Page 28 - EngineerIT May 2022

AUTOMATION

• Economics – Without the right financial incentives, it is very difficult to implement to buildings, with 28% of the emissions
change. Money is value and there is value to be gained from buildings by making being contributed by the running and
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them intelligent. At first, however, capital investments are needed before the maintenance of the buildings alone.
savings can be harvested. Innovative financing models will be needed to allow The alarming estimate is that 50% of
building owners to upgrade their buildings to intelligent buildings. the energy currently used by buildings
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is wasted. The energy consumption
These four themes can be addressed through building automation. Today, building and, in turn, CO 2 emissions in buildings
automation is largely based on closed and siloed systems working in isolation to have barely flattened off in recent years,
perform their function without influence or actuation into other systems. In a showing that with more buildings due
building, these systems are the HVAC, lighting, access control, fire alarm, elevators to come online, the impact of buildings
and occupancy detection to mention a few. Siloed systems are largely inefficient, on the environment will only get worse
contributing to a larger carbon footprint. unless energy efficient is improved.
In the next sections, we will discuss the big macro trends driving the shift to Many influential think tanks such
intelligent buildings and the key benefits that can be derived from investing in as the United Nations Environment
intelligent building technology. Programme and the World Bank are
now focusing on policies for improving
Why do we need intelligent buildings? energy efficiency in buildings, providing
In figure 1 we have what is called the funnel of influence. It is a rough outline of the incentives to invest in sustainable and
ecosystem for how the need for intelligent buildings is driven in the modern world. intelligent buildings, and retrofitting
First, we start with the macro trends of the world, which are urbanisation and climate old buildings to meet current EU
change. sustainability standards.
Urbanisation is the migration of the world’s population from rural areas to The world’s governments, bound
urban areas such as cities. People move to cities for a better way of life. Cities offer by their obligations to tackle climate
employment prospects as well as better access to goods, services, healthcare and change, are starting to implement
education. Population growth also contributes to urbanisation and it’s estimated that these suggested policies. The EU as
>65% of the world’s population will live in an urban environment by 2050. It is predicted part of their Green Deal policy is now
that the global building floor space will double by 2060, equivalent to adding an extra providing funding for a large retrofit
New York to the world every month for 40 years. 2 program. There are approximately 220
Climate change is the change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular million buildings in the EU, 85% of which
a change apparent from the mid to late 20 century onward; it has been attributed were built before 2001; 90% of existing
th
largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by using fossil buildings will still be standing by 2050,
fuels. The IEA estimates 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed providing a large base for retrofitting.

Figure 1. The funnel of influence for intelligent buildings.

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