How can simple building and asset monitoring sensors help to manage building use?
Smart building sensors can be used to measure energy usage, air quality, workspace occupancy and so much more, and it is easy to see how these sensors can help you to optimise your facility, be it an office space, a warehouse, a manufacturing facility or even a domestic property. However, sometimes knowing the little things can help to round off the holistic understanding of your building. You’ll find all the details in our latest article about asset and building monitoring sensors.
If you know the air temperature and quality, you can combine this with energy sensors to optimize the heating or cooling of a space. But do you know where that energy is going? Are you heating up an office space only to find that staff like to keep the windows open?
If you know the air temperature and quality, you can combine this with energy sensors to optimize the heating or cooling of a space. But do you know where that energy is going? Are you heating up an office space only to find that staff like to keep the windows open?
The Pressac Door and Window Sensor is a small, wireless, battery powered magnetic switch. Applying these simple sensors to external doors and windows provides you with another pillar to support your virtual understanding of your building’s performance. Now you can address why you are heating an area with open windows.
Do staff disagree about the optimum temperature? Is the air too stuffy, so people need windows open and the heating on? Are people propping open an external fire exit to go out and smoke?
Monitoring the energy consumption of your manufacturing equipment can help you to optimise the way that this equipment is used or maintained. But what if you can correlate that with the machine’s output in real time? A change in energy usage may indicate increased workload, but does the performance of the machine match the energy being used?
The Pressac Dry contact sensor can monitor any equipment with a simple, volt free dry contact output. The possibilities for such a simple sensor are vast, but can include a lot of manufacturing or processing equipment. Either as a dry contact output, or even an optical output (with an additional optical sensor). A lot of equipment, from roller shutter doors, UPS systems, conveyor belts, stacking systems and more can be monitored in this way.
The Pressac Pulse counter can also monitor volt outputs (5V TTL), providing options for every type of connectivity output without having to make permanent changes or integrate with different data platforms.
Now, a change in energy consumption or output can be investigated more easily. A machine or station with a slightly reduced output may go unnoticed, but by adding such a simple sensor to your facility, you can monitor the production performance at every stage, in fine detail. This may help to identify maintenance issues earlier or address human or procedural errors which are affecting your productivity.
Some sensors can tell you the big picture, useful information about air conditions, energy consumption, and where people are. The simpler sensors are not to be overlooked, as often these small holes in the digital understanding of your building can be filled to give you a holistic view of what is going on. Appropriately handled as part of a smart building management system, such a detailed understanding can help you to find every conceivable way to improve and optimise your space.
