Why smart HVAC controls save energy

Heating, ventilation & air conditioning (HVAC) is often the biggest consumer of energy in any building.

It’s an increasingly tough challenge, with energy prices doubling over the past decade and set to go on rising for a long time to come.

The HVAC system can consume anything between 60-80% of the total energy in hotels, hospitals and residential homes.

Smart HVAC controls, like the GEM wireless intelligent control system, can reduce HVAC energy costs by 30-35%. In a busy hotel environment, we have seen annual savings of £35,000.

Beyond hotels, hospitals and residential homes, the system is ideal for school and university classrooms, student accommodation, meeting rooms, offices, hospitals and retail outlets.

The GEM system does this by sensing whether people are in a room from monitors on the entry door in the room. This information is crucial and allows the heating and ventilation to be efficiently controlled.

• Anyone entering the room triggers the system through the door monitor and it checks whether to change the room status through a complex, but reliable algorithm, giving HVAC control back to the occupant through the thermostat.
• If a room is unoccupied for a period of time, usually 30 minutes, the system takes over and measures the ambient temperature to ensure the space never gets too hot or too cold.
• Because the system works quickly to determine occupancy, it maximises the energy savings as every second counts when controlling HVAC.
• Effectively the system is a mini building management system, intelligently controlling the space linked to actual real time occupancy but at a fraction of the cost of a full BMS.
• Installation times for the wireless system is typically under an hour, which minimises cost, disruption and effect on operations.
• Completing the package, advanced financial modelling tools and savings calculators pinpoint the savings that can be made, as well as the reduction in CO2 emissions.
• Find out about innovative financing options