acutrace platform is.”
Energy Services Manager
The Case
The Landmark Building had no electrical monitoring infrastructure in place to collect and display data which was always an item on their long-term energy efficiency plan. The Landmark Building also had a need for monitoring water and gas.
The Landmark Building identified the plant rooms as a priority for monitoring. The plant rooms were split into two (East vs West) with a total of 2 x main incomers, 4 x chillers and 14 circuits made up of air Handling Units (AHUs - supply, extract and pump Variable Speed Drives).
Regarding water consumption, there was an Aquamaster onsite which allowed them to manually record the total monthly consumption through a physical reading.
There was also a standard gas networks meter onsite which required a chatterbox to be installed so we could interface with it.
The Landmark Building wish list included the following:
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Achieve significant consumption reduction throughout all utilities – electricity, water and gas
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Data to be collected through an Energy Monitoring System (EMS) and displayed in a user-friendly dashboard that the Maintenance/Property Team can manage
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Generate internal energy reports
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Receive emails from the EMS when targets are breached
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Predictive/reactive traffic light system
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Ability to see day vs night consumption
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Ability to see max kVA within a selected time period
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Ability to see CO² saved as they only purchase renewable electricity
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Independent EMS that will sit on its own network and transfer data via GSM modem
The Problem
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No electrical data being collected
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Water readings were manually recorded which is time-consuming and prone to human error
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Internal electrical consumption reports were being generated from monthly utility bills
The Solution
The Landmark Building required a solution that would help them to visualise all electrical consumption in their two plant rooms as per outlined above. Acutrace supplied a data logger, 6 meters and Current Transformers (CTs) for the main incomers and chillers and the remaining circuits were monitored through a wireless energy sensor that fed data to an energy concentrator on the Acutrace network.
For the water meter, Acutrace supplied 1 x wireless Sigfox devices to capture pulses.
All the above meters were then incorporated onto a dashboard and grouped under each plant rooms (East vs West). This allowed the client to identify the highest user at a glance with the capability of drilling down to individual circuits. The end-user can see individual utility cost and the total cost of all utilities. This particular client was hands-on and they had a desirable wish list as highlighted above. Acutrace tailored their MVAC platform to fulfil all the end-user requirements.
The Landmark Building applied to have a chatterbox installed by Gas Networks Ireland but this is a lengthy process that is still open.
The Results
Improve facility performance:
Real-time data allowed The Landmark Building Maintenance Team to identify issues as they occurred and help increase the life expectancy of the plant room equipment. Acutrace also incorporated an Hours Run Clock - this feature allows end-users to record the hours run of critical plant machinery in a selected time period and also total time running since install. This clock can be reset after service visits to help with predictive maintenance.
Reporting:
Having the option of exporting all data in customisable reports means internal and external reports were generated efficiently with the click of a button.
Day vs night consumption visualisation:
The Landmark Building wanted to visualise day vs night usage. Their need for this was to quickly identify Avoidable Wasted Energy (AWE) throughout the time of no occupancy.
Interactive target manager/traffic light system:
The Landmark Building wanted the ability to set a total consumption target for each plant room through a traffic light system as well as individual circuit targets as seen on the bar chart above. The EMS system has the functionality to send an email alert when the target is 90% reached which turns the building image below orange. Once the target is breached another email alert is sent out and the building will turn red.
When different time periods are selected the Traffic Light System will calculate consumption used vs their target in the background and update the dashboard accordingly.
Sustainability and carbon footprint:
The Landmark Building is now able to view their carbon footprint based on their actual energy used/saved depending on their source of energy. For the first time, they were able to calculate, track and report on CO².