Many people have become accustomed to having information at their fingertips in modern day society. It is now estimated that 3 billion people are connected to Internet enabled devices around the world and in the past few years, advances in technology and the rise of cloud computing have helped people to stay connected either in the workplace or at home. Many technologies have harnessed this inter-connectivity to help increase productivity in the workplace or to enrich our lives at home.
Outside the workplace, more and more people are taking control of their home through the adoption of smart-home devices. Research firm IHS Technology predicted that by 2018, people will have installed 45 million smart-home services. People are interacting with these devices to enhance their lives and the success of these devices depends upon giving the right information to people, in a way that is useful to them.
The growth of Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) and automatic controls used for monitoring and control of the built environment are also helping people to begin to come to grips with their buildings as we enter the age of smart-buildings. A report by Memoori, a market research firm in the U.K., estimates that the size of the world market for BEMS and automatic controls in commercial and industrial buildings was $ 13.39 billion in 2011. Despite the massive growth in these intelligent systems, the information gathered by these systems is often underutilized and sometimes inaccessible to many people. Cumbersome interfaces and complex tools have also damaged the reputation of these systems and acted as a barrier to people unlocking the treasure troves of information collected.
Energy efficiency opportunities are also waiting to be uncovered by successfully interfacing with existing buildings and tapping into the valuable information collected by intelligent systems and smart-building devices. In the EU, this represents a massive opportunity, where currently, it is estimated that 40% of total final energy consumption comes from buildings.
People can be overcome with too much information, they can get lost and become frustrated using current interfaces which are often too complex. The opportunity exists for massive energy efficiency improvements in buildings and people are willing to save energy, they just need the right technology to help them realise savings.
What if more and more people could access this information without the need to go through a clunky interface? What if you had a system that could do the hard work for you and draw your attention to relevant pieces of information about your buildings performance? What about receiving information or notifications to let you know that there is an unusual level of energy consumption occurring right now that needs to be investigated and corrected? Wouldn’t it be cool to check in on your building even when you are not there? Imagine having all this information not only at your finger tips but having relevant information pushed to you when you need it and at a time that suits.
Wattics Sentinel provides just that. Our software engine can interface with most BEMS and energy monitoring systems to give you the information that is useful to you. Sentinel can allow you to investigate building performance through not only our own Messenger Dashboard but with other ones too.
Wattics Sentinel uses self-learning technology to analyse the energy consumption of your building and/or its equipment. It builds up a memory of your energy use patterns and will learn the good and bad energy consumption behaviours of your building.
How does Sentinel actually work?
Metering Data Collection –
Sentinel needs data and can work with data outputs from most existing metering systems. Meter agnosticity allows for full software integration within solutions from Utilities, Grid Operators and Technology vendors, and helps enhance existing product range with new functionalities to keep current clientele and explore new markets.
Software Engine Learning Phase –
Our energy analytics software engine will analyse data streams from as many meters as necessary, learn energy use patterns and recognise good and bad energy consumption within your building down to circuit level depending on the metering systems in place.
Pushes Relevant Notifications –
Receive informative notifications by email or sms about your building energy performance and energy events. In real time, you will be made aware of abnormally high or low energy use. When needed, you will be made aware about performance against energy targets and how close you are to using up your energy budget. Notifications can also be delivered through our intuitive events feed on the homepage of the energy monitoring dashboard.
Prompts you to take action –
Information on your building energy performance is pushed to you saving you the time needed to trawl through energy data by yourself. Interesting energy events can be investigated easily as you are guided to the appropriate section of the Messenger Dashboard to drill down in further detail.
Sentinel will also allow you to explore possible reasons for changes in building energy performance and help you to go one step further with valuable energy saving tips.
