Insurance companies require boilers to be serviced annually in order to keep warranty, but they must be monitored daily. This is because commercial boilers are especially prone to wear and tear and thereby failure.
Research shows that HVAC systems account for 90% of the energy consumption in commercial buildings, meaning there is a lot of demand put on these systems which makes continuous maintenance a must.
The feeling of dread for appliances breaking down unexpectedly could be vanished by predicting life spans of the assets, meaning no more boilers breaking down last minute and no more unexpected outflows of money on emergency maintenance.
No time to do maintenance? No problem.
Maintenance in commercial buildings is a legal requirement which means regular monitoring is a must, each time an external member is called out that is more costs added to the business. Technological solutions such as utilising IoT can improve the maintenance process in order to prevent assets from breaking down unexpectantly and interfering with operations in the facility, this is done by analysing data on the asset’s health.
This can be achieved by connecting sensors to the energy straining assets to monitor their performance by looking into factors such as temperature and humidity levels. The sensors communicate the asset data to our central platform in real-time. Our platform utilises specially developed machine learning algorithms to form usage patterns and determine base levels.
These help provide insight and analysis over individual assets which helps to identify anomalies over time. Once an anomaly has been detected alerts in real-time are sent to the relevant maintenances member so they can go and investigate before the asset breaks down. This allows for predictive maintenance schedule to be formed.
Another key benefit is that the catalogue of information can be used to predict the lifespan of assets and adjust these in real-time according to the data being gathered! This technology vastly increases visibility from estate-wide to microscopic scale to track inefficiency. Inefficiency is an indication that assets are not running at their full potential, such as the HVAC system producing excessive heat wastage which could indicate that there is a problem with the overall asset.
Asset health, helping with energy efficiency
Aside from the maintenance schedule benefits, consistently monitoring asset health enables building managers to understand how efficient their location and assets are.
Energy efficiency should be a focus for businesses, especially when considering that if commercial buildings invest in better heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment along with energy management, a staggering £6 billion in the UK alone could be delivered in cost saving by 2030.
Lighting is a large energy-wasting asset especially when it is reported that by continuing to use traditional lighting, 80% of the energy supplied to the bulbs generates heat whilst only 20% provides light! But if switching to more energy-efficient lighting as much as 80% is used to produce light and only 20% is given off as heat. Our solution gathers data that identifies excessive usage of lighting, and the Hark Platform has the potential to automatically control lights depending on chosen factors such as the natural light levels coming into the building.
Replacing old cast boilers with newer models can improve the overall efficiency from 70% to 98%. It is typical that in commercial buildings you can find the thermostats turned up and left to heat the entire building despite some rooms not even being occupied meaning that energy waste is being consistently generated by not using heating appliances effectively.
Our energy monitoring tool highlights a range of inefficiencies, for example when heating is being overused in unoccupied buildings or rooms.
Reacting to asset failures can be costly. But in a significant number of cases, damage can be pre-empted with transparent, visible and comprehensible information about equipment and assets. For large or small estates, managing assets becomes a reactive challenge, particularly in the attempt to prevent failures. The Hark Platform is a proactive management tool that can be used to visualise and understand asset performance, securely, from anywhere in the world, with a twist. Coupled with dashboards, visualisation tools and Machine Learning, the Hark Platform can be used to proactively plan, maintain and predict failures or successes in an asset’s performance
If you would like to increase yield; predict failures; reduce costs, then get in touch!
