Building Management and Assessment
Integrating with BMS, saving energy and managing IEQ
Modern buildings must balance indoor environmental quality (IEQ) with energy efficiency – this is not simple. Traditional ventilation strategies based on fixed ventilation programs or demand control ventilation (DCV) based on CO₂ concentration are no longer adequate with rising energy costs and more stringent performance standards such as NABERS, WELL, and UK Building Regulations Part F.
Whilst useful, CO₂ based DCV does not account for pollutant loads such as particles (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide, or thermal comfort. As a result, buildings often over-ventilate, wasting energy, or under-ventilate, compromising occupant health.
The BuiltAir© Monitoring Network is a significant advance, providing a wireless multi-parameter affordable network with good data quality to support both energy savings and improved environmental insight. BuiltAir© fundamentally changes the DCV model by also measuring local airflow and zone pressure differences to provide the data to also optimise inter-zone ventilation. Information that is not available elsewhere.
BACNet interfacing will be available soon.
Comparing BuiltAir with other indoor air monitors
Many competing systems, such as basic IAQ monitors or BMS-integrated sensors, typically focus on temperature, humidity, and CO₂. Even more advanced systems do not integrate airflow, accurate pressure and radiant temperature, which are critical for true environmental assessment with thermal comfort. BuiltAir differentiates by simultaneously monitoring multiple parameters:
- Particles (PM1, PM2.5, PM10)
- Temperature (both ambient and radiant)
- Relative humidity (both %RH and dewpoint)
- Airflow (both X and Y axes to 0.01 m/s)
- Noise (dBA and dBC)
- Light levels (optical and W/m2)
- Equivalent TVOCs (both AQI and equivalent ppb)
- NO₂ with an 4-electrode electrochemical cell
- Accurate barometric pressure
- WBGT, HI and Equivalent Temperature: thermal comfort indices
Providing the data to maintain air quality and thermal comfort
- Data to optimise DCV from multiple pollutants across multiple zones
- Airflow information to prevent excessive or poor ventilation
- Inter-zone infiltration / exfiltration data to determine each zone’s true ventilation requirement
Calculating energy savings
Mechanically ventilated systems can account for 10–40% of HVAC energy.
Multi-parameter DCV (linked with BuiltAir): can achieve 20–40% savings, particularly in complex or high-load environments.
Airflow-monitored local ventilation can add an additional 5–15% savings by reducing air dispersion inefficiencies.
In total, buildings using BuiltAir within a BMS framework could realistically achieve 25–50% reduction in ventilation-related energy consumption.
The exact energy reduction depends on building type and insulation, occupancy density and activities, but the uplift over traditional systems is significant.
Building Certification
New buildings strive for WELL or NAYBORS certification. The includes building insulation, choice of materials and building infrastructure, use of water, occupancy and other factors, and includes audited building performance. Auditing requires monitors certified to CEN, ASTM or ISO standards or RESET approved. BuiltAir Monitor dataquality meets WELL requirements and RESET approval is underway.
In summary
BuiltAir represents a shift from simplistic, proxy-based ventilation control to a data-rich, performance-driven approach. By incorporating airflow and high precision pressure measurements, along with a comprehensive set of environmental parameters, BuiltAir enables accurate, real-time optimisation of ventilation systems with superior insight, greater flexibility and significantly higher energy savings- particularly when integrated into a BMS.