Smarter Building Maintenance
The increasing need for smarter and more efficient ways to maintain buildings has driven innovation and research, creating huge benefits for facilities managers in terms of energy savings, reduced operational cost and optimised space utilisation.
By providing facilities managers with systems that help to manage energy usage and a reduction in realistic running costs – based on data and occupancy monitoring – buildings are both more sustainable and yielding greater operational efficiencies.
Interoperability and data-driven insights are at the heart of these systems. For example, the integration of building management systems from HVAC, air quality, lighting, security, occupancy monitoring, emergency lighting testing protocols into a single control system enhances and unifies maintenance and management. Detailed visibility of each discreet system is achieved via unprecedented data collection and real-time insights, enabled through these smart systems.
The creation of enterprise-level, multi-tenant and multi-site, cloud-connected management systems offer advanced lighting control and monitoring solutions for large-scale lighting installations. Every luminaire becomes a digital data point, allowing for in-depth monitoring, reporting and predictive maintenance by the facilities management team.
Creating healthier and more productive workspaces requires continuous monitoring of air quality, temperature, humidity and lux levels. Connected smart sensors can collect a variety of space and environmental metrics data, providing facility managers with real-time and historical insights about the space.
Building insights and the tracking of assets can facilitate the better management and optimisation of space in the building, resulting in the elimination of inefficiencies. With the integration of IoT-enabled smart systems, achieving operational efficiency and significant energy savings becomes straightforward through automated control of lighting, temperature, and air quality based on occupancy levels. Additionally, the implementation of occupancy sensors that activate HVAC and lighting systems as needed contributes to both energy and cost savings.
IoT data analytics empower facility managers to monitor building operations in real-time, improve maintenance practices, optimize energy usage, enhance space utilisation, strengthen security measures, enable predictive decision-making, achieve cost savings, and ensure compliance with regulations.
The ability to manage and automate lighting systems maximises occupancy comfort and energy efficiency, further streamlining building maintenance.
Predictive maintenance is also a key part of what can now be termed modern facilities management. This covers everything from battery life, luminaire health and life expectancy, temperature monitoring to prevent premature burnout, and the detection of other potential failures – before they happen.
Such intelligence has not just spared companies from costly downtime and expensive callout charges; it has also empowered facilities managers with predictive maintenance capabilities. This allows them to exercise full autonomy and adjust their workloads according to the requirements of the systems under their management.
Being able to efficiently plan, execute, monitor and report on the status of emergency lighting systems is another way for facilities managers to proactively manage and maintain a key system in the building.
The frequency at which emergency lighting is tested can vary depending on system type (i.e. maintained emergency lighting or non-maintained), but it should be tested monthly via a flick test, as well as the annual ‘full duration’ test, stipulated by the 5266-1 regulation. Full EML lighting discharge tests can take up to six hours per circuit – a significant time and cost investment, particularly if an external contractor is required.
The availability of DALI-based automated, wireless emergency self-testing solutions conform to the IEC 62386-202 standard, providing facilities managers with the peace of mind that they are compliant with current regulations, while saving huge amounts of budget and time.
For example, instead of manually inspecting each emergency light fixture, a wireless cloud based connected platform can remotely monitor the status of all lights in real-time, detecting any faults or failures instantly. This reduces the need for regular physical inspections, saving both time and labour costs. Wireless systems like this also have the capability to schedule both functional and duration tests for DALI emergency lights.
By utilising these self-testing solutions, managers are able to eliminate manual testing, streamlining the process with automated scheduling and reporting. These solutions also allow the scheduling of all functional and duration tests with total convenience, from the comfort of a desktop.
Such functionality also allows for pinpoint accuracy on the location of system faults, through floorplan visualiser and comprehensive reports and archiving capabilities, providing an increased layer of insights for building managers and significantly reduce running costs in emergency light testing by automating and streamlining the process.
By identifying and addressing issues promptly, there is an improvement in overall safety, ultimately leading to lower operational expenses in the long term.
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