Improve the Energy Efficiency of an Existing Building in just 1 DAY.

Many of the new building these days are equipped with an Energy Management System (EMS) to withstand government energy efficient laws. By controlling and monitoring air condition and lights it is ensured buildings are run at most optimum condition with minimum waste of energy resulting in lower electric bills.

There is however a problem with older buildings that to do not have these EMS system. These buildings, which are the majority of buildings worldwide, suffer from high wastage of energy due to air condition and lights left power on over night or sometimes even over the holidays. It is very common to drive at night, during late hours, over schools and office buildings and see many lights are left power on. This energy waste phenomenon results in larger electric bills for the owner and increase value of carbon emission, polluting the environment.

Companies like Honeywell, Schneider Electric, Johnson Control and EkonControl came with new wireless building management systems that can be installed in existing building in a very short time by simply replacing the old thermostat (and light switches) with a new network thermostat to communicate wirelessly with control system that can control and monitor the whole building in a very efficient way. Using these EMS systems ensures the building’s owner large saving on electric bill within very short period of installation so return on investment is very quick.

The amount of savings is mainly depends on how often the employees at the building forget to power off the air condition. In schools, for example, it is well known problem that lights and air condition are left power on overnight so in this case the savings will be over 50% reduction on the electric bills. In cases where employees are more ‘civilized’ (they power off the air condition and lights 100% of the times the room is left unoccupied), the power savings will be around 5% mainly because the system can lock the thermostat on optimum set points ensuring the compressor work less time and hence reduce energy.

This kind of EMS/BMS system is most relevant for commercial buildings such as Schools, Hospitals, Large Cooperate Offices, Museums, Government Offices, etc. where there are over 30 thermostats and light switches spread over few floors where it is more difficult to control manually.

Since most of these new systems are plug & play, it can be installed by any professional electrician or by the building maintenance.

The software of the building management system is already embedded inside the master controller so user only needs to give each module (thermostat or light switch) an address and give each unit a name on the graphical user interface in the same manner of adding a name in smart phones.

Most of these EMS/BMS systems have schedule weekly times in which user can setup group of air condition and lights to go on or off at particular times.
Moreover, user can create working groups to activate few air conditions and light loads to a certain pre define condition by 1 press of a button.

In few of these systems it is even possible to lock group of thermostats on a certain optimum set point so it cannot be changed manually, keeping the set point at energy save conditions. Utility payers expect to see reduced electric bill from the time the system start running.

Author: Ofer Glezer
CEO at EkonControl

EKON Manufacturing Inc. is one of the world's leading manufacturers of advanced control and automation systems, innovating technology and reinventing the way people live and work. Offering integrated solutions to control HVAC, lighting, motors and environmental systems. EKON’ streamline technology improving the quality of life for people in corporate boardrooms, hotels, buildings and offices with the main focus on Energy Savings.