This archive report was first published on 9 May 2021.
Published on May 9, 2021, a question lingers: how smart are the buildings we inhabit? Our cities, cars, and phones may seem cutting-edge, but what about the places we spend most of our time – up to 90%?
Can we confidently say that our buildings are energy-efficient, leveraging data and analytics to adjust temperature and air-conditioning? If not, we're not living or working in a smart building.
A smart building goes beyond automated operation, embracing intuitive operation. Several factors contribute to a building's intelligence, starting with its purpose. For instance, a smart hospital aids patient recovery, while a smart office improves productivity.
Smart buildings adapt to their environment, enhancing our health, wellbeing, and efficiency. They analyze data from disparate systems, such as lighting, power, and management software, to optimize operations. This enables seamless management of every building element from a central platform.
Moreover, smart buildings communicate with devices we wear or carry, like phones and fitness trackers, to gather richer data sets. This information helps the building adjust the environment and provide additional services.
Technologies like augmented or virtual reality can transform how we work and live. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the fundamental basis of any smart building, connecting every device to the internet. Sensors provide the basic information to monitor any building, and combining them with other devices enables the building to understand people density and adjust the environment accordingly.
Investing in smarter buildings offers numerous benefits, including efficiency and sustainability. Energy and service costs can exceed a building's initial cost, which is only 15% of its total cost of ownership. Digitization helps save on operational costs by enabling facility-wide monitoring and tracking energy consumption patterns.
By leveraging technology, we can create more sustainable buildings. Building owners and operators should look for an open, intelligent building platform that can integrate with any device or software. This will enable them to harness the power of big data and artificial intelligence to improve building operations.
Lastly, smart buildings can do more than simply recover from unanticipated downtime events. They can sense and predict issues before they become a crisis, ensuring minimal disruption to what's happening inside the building.
