In HVAC and smart buildings, short-termism is an easy trap to fall into. We live in a world driven by returns, profit, KPIs and results; where short-term goals often trump long term ambitions as individuals at all levels are judged on their immediate targets.
It is a facet of human nature that can cause us to be blind to the bigger picture. Yet for companies to operate not only more sustainably, but equally more effectively in the long run, sometimes the big picture needs to take precedence.
Smart buildings and HVAC in the UK
Let’s consider smart buildings and HVAC in the UK. While technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), automation, artificial intelligence and building information modelling (BIM) are all spoken about as cutting-edge industry trends and focal points in the here and now, their uptake remains relatively lacklustre.
When I moved back to the UK two years ago, after 28 years in South Africa, I was surprised by what I found compared to what I had pictured and read about. I found a market where there’s lots of talk about innovating the built environment, but not a lot of action.
Why? Because of impatience and misunderstanding. Companies are in too much of a rush – where they invest in these technologies, they want to see results now, not later. But this approach doesn’t work.
The benefits of intelligent technologies
Smart buildings and intelligent HVAC technologies can deliver a plethora of improvements from greener operations to lower costs, yet I believe these benefits need to be better defined. Here are just a few examples:
Enhance productivity: According to a study from the World Green Building Council Study, improving ventilation and indoor air quality can enhance productivity by 8-11%. Equally, improving lighting can enhance productivity by 23%.
Reduce costs: Albany Business Review states that buildings that enable smart technologies can reduce costs by an average of 15%.
Reduce energy consumption: Smart buildings create a multitude of automation opportunities, such as motion-sensitive lighting or better HVAC management through a sensor-controlled system, driving down energy consumption – good for both cost reasons and the environment.
Improve insights: IoT creates a multitude of data points that can be used to provide quantifiable and tangible insights (i.e., who is using a building, how they are using it, and when they are using it), which can inform actionable improvements.
Enhance employee engagement: These insights can be visualised and communicated to make employees both more mindful of their own footprints, but equally such intent will likely improve retention and recruitment drives.
Optimise maintenance: Sensors can monitor buildings’ performance to trigger maintenance alerts in real-time, making it faster, easier and cheaper to identify and fix potential issues. If a fault such as a clogged air filter resulting in hampered airflow goes undetected, HVAC systems may not only operate at suboptimal levels but, equally suffer from reduced lifespans.
Improve hygiene: Smart building technologies can be used to improve everything from the movement of people to air quality, considerations that are top of mind within the COVID-19 context.
Ensuring smart buildings don’t become another buzzword
So, how can we better define these benefits, encourage widespread adoption, and ensure that smart buildings become an actionable approach to improving HVAC and construction rather than just another buzzword?
When many organisations hear smart buildings or smart HVAC, they dismiss the idea with the assumption that such initiatives will require significant investment that is just not viable. First and foremost, policy needs to be reconsidered. While there are initiatives from the UK government that are working to encourage the optimisation and smart enhancement of buildings, there is a lack of key initiatives such as grants in the right areas to truly propel investment forward.
In South Africa, this issue is tackled with private finance initiatives (PFI) that focus on designing buildings that incorporate smart building technologies to be greener and more efficient. PFIs are a means of financing public sector projects through the private sector, alleviating the government and taxpayers of an immediate financial burden by coming up with the capital for these projects.
At a grassroots level, however, companies can also reconsider their approaches to smart building and HVAC technologies. When many organisations hear smart buildings or smart HVAC, they dismiss the idea with the assumption that such initiatives will require significant investment that is just not viable. Yet this doesn’t have to be the case.
Yes, a smart building strategy and the associated investments can be expensive, but it can also start small, be cost-effective and focus on gradual, incremental improvement.
Actionable advice
Here are five core pieces of actionable industry advice that can help companies on their path towards smart building transition…
Look at the big picture
Start by considering your current operations. With so many new technologies being rolled out and marketed in the smart building, intelligent HVAC and eco-friendly arena, it can be easy to become side-tracked. While one innovation might appear to be extremely effective, it may not suit your building’s specific needs. To gain a better understanding of the latter, it is important to look holistically at what outputs to address, be it energy, water, air quality or other areas.
Focus on the quick wins
Once you have a better understanding of your building’s requirements, you will be able to work to identify where some of the quick wins may lie. Here, cost-effective improvements can be made. You might recognise that the lights or air conditioning are regularly left on in certain parts of the building when they don’t need to be, for example. By making some simple, easy changes, building efficiency can be drastically improved without breaking the bank.
Get occupant buy-in
At the point of implementation, it is important to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page. From the IT department to the office cleaners to the MD, there should be a clear communication of goals. Remember those attempts to monitor and in turn reduce energy consumption by turning off lights and air conditioning units? They will only be successful should all employees embrace these actions.
Monitor and adapt as you go
While companies may quickly take some significant steps forward in realising some of the benefits available, it is important to note that a smart building transformation should never be a complete process. As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, there will always be improvements that can be made. Be it tweaks to existing technologies or investment in others, it is vital to keep monitoring your building’s performance and responding to the data to further enhance long-term returns.
Improve education
Finally, it is important to regularly educate yourself and others. Unbeknownst to many, smart building and HVAC technologies that had previously been expensive are now much cheaper, reducing barriers to entry. Knowledge is not what it needs to be – to ensure you’re able to benefit as an early adopter, continual learning is crucial.
