CONTROLS
Underused and misunderstood
Despite the clear benefi ts of the BMS, it is very common for this technology to be underused. A potential goldmine of insights, including the aforementioned energy consumption, operational performance and more, too often these systems are not fully optimised, leading to buildings costing more to run than they should. Common confi guration problems include:
■ Heating schedules starting too early - many of the cus- tomers we visit are unaware that their BMS has a heating optimiser that brings buildings and/or individual rooms up to temperature at a set time, so switch the heating on hours before occupation as a matter of course
■ Heating, cooling and ventilation not set to account for hybrid working – something that has become far more com- mon since Covid. Many workspaces are underoccupied, but HVAC settings don’t refl ect reduced occupancy
■ Plant item sensors left in hand mode, bypassing automated controls
■ Space sensors set too high – just 1⁰C too much can lead to 10% wasted energy
■ Unmonitored air quality, leading to over-ventilation and wasted heating or cooling
■ Lack of maintenance resulting in faulty sensors/valves caus- ing incorrect data to be fed back to the BMS
■ New HVAC systems added to a building but not included in the BMS, leading to heating and cooling happening at the same time.
In very large multi-occupancy buildings or across estate sites, these seemingly small problems can add up to thousands of pounds of wasted electricity. According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, £3.1 billion of energy is wasted annually in non-domestic buildings, caused by poor energy management and ineffi cient systems.
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BMS survey benefi ts in action DMA conducted an in-depth BMS survey of Bruce Kenrick House to help Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) explore opportunities to reduce energy consumption and decarbonisation.
The fi ndings indicate substantial energy savings: 1.
2. 3. 4.
Optimising start/stop for heating and cooling plant will reduce running hours and save around 5-10% Enhancing lighting control can save between 3-40% Recalibrating sensors can save between 10-15%
Inadequate or incorrect application of a boiler control leads to approximately 15-30% of wasted energy.
A simple fi x The reality is that many buildings have perfectly serviceable BMS systems; they’re just not set up correctly. Simple fi xes like preventing rooms from being heated when out of hours, for example, can lead to huge savings in large sites. Even where more robust upgrades are required, the money recouped usually results in a quick ROI. A recent example in our own customer base has seen a large organisation avoid over £80,000 a year in unnecessary costs by simply reconfi guring time schedules, fi xing faulty sensors and upgrading the controls. Regardless of fi nancial savings, ensuring BMS works
eff ectively should be seen as part of wider aims to reduce environmental impact as part of carbon reduction policies. Where building owners and maintenance teams have adopted or plan to adopt AI, the data a BMS collects is critical to ensuring eff ective AI learning and automation. There is so much a BMS system can do; most building
owners and their maintenance teams have barely scratched the surface.
www.acr-news.com • December 2025 29
'Sensors and monitoring allow for the continuous collection of data, which informs predictive maintenance, prevents breakdown and helps keep expensive technology working for longer. These sensors can also be used to identify energy wasters,
highlighting equipment that is using too much power.'
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