Building control dashboards can be used for heat balance By David Unger
The use of complete building energy manage- ment systems has transformed the industry. Architects, property managers, engineers and HVAC contractors have unprecedented informa- tion about their buildings and are able to use this information to heat balance and retrofit them for greater energy efficiency.
The first rule of heat balancing is to recognize
that every building is to some degree out of bal- ance. Therefore, heat balancing is not something you do once and forget about; it is an ongoing and continual process of regularly tweaking the HVAC system functions to make sure that the building is running at optimum efficiency. The best way to do this is to use a building energy management system with a building control dashboard. These systems work by synthesizing temperature informa- tion from wireless sensors reading both the inside and outside temperature. The trick is to not just put these sensors in place and forget about them, but rather to continually move them around, adjusting the system to reduce fuel usage. This technique en- ables physical blockage detection, such as furniture placed in front of radiators, and broken valves; and often these issues can be easily addressed at little or no cost. Building control dashboards are instru- mental in this process—providing at-a-glance alerts for high stack temperatures, short-cycling and long runtimes and facilitating comparison of historical records and cross-building comparisons. Building energy management systems are also
key to the process of retrofitting a building to be more energy efficient. Retrofitting used to mean major changes to the physical infrastructure of the building—tearing off the roof and replacing every window. Now, architects, property managers, en- gineers and HVAC contractors are approaching the retrofit process differently and instead using infor- mation to figure out the most strategic approach for the specific building. For example, if there is reason to believe that the insulation in the building is not working as well as it could be, the building control dashboard can be used to synthesize the appropri-
ate information to determine if this is the case. The ability to use the dashboard to compare energy us- age with other similar buildings in the system is also key to this process. The Newmark & Co. building at 40 Worth
St. in New York City provides an excellent case study of how a building energy management system, including a building control dashboard, can be used to balance and retrofit a building. The 700,000-square-foot commercial building that uses oil and steam was running very inefficiently. While the management was tempted to make a major structural change, they decided the first step was to obtain better information about the build- ing. After installing Fresh Meadows, N.Y.-based US Energy Group’s Building Energy Management System (BEMS), that includes the USE Manager online building information control dashboard, the
fuel usage was reduced by 23.7 percent in one year, and payback on the system was less than two months. In other words, by using the informa- tion from the system to make subtle changes and respond to alerts, such as high stack temperatures and cold spots that indicated obstructed radiators and blocked valves, the building was transformed from an inefficient structure to one that is now run- ning very efficiently. Building energy management systems provide
detailed, real-time information. The key to building energy efficiency is to harness this information and use it to make appropriate decisions that reduce fuel usage, save money and help the environment.
David Unger is the chief operating officer at US Energy Group, Fresh Meadows, N.Y. To learn more, visit www.use-group.com.
The USE Controller Building Energy Management System reduces fuel consumption by 15 to 30 per- cent with payback in less than two years.