January 2025
High-rise buildings have been slow in upgrading to self-operating building controls. This leaves them with few options for dealing with increasing energy prices, resident injuries and mechanical failures.
Most residential building systems – equipment that runs the heating, cooling, water and electric systems – rely on people to manually monitor and adjust them. Other buildings and industries utilize technology for this and, in the process, have become more automated.
In the automotive industry, everything is now controlled by software. Passenger safety, fuel efficiency, drivetrain performance, and how the vehicle handles in response to a driver is software driven. Cars have become safer, more fuel efficient and easier to drive. They produce less pollution.
Comparable advancement are available to those who manage and maintain our residential buildings. We can improve the efficiency of equipment and systems in our buildings. Without software to track temperature changes inside and outside a building in real time, management would need to constantly monitor this. When changes occur, someone would have to physically go to the boiler room to adjust heating or cooling systems in response. This would have to occur in every unit every 15 to 30 minutes, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Not only is this impossible, it would require staffing that does not exist.
Smart software technology can do all this. These systems have become more affordable and are now an achievable standard for building management efficiency. They lower energy use while improving safety and comfort.
These systems adapt to their environment and get smarter, not unlike your smartphone which adapts to your personal use and improves each day. Likewise, streaming services learn your watching preferences and adapt. Your clothes dryer can determine the load you provide and determine optimal drying time to use less energy. Building systems that monitor temperature levels throughout a building along with fresh air intake and outdoor conditions are able to maintain better comfort and healthier conditions than is possible with manual systems.
Self-operating building system controls can lower utility costs by over 20 percent and pay for themselves in under a year. Relying on manual and non-self-operating technology for building systems is a waste of energy and financial resources that is no longer necessary.
