Energy management systems
Smarter energy management system (EMS) is able to use computer software and sensors to manage the heating cooling and ventilation systems in hotels and Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA). This can be achieved through the networking of hardware along with input from sensors on key building management services via the IoT. The EMS helps to provide optimum indoor comfort for the students and guests within the buildings and at the same time it does so in a way that optimises energy efficiency. This can have significant financial benefits for buildings with high energy usage such as hotels and student accommodation. The building owners can benefit from a reduction in energy costs and carbon emissions as well as improving their sustainability profile.
There are two types of Smarter energy management systems available. One is the Smarter air conditioning energy management and the other is Smarter panel heater energy management.
Air Conditioning
Smarter air conditioning energy management gives hotel and purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) facility managers the ability to remotely monitor and adjust the air conditioning settings of all hotel and student rooms across their entire estate. Not heating or cooling unoccupied spaces and adjusting heating and cooling settings in rooms in use without impacting the thermal comfort of the occupiers can return energy savings of up to 40% and considerable carbon emissions reductions.
Smarter Panel Heater
Smarter panel heater energy management systems are intelligent heating solutions that use a custom-built network of sensors to remotely manage the dynamic temperature control of individual rooms without impacting the thermal comfort of the occupiers. These are often used to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact in purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) and hotels as well as entire hotel chains or PBSA estates. Smarter panel heater energy management gives facility managers and building owners the ability to control how panel heaters operate in individual rooms, driving energy savings whilst allowing occupiers to enjoy comfortable indoor temperatures.
Why choose an energy management system for your next hotel or student accommodation project?
Using Smarter energy management system on your next hotel or student accommodation project can deliver several advantages:
Puts clients in control of the asset
Smatrer energy management system provides information about the building’s energy use in real time. This allows any anomalies to be investigated and resolved quickly and improves the service to the building occupiers. Data gathering enables trends to be mapped and changes in energy management strategies to be assessed for their effectiveness and cost benefit to the project without impacting the experience of those occupying the rooms.
Reduced energy bills
Smarter energy management system can identify and reduce instances of inefficient energy practices within the building or whole portfolio and optimise HVAC systems to minimise their energy consumption. This leads to lower energy use and lower energy costs.
Sustainability improvement
The reduction in energy that can be achieved by using Smarter energy management system on a project also brings sustainability benefits as it results in a reduction in the operational carbon emissions of a project.
Improves experience for building occupiers
The energy management system by SmarterDM ensures that the indoor environment can be tailored to meet the needs of building occupiers within preset limits that can be controlled by the asset manager and allow for adjustment to match personalised comfort requirements.
Maximise the benefit of time of use tariffs
Time of Use tariffs supply energy at specific times at lower rates. An intelligent energy management system can be used to ensure that the building systems are timed to make best use of these tariffs and react accordingly as incoming energy prices rise or fall.
How does panel heater energy management work?
Smatrer panel heater energy management works by networking panel heaters to a central system along with sensors to detect the temperature of individual rooms.
The SmarterDM intelligent heating system uses wireless monitoring of information. This is carried out through a cloud-based hub via a unique ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band LoRa (Long Range) network meshing private radio network, developed by SmarterDM. This ensures the hotel or student accommodations’ WiFi infrastructure remains unaffected and allows minimum and maximum overrides to be set along with occupancy-based temperature scheduling. It ensures that rooms are not heated if they are unoccupied at specific times during the day, or for prolonged periods.
The smarter panel heaters themselves have features that contribute to better energy management. These include open window detection where a heater will stop heating a room when it detects that a window or door has been left open, as this would otherwise lead to the inefficient use of energy. The thermostatic control is accurate to ±0.2°C to maintain the desired temperature using the optimum energy required.
Data gathered by the SmarterDM system can be used to check panel heater energy performance in real time and any issues requiring maintenance or repair can be quickly resolved. The system can be installed in new build hotels and student accommodation; however, it is ideal for refurbishment as it is non-intrusive and is quick and simple to install.
Smarter panel heater energy management system, can increase energy efficiency as well as reduce heating costs and associated operational carbon emissions for the building.
How does Smarter air conditioning energy management work?
Smarter air conditioning energy management works in hotels and student accommodations by networking in-room environment sensors to new or existing central air conditioning controls.
Smarter air con control solution by SmarterDM connects air conditioning systems to a central control system using our unique cloud based hub and private radio network. This gives building owners the ability to control energy use by setting upper and lower temperature limits. It also ensures that energy is not wasted by detecting when rooms are unoccupied and turning off the air conditioning systems. The reductions in energy made possible by the use of air conditioning management by SmarterDM can lead to significantly lower energy bills and environmental benefits through lower operational carbon emissions.
With the Smarterair conditioning control system, real time energy reporting data is available to give insight into which areas could benefit the most from steps taken to improve energy efficiency. Its comprehensive reporting of faults in the air conditioning systems also allows the asset manager to efficiently plan and carry out reactive and preventative maintenance. For example, timely cleaning of blocked filters can save up to 15% of a building’s heating and cooling energy costs.
