If you’re like most building owners, these cost savings sound pretty good. So how can you implement effective energy management in your building? Here are three strategies.

(1) Consider an economizer. When the weather conditions outside (temperature and humidity levels) are mild, using an economizer lowers energy costs by cooling the building with outside air, rather than cranking up your refrigeration system to cool recirculated air. Depending on the local climate and the cooling loads in your building, an optimized economizer can slash 10% from your total energy consumption.

(2) Control the system with Variable Frequency Drives. A Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) governs your system in a similar way to someone driving a car while trying to save on gas. When you want to reduce speed in a car, the most efficient strategy is to take your foot off the gas and change to a lower gear, rather than going full speed and then applying the brake. The same principle applies to your energy system. Based on the heating or cooling load, VFD’s can adapt on the fly, saving you energy.

(3) Control ventilation based on demand. While outdoor air requirements must conform to ASHRAE Standard 62-99, designers traditionally believed that outdoor air quantity must be based on maximum design occupancy. Since occupant loads don’t generally stay at the highest level all day long, there’s a better benchmark that produces significant energy savings. When occupancy levels fall below the maximum, use carbon monoxide monitoring and control to find the proper ventilation rate, while still meeting the ASHRAE Standard.

These three effective energy management solutions offer realistic payback periods and will bring you cost savings for many years to come.

That’s why you might want to consider a few ways to increase the efficiency of your illumination system through lighting controls. Here are a few recommendations.

(1) Simple time scheduling. If your building plan includes large, open office areas, lights can be switched on and off at fixed hours of the day. These controls include manual overrides and can also be designed so that lights are turned on manually when the first occupants arrive and turned off at a fixed time following close of business.

(2) Bi-level switching for overhead lighting. In rooms or areas that involve meetings or less visually demanding tasks, people may prefer lower levels of overhead lighting, especially when daylight is available. Bi-level control allows manual control, meaning that separate lamps in a fixture can be operated independently for energy savings.

(3) Dimming: Manual and automatic. Dimming, along with energy savings can be achieved through manual controls – think wall-mounted or wireless remotes, or via automatic daylight dimming, called “daylighting.” Areas or offices near windows are good candidates for daylighting controls, which use a light sensor to measure the amount of illumination, adjusting the overhead light output accordingly.

By incorporating one or more of these building lighting control strategies, you’ll soon reap the benefits of lower electric usage.

For example, the current price to condition and move one cubic foot per minute (CFM) of air in a 100 percent exhaust system runs from $5 to $8 annually, depending on the region of the country. And wasting just 10,000 CFM can mean as much as $80,000 in additional utility costs.

That’s why it’s important to invest in the correct control system for the job. By choosing the most efficient airflow control system for your facility, your payback period will be shorter and you’ll maintain those savings for the life of the system.

Here are some of the ways you can create efficiencies:

(1) Lowering the air change rates depending on realtime air quality.
(2) Recirculating exhaust air safely.
(3) Shutting off the exhaust system of unused devices.
(4) Eliminating the wasted energy of unoccupied fume hoods.
(5) Incorporating efficient settings for unoccupied buildings.
(6) Resetting fan static pressure based on changing (dynamic) conditions.

Depending on the type of room or area, and the daily usage of the space, one or more of these solutions can be incorporated into the design. And along with effective working areas, you’ll see a definite return on your investment, usually within one or two years.

It helps keep people cool in the summer. It provides a barrier against extreme weather conditions in the winter months. And it keeps people healthy and safe by monitoring and handling levels of naturally occurring pollutants throughout the building.

But with the complicated systems of today, it can be difficult to maintain control of hundreds of interrelated systems without computer assistance. That’s where Direct Digital Control (DDC) systems come in.

Today’s standard for monitoring indoor environmental conditions, DDC systems evaluate inputs like temperature and humidity levels, and send outputs that control heating valves and regulate outside air. And with the proper design parameters in your structure, DDC systems will save you money via reduced energy costs. Here are three benefits of using DDC for your HVAC system.

(1) Central monitoring and control. With DDC systems, your operators can monitor and change system operations instantly, from one central location.

(2) More accurate energy management. DDC systems use electronic rather than pneumatic sensors, enabling higher degrees of accuracy with temperature control, leading to significant energy savings.

(3) Improved data analytics. As a building operator, you’re always looking for data that can help you streamline building systems for optimal performance and efficiency. DDC systems include data management and analysis tools that show you trends for critical or problem areas and help you make future improvements.

