A Better Alternative to Running Building Systems 24-7

A lot of buildings today run 24-7, even though they are unoccupied at night. But with energy costs making up a significant portion of operating costs, it makes sense for building operators to consider alternatives.

Do central building systems need to be operating 24-7? Often times they do not. Building consolidation strategies and smaller dedicated systems are among the options that could provide a very attractive return on investment.

Looking at the varying building loads due to adjustments in building use and occupancy, we can create control strategies that optimize building systems and minimize excessive run-hours of costly central system components. Did you know that on the average it costs five times as much to distribute air and water via fans and pumps throughout a building than it does to bring air and water to design temperatures with boilers and chillers?

Another factor that should have continual visibility is scheduling. Operators typically override the normal schedules to accommodate special events and changes in event locations within the building. These overrides can be temporary, or ongoing, and are sometimes overlooked – until a review of a utility bill that provides the bad news.  Seasonal schedules – including shifts to and from daylight savings time – can impact not only heating and cooling but ventilation, lighting and other system components and fixtures.

To sustainably improve building performance requires a view into real-time performance readings and baseline comparisons. Analysis via real time data and a means of timely response to anomalies avoids delays in optimizing operational parameters.

That's the exact challenge that Trane set out to solve during the development of Trane Intelligent Services (TIS). Trane’s proprietary operational analytics and OEM knowledge base effectively interpret and act upon data to continuously optimize the performance of critical building systems. TIS features three levels of service options from simple alarm notification, to active monitoring – providing diagnostic options -- to building performance – Trane’s premier level to address discovered operating exceptions.

The TIS Building Performance offering helps customers to maximize the value of investment they have made in building infrastructure by delivering upon Trane brand by meeting “original design performance.”

Often times a building's use and occupancy change from original building design requirements and systems may no longer deliver optimal performance or configure correctly. Trane TIS Building Performance is an ideal solution to help operators of these buildings continually operate at peak performance.