Building Automation for the Hybrid Work Era

Image Source: Andrey Popov/Stock.adobe.com

By Brandon Lewis for Mouser Electronics

Published June 3, 2024

The traditional workplace might not be entirely dead and gone, but at the very least, it's on life support. McKinsey recently reported that more than 56 percent of employees have a hybrid work arrangement, while 7 percent are fully remote.^[1] Work hours are shifting, too. A Future Forum Pulse survey found that 93 percent of respondents wanted to have a say in when they clock in.^[2]

While excellent for productivity and employee well-being, these flexible working arrangements have created a new problem for building managers.

Remnants of the Old Ways

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, office occupancy followed consistent patterns. This is no longer the case. Between hybrid work and flexible scheduling, office space is underutilized and increasingly used outside of regular working hours.

For traditional building automation systems, which typically rely on pre-programmed routines, this irregular utilization can create problems.

First, it results in businesses overspending on utilities. In a workplace where everyone has a different schedule, systems may need to be kept running five or even seven days a week, driving up expenses.^[3] In the long term, unnecessary usage also creates avoidable wear and tear on building systems, eventually resulting in many additional costs.

Additionally, constant uptime results in higher carbon emissions. This is of particular concern given the ambitious net zero carbon targets many governments are pursuing; lighting and HVAC systems alone account for nearly half of the average building’s total energy consumption.^[4]

Fortunately, technological advances during the pandemic, as well as more recent advances, provide a path forward.

Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed digital transformation timelines ahead by years—in some cases, a decade or more.^[5] Building management systems were not immune to this disruption. To adhere to quarantine mandates and social distancing requirements, many facilities managers incorporated new systems or retrofitted existing systems to better manage air quality, access control, and occupancy limits. These modifications increased overall power consumption, making energy efficiency more critical than ever.^[6]

The sharp acceleration in the use of digital technology pushed advances in automation, networking, and cloud computing. Facilities managers now have an opportunity to leverage some of the same technology used to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the pursuit of greater energy efficiency. For instance, using occupancy sensors to activate and deactivate lighting could result in lighting energy savings of up to 90 percent.^[7]

More sophisticated occupancy detection systems have the potential to amplify these cost savings even further. According to a study published in November 2023 in Applied Energy, deploying an occupant-counting system could result in combined HVAC and lighting energy savings of up to 17.8 percent. The study also referenced a nationwide simulation that achieved HVAC energy savings of 30 percent via zone-level and system-level occupancy-sensing strategies.^[8]

Following the pandemic’s technological evolution, another significant disruption emerged in the form of artificial intelligence (AI)—a game changer for building automation and facilities management, particularly when combined with other recent innovations.

Now that people have returned to the workplace, AI and other emerging technologies from the past several years are being applied to support smarter, more agile building automation in several ways.^[9]

Efficient, Flexible Building Management

Cloud platforms and improvements in networking simplify overall building management and administration, providing a unified view of a building's infrastructure. Combined with data gathered from IoT sensors, these platforms help facilities managers make more informed decisions and respond more effectively to potential problems. They also enable remote monitoring and management.

Additionally, by integrating building automation systems with other systems such as desk booking, room booking, visitor management, and parking management, businesses can improve operational efficiency alongside energy efficiency.

Building automation systems are complemented by AI-powered occupancy monitoring, which can be used to adjust systems algorithmically to match building utilization in real time. They can also improve building security through measures such as license plate recognition and biometric access controls. These measures can also increase employee safety; for example, during an emergency, a business can inform first responders of who is present in the building, along with their last recorded location.^[10]

Finally, facilities managers can benefit from app-controlled smart lighting and thermostats, adjusting settings to fit needs instead of relying solely on automation to control the workplace environment. Combined with streamlined access and booking systems, smarter building automation could greatly improve productivity and morale.

Proactive and Preventative Maintenance

Advances in IoT sensors and actuators may also benefit equipment maintenance. For example, a facilities manager could deploy sensors and actuators in an HVAC system to achieve the following:

• Vibration monitoring to check for and correct misalignments or imbalances in motors, compressors, and fans
• Temperature monitoring to control heat and provide early warning of potential component problems
• Pressure monitoring to identify and remediate issues such as leaks, imbalances, and system blockages, with differential pressure sensors to monitor the condition of air filters
• Flow monitoring to detect possible problems with ducts, filters, and valves
• Energy monitoring to help control power usage and watch for abnormal increases in energy consumption that may signal equipment failure or electrical problems
• Humidity monitoring to help prevent equipment corrosion and mold growth^[11]

Smarter, More Efficient Building Management

Arguably, the most compelling detail of these new technologies is that they can be implemented without removing or replacing existing systems. Instead, sensors and other devices can be retrofitted to existing infrastructure. Then, AI can analyze data such as vibrational frequency, temperature, and operating time to warn of impending failures and direct proactive maintenance efforts. This could further enhance overall safety and reduce catastrophic incidents that may stem from equipment failures, such as fires.

Moreover, by combining sophisticated sensor technology with AI inferencing, facilities managers can optimize energy usage and operational efficiency to unprecedented levels. The insights gained from this intelligent automation could also be used to plan, build, and deploy next-generation building infrastructure that maximizes comfort, safety, and energy efficiency.

Best Practices for Intelligent Building Automation

As new building automation technologies are introduced, they cannot be carelessly implemented. Maximizing the effectiveness of these new systems requires a hybrid building management system (BMS) strategy, which must consider the following:

• Consolidating HVAC, security, and other building systems with IoT infrastructure such as sensor networks
• Eliminating data silos and consolidating data lakes while also establishing proper data hygiene
• Creating customizable, zone-specific setpoints for equipment utilization
• Deploying building management software that supports consolidated visibility, BMS analytics, and remote management capabilities
• Including built-in measurement and verification to meet safety, security, and management needs

Conclusion

Because of hybrid work, offices and other commercial buildings are seeing significantly lower utilization than in the past. Traditional building management and automation systems locked to fixed operating schedules cannot adapt to this new paradigm. These outdated systems need to be replaced with something more intelligent, dynamic, and modern.

Technologies that have emerged and evolved over the past several years—such as AI, cloud management platforms, and IoT systems—are ideally suited to the job. When properly implemented, they provide unprecedented flexibility and efficiency. Facilities managers can remotely adjust systems while AI dynamically monitors and maintains them, and employees benefit from greater comfort, safety, and convenience.

These systems will become increasingly necessary as time passes and we continue progressing toward a future defined by connected technology and artificial intelligence.

Sources

[1]

Jan Mischke et al., “Empty Spaces and Hybrid Places: The Pandemic’s Lasting Impact on Real Estate,” McKinsey & Company, July 13, 2023, https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/empty-spaces-and-hybrid-places.