by Shane Henson — March 26, 2012—Improving a building’s performance, especially when it comes to reducing energy costs, is always on a facilities manager’s mind. Now with a new offering from Aircuity, Aircuity Advisor Services, facilities managers can achieve significant energy savings and superior indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and deliver a return on investment of less than two years, says the company.
Advisor is comprised of four tools, each of which supplies a unique perspective on a building’s performance. The tools were developed to be used independently or together to provide insight and intelligence about a facility’s IEQ and airside energy consumption.
The Dashboard tool or data visualization within Advisor consists of a pallet of “Dashblock Analytics” that provide the ability to quickly identify events and trends for any parameter whether measured directly or as an integrated value. Hundreds of datapoints provided by the OptiNet system are analyzed to create a graphical representation of ventilation and IEQ parameters. The information displayed in each dashblock is color coded to quickly identify anomalies in the building’s performance. Users can “drag and drop” dashblocks onto their screen to create custom views specific to their job requirements.
Smart Notifications are event-driven e-mails that are sent based on the severity, duration, or frequency of ventilation or IEQ anomalies. Routine events are filtered out so the recipient can focus on real issues throughout the building. Also, notifications are linked directly to the dashblock illustrating the event graphically for a faster resolution.
Summary Reports are distributed on a weekly or monthly basis and represent a “snapshot” of the building’s ventilation and IEQ performance. The report compares the building’s current ventilation performance to performance for the previous period. Each report is color coded to easily identify energy or IEQ issues and help prioritize areas needing more focus.
Once an issue has been identified, users can dive in further to explore it using the Data Graphing and Exporting tool. This comprehensive tool allows users to evaluate all measured, monitored and calculated parameters over any period of time. Multiple test areas can be compared and graphs can be saved, copied, printed or exported into Excel.
“Advisor is a terrific enhancement to our offering because it gives our customers the ability to know how much energy they are saving at any given time while helping to identify issues that impact their airside energy consumption,” says Chuck McKinney, vice president of marketing for Aircuity. “Simply put, Advisor gives our customers the ability to consistently maintain their energy savings entitlement and provide a high quality indoor environment for building occupants.”
