Data Analytics & Smart Building Science Articles | Buildings IOT Blog

Implementing fault detection in your building can have many benefits. For example, more than 30% of the energy consumed by commercial buildings in the US is derived from HVAC systems. A large portion of that energy is wasted due to a lack of efficiency. The identification of faults within HVAC systems can reduce energy consumption by 5-15%. That’s a huge amount of savings just from optimizing one component of your building.

However, many buildings have very rigid, rule-based fault detection systems in place. This is problematic because a simple system such as this is only able to identify issues within specific sets of conditions. This places limitations on what types of issues can be identified and the extent to which maintenance can be performed.

The utilization of an intelligent fault detection system can significantly impact not only your energy consumption but also your ROI by identifying anomalies and challenges that affect the health and lifetime of individual components and entire systems. By ensuring that your fault detection and diagnostics are backed by an intelligent solution, you’ll be sure to unlock the full potential of your savings, maintenance, and occupant comfort.

The return on investment (ROI) of a commercial building reflects the profitability of facility investment. But ROI isn’t just about how much money an investment saves. It must also take into account how improvements impact occupant satisfaction, tenant retention, lease rates, and sales price.

The fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) features in building analytics software are powerful tools to eliminate energy waste and reduce costs. A 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Smart Energy Analytics Campaign found that FDD produces a median energy savings of 9%. In commercial properties and public buildings, this adds up to significant savings.

More than 30% of the energy consumed in the United States each year can be attributed to HVAC systems in buildings. And much of that energy is likely wasted because most of those systems don’t work as efficiently as they could. Optimizing HVAC systems and fixing faults could reduce overall energy consumption by 5-15%.