Smart building : building energy performance
Smart buildings are booming and offer new opportunities to meet the energy challenge. Still considered futuristic not so long ago , the smart building of today offers real innovative solutions to gain competitiveness and comply with the new environmental laws.
What is a smart building?
According to the Direction Régionale et Interdépartementale de l’Environnement et de l’Énergie d’Île-de-France (DRIEE): “the concept of smart building corresponds to the integration of active and passive energy management solutions, aiming to optimize consumption, but also to promote the comfort and safety of the building’s users while respecting the regulations in force.”
Also called ” intelligent building ” or ” connected building “, the smart building represents all the digital technologies (Internet of Things, Cloud, Big Data, Open Data, machine-learning, automation, data management…) which allow to collect useful data on a building (temperature, consumption, lighting, security…) and to communicate them to those who need them, i.e. the occupants, the operators and the managers in the companies and industries for an optimal exploitation.
While innovations in the building sector have long concerned materials and construction methods, the emergence of digital technology and connected devices has brought new intelligent solutions. By coordinating, automating and linking sensors and electrical systems to the Internet, new opportunities have been created, particularly in terms of building energy performance.
What are the objectives of smart building?
By integrating intelligent systems into buildings, the smart building has several objectives:
While ventilation, heating and air conditioning systems have long been equipped with sensory sensors, the smart building, through its connectivity to the IoT, has increased their action tenfold. Thus, it is now possible to create optimal working conditions in real time and in an intuitive way: an asset for companies whose employees’ well-being is a top priority. In addition, the smart building offers a plethora of new intelligent services such as occupancy rate indication, connected concierge service, predictive maintenance… A wealth of functions that will contribute to improving the productivity and efficiency of teams.
One of the objectives of the smart building is to provide a more refined security. Particularly important for companies, which hold sensitive data, this objective means going further than the solutions currently proposed. Surveillance platforms, connected cameras, applications to access a building via a login, cybersecurity are some examples among the many possibilities that Artificial Intelligence, IoT or biometrics can bring in terms of security in an infrastructure portfolio.
The energy transition is a major issue of this century and is at the heart of many governments’ concerns. With the Paris climate agreements and the Grenelle de l’environnement, the energy challenge has been formalized with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality and moving towards renewable energies, among others.
This issue particularly concerns companies, from the public and private sectors or even startups, and more specifically their infrastructures. The choice of a type of low-energy building, the energy and thermal renovation of existing buildings… are some of the objectives in terms of energy optimization to which the smart building can respond concretely and on a large scale thanks to the buildings connected to each other. Opting for a strong leadership in terms of environment through smart buildings is today a winning bet.
What are the benefits of smart buildings?
Even though the positive impacts are not yet all measurable, it is possible to observe 5 main benefits:
- Leverage smart data
- Consume energy efficiently
- Increase the value of an asset
- Comply with green standards
- Increase workplace efficiency and reduce operational costs
All of these combined advantages lead to significant financial, operational and environmental gains for companies, but above all, the possibility of measuring them. However, the systems must respect precise standards, otherwise they will not reap the benefits of the investments made.
Energy performance and energy savings according to Energisme
The constantly evolving energy sector requires specific skills and expertise, and calling on professionals is a wise strategy to avoid any missteps. Thus, the Energy Performance Contract (EPC) was set up to ensure reliability and meet the performance and energy saving objectives of companies and buildings.
The EPC can:
- Guarantee the long-term energy improvement of one or more buildings
- Contractually guarantee a certain level of energy performance according to the investments made
- Measure initial consumption by collecting and analyzing data flows in order to set achievable targets
To accompany you, Energisme offers you its intuitive SaaS platform with a unique interface to help you achieve your energy performance goals.
Multi-fluid performance indicators: valuable data to improve energy performance
Energy management is based on the monitoring of Energy Performance Indicators (EPI). EPIs measure the relationship between energy consumption and production use. Grouped together in a table, EPIs are used to improve energy performance by taking into account not only the energy consumed but also the uncontrollable variables that influence consumption. Thanks to the multi-fluid performance indicators targeting water, gas and electricity consumption, it is possible to know precisely in real time the energy signature of the sites and to reach the set performance objectives.
The “smart grid”, an innovative solution that promotes the circulation of data relating to electricity consumption, is evolving and allows for improved monitoring of the energy mix.
