Section: I
CHALLENGE
1385 N. McDowell presented several HVAC design challenges to drive adequate energy and service savings. Original design incorporated parallel air distribution and relatively new equipment – Both counter-productive to degradation and energy savings. Engineering staff at Basin-Street properties were looking to achieve maximum savings with an emphasis on energy reduction in a 52k sq. ft. building already operating with high-efficiency standards.
OBJECTIVE
Integrate with the existing building systems to generate 30-40% HVAC energy savings and reduce service calls without upgrading or replacing equipment.
Section: II
BUILDING AUDIT & STRATEGY
After our virtual engineer Hank started managing the building, we worked closely with Basin-Street’s engineering department to implement optimizations inline with current comfort requirements.
Hank was able to discover and quantify over 2,492 different equipment alarms in the first three weeks which were then validated by our staff. After we worked with Basin-Street to establish an optimization path that would improve existing comfort standards, lower service calls and generate more than 30% in HVAC energy savings – All utilizing Hank to autonomously manage equipment operation!
Section: III
BUILDING MANAGEMENT
Before we could optimize the system and add Hank to the building, we took a bottom-up, holistic approach to re-engineering how the HVAC was operating in the building. This required comprehensive ASHRAE Title-24 design of everything from zone setpoints to large equipment minimum and maximum operating tolerances. Upon returning the equipment to ideal operating conditions, we onboarded Hank who used his AI to select the lowest operating conditions for each unit – All while maintaining comfort within a 0.5° F tolerance!
Autonomous Calibration & Repairs
Our virtual engineer Hank exceeded our expectations when managing every HVAC unit in the building. Not only did Hank manage equipment at minimal operating cost, he was able to find and autonomously repair 6-different, repetitive HVAC software issues. The charts show Hank learning the flow setpoint for VAV 1-6 in the building and automatically adjusting the setpoint to reverse sub-cooling in the space.
Scheduling & Tenant Billing
We’ve built Optimal Building Scheduling algorithms into Hank’s AI, letting him learn how each zone group achieves comfortable temperatures in relation to key predictor variables like adjacent group temperatures and outside air – Reducing starting times by almost 68% within ASHRAE comfort tolerances. Hank was also able to capture off-hours zone usage and report key analytics including total cost and start/end times.
Intelligent Optimization
Our virtual engineer Hank correlated over 300 points and 32,000 historical archives into his AI to determine lowest cost of operation for all 56-different HVAC units. Every minute, Hank forecasted thousands of different operating conditions for each unit and autonomously selected the most economical operating conditions – All leading to comprehensive energy reduction across the entire building without sacrificing tenant comfort.
Section: IV
LESSONS LEARNED
The 1385 N. McDowell building presented several design and management challenges we had to overcome to achieve success. Parallel air handlers serve each air manifold for each floor simultaneously; Ultimately eliminating degradation disparities between units but requiring advanced optimization strategies to achieve savings.
Basin-Street also employs their own engineering staff to manage building HVAC systems and respond to service calls. Our service proved to be cash-flow positive solely on energy savings, although we still reduced HVAC-related service calls by 60% and unit degradation by 32% – Extending average equipment life nearly 6-years!
Section: V
RESULTS
Approaching savings from a software-only perspective and implementing our virtual engineer Hank yielded 33% HVAC energy savings with corresponding equipment degradation reduction – A total savings of ~$13,000 annually. Average zone temperature deviation from setpoint was reduced from 1.8°F to ~0.5°F resulting in 3-fewer HVAC-related service calls per month or $900.00 estimated savings. We were able to successfully deploy an ecosystem between ourselves, the HVAC service provider and end user fueled by cost-based, actionable intelligence – Driving 200% more communications between parties and reducing time-to-solution by 75%.
$1,722
MONTHLY SAVINGS
$147,000
INCREASED
ASSET VALUE
3
FEWER SERVICE
CALLS PER MONTH
CARBON FOOTPRINT
HOMES POWERED
BARRELS OIL SAVED
ACRES FORREST SAVED