Direct digital control systems give you the data and the immediate access you need to keep your HVAC systems running at the highest level. And the good news? That means the people in your building will be happy, too.

The Certificate of Recognition program or COR™indicates a company has fully implemented a safety and health program meeting national standards. An occupational health and safety accreditation program, COR™offers industry employers an effective management system with the goal of reducing accidents and injuries along with the human and financial costs associated with those events.

In the province of Manitoba, the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba (CSAM), has the authority to grant COR™ Certification, ensuring that every organization meets the national standard. There’s a minimum score of 50% in each element, and an overall audit score of 80% that must be achieved for certification.

Many projects across Canada, both public and private, frequently require COR™ Certification of their vendors as a pre-qualification for bidding or as a condition of the final contract.

At BSD Solutions, we’re proud to add our name to the list of COR ™ Certified companies, showing that we’ve fully implemented all 14 elements of the safety program, and have passed successful audits by the CSAM and independent auditors.

(1) Accurately track employee time and attendance. Time clocks are passe with an access control system. Each employee carries a card with a unique code that can easily be deactivated if lost or stolen. And that means that keys are a thing of the past, too.

(2) Trigger new events with just a swipe. Swiping a card gains access for an employee, but there’s no need to stop there. That same swipe might signal the system to turn on lighting, enable a mechanical door opener, or tell a CCTV camera to focus on that entryway.

(3) Log all entrances and exits. When valuable equipment and proprietary information sit behind locked doors, it’s crucial that you know who has come and gone from those areas. With access control, every time a card is presented by someone, a log records the attempt, the time, and whether or not access was granted.

(4) Schedule locking and unlocking of entranceways. Instead of relying on people for these mundane tasks, the building access control system can be programmed to ensure that doors are open or closed exactly when you want them to be.

Get control of the movement of both employees and guests through your building every second of the day and night by installing an access control system.

And while each of these systems is effectively separate from the others in the building, the process of integrating them is what creates an intelligent building. One that provides a comfortable and safe environment for people who go inside each day. One that conserves key energy resources, like water and electricity. One that gives occupants control over their surroundings.

That’s what building system design is all about. It’s the process of building automation and systems integration, with the goal of giving you easy access to and control of every system in that building.

Imagine sitting in your office and without leaving your chair, raising and lowering temperature levels, adjusting lighting, repositioning the blinds on your windows, viewing security cameras, even checking on electrical outages.

Building system design lets you do all of those things. Even when the controls for different parts of the structure speak different languages or operate using different protocols. A good building systems design contractor knows the ins and outs of every control system on the market and will help optimize yours for the best possible results.

Buildings, large and small, include many systems that must be interwoven to keep the structure running efficiently, safely, and comfortably for the people who come inside every day and night. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Alarms. Electrical systems. Closed-circuit television cameras. Lighting. Even plumbing.

So, while each system created for a structure is designed and optimized individually, there is often no move to ensure that all parts mesh together to produce an entire building that runs effectively, day after day.

That’s where building automation comes in. Specially designed devices are deployed throughout the structure to monitor and control electronic and mechanical systems and keep them working in concert.

And building automation goals like the following are accomplished:

(1) Holding the building climate within a specified temperature range.
(2) Providing lighting based on a given occupancy schedule.
(3) Constant monitoring of system performance, including device failures when they happen.
(4) Immediate notifications to engineering or maintenance staff, regarding critical problems within building systems.

Building automation gives building owners and managers constant feedback on the state of electronic and mechanical systems in the structure. That means more ways to save on operation and energy costs while still keeping everyone inside happy.

BACNet. LON. Modbus. N2. Building systems operate using the rules set down by these different data communication protocols. These rules cover requests within the system such as defining a fan operating system, sending a pump status alarm, or asking for the value of a temperature at any given time.

But if there’s no common connection, communication can be limited or even cut off all together. And when different building systems can’t talk to each other, the owners and managers won’t get the performance information and feedback needed to keep everything running at a high level.

Since you may not be able to choose which protocols are used by the components you select, you need a way to ensure that each system can communicate with the others, and provide data in a timely fashion. That’s why building system integration is so important.

Building system integration ensures that every system, from the largest to the smallest, connects and exchanges important data seamlessly. Starting on the very first day of operation.

So regardless of the different components you choose, there’s a building system integration solution that will keep the lines of communication open. And your structure running efficiently and effectively from top to bottom.

The following organizations are located in Manitoba and offer fully accredited programs within the applied science and engineering fields.

• Assiniboine Community College
• Manitoba Hydro
• Red River College
• University College of the North