What are HVAC controls?
Facility and Energy Managers looking to eliminate unnecessary energy costs and waste would be hard-pressed to find a more effective area to focus on than HVAC controls. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), heating, ventilation, and air conditioning collectively account for 35% of a commercial building’s energy consumption.¹ Heating alone can use an average of 25% of total building energy use, making your HVAC controls the single largest opportunity to find and implement efficient controls.²
How do HVAC controls work?
HVAC controls improve efficiency by optimizing set points and reducing energy wasted from heating and cooling unoccupied building areas. Our Smart Building Controls dashboard shows you the complete picture of where your energy is being used, so you can identify how and where you can make considerable gains in efficiency.
Most buildings have several areas that are only used at certain times of the day, or on certain days. For instance, knowing your warehouse loading docks remain closed 6 days out of the week gives you the option to change climate control demands based on actual use, eliminating unnecessary cooling or heating costs. Sophisticated HVAC controls offer you the freedom of highly-variable, automated scheduling that you can set once and forget, or check in on multiple times a day to tune heating and cooling as needed.
HVAC control system
Lowering your heating and cooling costs may seem daunting, but there are many different ways to save across a broad range of price-points. Installing wirelessly enabled smart thermostats, heat exchangers, variable speed motors, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, heat pumps, or other such technologies or appliances can help reduce overall HVAC spending. That said, the most cost-effective savings opportunity is adopting an automated control system for better performance of the HVAC equipment already located at your facility.
Our HVAC control system is baked into our Smart Building Controls, giving you not only greater control of your heating and cooling, but also more sophisticated capabilities to manage your lighting and other systems. Even better, the savings that result from installing our smart building control system can pay for itself in less than a year in some cases.
The Smart Building Controls system gives you unparalleled insight and control over your building operations to find missed opportunities and cut back on energy wasted from big-ticket sources like heating and cooling. If you’re interested in learning more, request a free, no-obligation audit to find out what solutions we have to save you money and improve you occupant comfort.
Sources
¹ “QUADRENNIAL TECHNOLOGY REVIEW AN ASSESSMENT OF ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES AND RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES: Chapter 5: Increasing Efficiency of Building Systems and Technologies September 2015.” Www.energy.gov. 2016. Accessed September 20, 2018. https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/03/f34/qtr-2015-chapter5.pdf.
² “U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis.” Factors Affecting Gasoline Prices - Energy Explained, Your Guide To Understanding Energy - Energy Information Administration. Accessed September 20, 2018. https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/reports/2012/energyusage/.