• • • RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGY • • • A greener future utilising IoT


The Internet of Things (IoT) usage is growing rapidly and data-driven decision making is one of the foundations underneath this growing adaption, says Raoul Wijgergangs, chief executive of EnOcean


new changing environments with rapid speed. Employees are returning to the offices, children


D


are going back to school, and we need to make sure that they can do so safely and to protect their health – with help from the IoT. Presence sensors, CO2 sensors, people passing counters, temperature sensors and so on collect all needed data to create safe, healthy and comfortable spaces.


A unified approach The easier the installation of such sensor systems and connectivity to the cloud, the better. For that, a unified path to the internet is key. EnOcean is not religious about certain IoT radio standards, be it Bluetooth, Zigbee or the EnOcean protocol and radio. We believe it is more important to create systems that are easy-to-deploy, making the hurdles for decision makers as low as possible. The same applies to our different ways of


harvesting energy. Kinetic, solar and temperature differences are not equally suited for the same applications. We make use of kinetic energy for our battery-free switches because the press of a button happens anyway. Our wireless sensors are best powered by solar energy and when there’s a significant temperature difference between, for example machines and the air around them, that’s where thermal energy is generated.


A safe return to offices But what we are religious about at EnOcean is helping companies, and offices in particular, to create healthier environments for employees and more sustainable ways of operating their businesses. The fact that buildings cause around 40% of the worldwide CO2 emissions shows that


igitisation has been driven even faster by COVID-19 and everything that is related to it and companies have had to adapt to these


there’s huge potential to make these not only more neutral in themselves, but also to create healthier environments for everyone at the same time.


“ Buildings cause


around 40% of the worldwide CO2


How many times are lights switched on even


though nobody is in a room or daylight would actually be sufficient, or the heating and HVAC are turned on when windows are open? With the help of sensors, we can monitor all that and prevent unnecessary energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The sensors can tell us the amount of people in a meeting room, which desks are


”


occupied, temperature and humidity, the amount of fresh air in a room or the status of doors and windows (open/closed). Enocean and its eco- system of partners provide easy solutions to a decades-old problem.


One step further for businesses Post-COVID, it is expected that employees will return to the offices for three days per week, the other two days working remotely. In theory this would mean that the use of real estate a company rents would drop from five to three days (-40%). This could be a substantial opportunity to reduce operational expenses as well as to improve the CO2 footprint of buildings because the reduction in real estate costs goes hand in hand with fewer carbon emissions. The overall 25-50% reduction in real estate and


utility costs and the 25-40% reduction in carbon footprint have not gone unnoticed by chief financial officers and chief executives. The fastest way to positively impact our CO2


goals as a company is to reduce the amount of resources we need to run our businesses. Yes, we will need windmills, solar energy, green hydrogen and batteries, to reduce carbon emissions on a long-term basis, but the positive contribution they will have to make to the extent required will take years or even decades. Today, there are already solutions on the market that reduce our carbon footprint through savings and this impact will help us from today all the way to 2050. EnOcean’s technology is right at the crossroad


of enabling these savings, both economically and carbon-wise, in an easy end-to-end fashion.


30 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • NOVEMBER 2021 electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40