by Brianna Crandall — June 28, 2017 — Zen Ecosystems and Encycle Corp. recently announced a partnership to bring Encycle’s Swarm Logic offering to the Zen HQ intelligent energy management platform. Zen HQ’s smart thermostats will leverage Swarm Logic energy optimization technology, which will further reduce customers’ electricity and maintenance costs by synchronizing and streamlining the operation of rooftop air-handling units (RTUs) and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment, say the companies.
Zen HQ enables organizations to cut electricity costs through robust controls for HVAC, demand response, lighting and energy consumption.
Zen HQ enables organizations to cut electricity costs through robust controls for HVAC, demand response, lighting and energy consumption. It provides insights and control over multisite commercial energy usage while delivering a fast payback.
Swarm Logic brings cloud-based enhanced demand management capabilities to the Zen HQ offering through additional control over power-hungry RTUs at the site level; it leverages “the elegant simplicity of honey bee-inspired biomimicry” to establish a wireless network among RTUs that enables the units to communicate among themselves autonomously, and to efficiently respond to demand by spreading energy consumption more logically among individual units.
Swarm Logic also measures the power consumption of each RTU, providing the intelligence needed to proactively pinpoint inefficiencies and allow building managers to cut maintenance costs and extend the life of building equipment.
The combined Zen HQ and Encycle energy optimization solution set has been deployed thus far with two Zen HQ customers, National Stores and WSS, California-based retailers with a national presence. National Stores and WSS have already realized a 15-20 percent reduction in peak demand charges, on top of the 15-25 percent energy savings achieved by Zen HQ alone, demonstrating the synergy of the two technologies, say the partners.
Robert Chiste, president and CEO, Encycle, commented:
Swarm Logic is a perfect cloud-based energy management complement to the Zen HQ offering. Integrating Zen HQ’s smart thermostats with our elegant cloud-based EASE (Energy as a Service by Encycle) solution provides Zen HQ customers additional demand management benefits with “set and forget” convenience that can help bring annual energy costs down 15-25 percent. In addition, there’s no need to install additional equipment on site. Energy saving has never been this easy or effective.
Additional features of Zen HQ include:
- An integrated platform to view, control and schedule heating, cooling, lighting, and energy usage across single or multiple sites.
- Partial or full lockout controls that prevent on-site deviations from schedules.
- Demand response capabilities through OpenADR and utility certifications.
James McPhail, CEO, Zen Ecosystems, added:
Zen HQ has proven itself as a provider of unprecedented energy control and ROI for businesses of all sizes and footprints. Zen’s success is largely due to our relentless focus on simplicity. By integrating Swarm Logic technology without disrupting customers, they’re able to further benefit from this “better together” relationship that delivers even greater energy management features, and ultimately, cost savings.
For more information about Zen HQ or Swarm Logic energy optimization solutions, visit the companies’ Web sites.
