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Diagram of Feedback Solutions system for HVAC optimization
CategoriesSustainable News Zero Energy Homes

Occupancy Intelligence for Energy Savings

By Zarkon Group,
Diagram of Feedback Solutions system for HVAC optimization

Approximately 28% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the operations of buildings. And heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems alone contribute to 40% of the average commercial building’s energy consumption. More and more, high performance buildings are turning to data to curb energy use with cost-effective, easy-to-implement energy conservation measures. Feedback Solutions uses third-party people counting sensors, with a patented software platform, to optimize ventilation rates seamlessly, in real-time, based on actual occupant demand.

Continuously calculating highly accurate occupant counts within each HVAC zone in a building, Feedback Solutions communicates occupancy to the existing building automation system (via BACnet, cloud platform, or DDC controller). Then real-time adjustments can reduce the HVAC-related energy consumption by as much as 40%. This can save money, significantly reduce carbon emissions, and result in less wear and tear on critical HVAC equipment—all while meeting important ASHRAE standards for maintaining occupant health and comfort.

Feedback Solutions has completed multiple successful installations for universities (New York University), commercial landlords (Manulife Financial/John Hancock), and progressive municipalities throughout the US. This technology also attracts significant incentives from a number of utility companies. For example, Con Edison recently approved an incentive application—covering 50% of the project costs—implementing Feedback Solutions in a large New York library building.

Diagram of Feedback Solutions system for HVAC optimization

Retrofit solution

The over-ventilation of campus, municipal, and commercial buildings is both a prevalent and longstanding issue. The results achieved with Feedback Solutions tools produce compelling payback periods and ROIs for organizations seeking immediate greenhouse gas reductions without doing deep retrofits.

A building’s automation system is normally designed to bring in outside air, which it then heats or cools and circulates, based on the number of people in an HVAC zone. In the absence of accurate real-time occupant counts, the building automation system typically brings in the amount of outside air assuming “full” occupancy. This is almost never the case (even before the introduction of new trends like the hybrid back to work model).

As occupancy goes up and down in a zone over the course of a day, Feedback Solutions cues an automatic ventilation response. The significant savings and emissions reduction are produced by both fan energy reduction and thermal conservation. At the same time, Feedback Solutions also provides for a data-driven indoor air quality strategy that prevents under-ventilation.

How Feedback works

  1. Feedback selects the most appropriate and cost-effective people-counting sensors according to site conditions at the building.
  2. Next steps include hardware installation, appropriate zone creation, and assurance of the accuracy of the data. (Feedback is able to produce highly accurate real-time occupant counts, even where there are multiple entrances and exits, via their proprietary intelligent algorithm running on an Intel IoT edge device.)
  3. Zoned, real-time occupant counts are then delivered to the building automation system. Then once the sequence of operations has been defined, the HVAC equipment is optimized automatically, and seamlessly. This patented solution integrates easily with all the major building management systems.

Screenshots of Feedback Solutions dashboard showing occupancy patters as value-added info

Cleantech and proptech converge

The space utilization data that Feedback Solutions creates, can also be used to inform numerous operational decisions. Feedback provides customers with up to 10 customized reports—including analytics such as a comparison of peak occupancy over the course of a day, week, or month—providing visibility to how many people use a given facility and when. Thus, operations, security, marketing, and planning groups within a campus, municipality, or commercial real estate portfolio gain valuable insights custom to their operations.

USGBC-LA Net Zero Accelerator

Feedback Solutions joined the 2023 cohort of the Net Zero Accelerator (NZA), to benefit from learning from subject matter experts in marketing, business development, and networking. The NZA, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council–Los Angeles (USGBC-LA), focuses on piloting projects in real-world, trackable implementations, to drive measurable adoption of net zero solutions, today.

Since its founding in 2018, the accelerator has guided the success of 85 growth-stage companies in the cleantech and proptech space across the US and Canada. The program bridges the gap between net zero building policy and current technologies in use in both commercial and affordable housing sectors. The NZA builds awareness of viable solutions and market-ready innovations through marketing, media, events, and curated networking. Then shepherds the tech to market through onsite pilots with committed green building leaders, accelerating scaled adoption. The goal? Make net zero carbon, energy, water, and waste a reality for Los Angeles and beyond.

The author:

As Chief Marketing Officer of Feedback Solutions, Karen Smith focuses on helping facility operators understand and evaluate Feedback’s hardware-enabled software platform. Smith has extensive experience in the commercial real estate industry, both private and institutional owners, specializing in leasing, marketing, asset management, and capital budgets. She believes that property owners and managers engaging with cleantech initiatives seek easy-to-implement solutions that produce immediate results.

Reference

Start with SIP Panels: Cost Savings, Efficiency, Health, Resilience
CategoriesSustainable News Zero Energy Homes

Start with SIP Panels: Cost Savings, Efficiency, Health, Resilience

By Zarkon Group,
Start with SIP Panels: Cost Savings, Efficiency, Health, Resilience

Healthy homes for a healthy planet

A building envelope is the armor that protects inhabitants, as well as interior finishes, furnishings and equipment. In the walls, roof, flooring, healthy materials are important to anyone suffering respiratory problems, like allergies and asthma. A well-designed home envelope is durable, healthy, insulating, and tightly sealed. Panelized construction homes are engineered to bring these qualities together.

In a well-sealed building, fresh air is provided through controlled ventilation systems, ensuring occupants breathe healthier, filtered air, and removing pollutants produced inside the home (dust, CO2, natural gas byproducts, etc.). Heating and cooling are maintained more efficiently and more comfortably, without leaking conditioned air through gaps in doors, walls, and ceilings. This means no drafts or ingress of polluted air, particularly during pollen or smoke advisories! SIPs have uniform insulation, which means there are no cavities where moisture might accumulate and promote mold, mildew, or rot.

Where you’re stopping air leaks you’re also blocking noise transmission pathways, leading to a quieter, and perhaps more private, living situation.

The components in insulated panels (including adhesives) meet some of the most stringent standards for indoor air quality, with low off-gassing. SIP panels have such low formaldehyde emission levels that they easily meet or are exempt from US Housing and Urban Development and California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards.

Reference

Aerial view of Becontree housing
CategoriesSustainable News

Insulation’s energy savings “vanish” after four years Cambridge study finds

By Zarkon Group,
Aerial view of Becontree housing

Energy savings achieved by insulating UK homes appear to be cancelled out within a few years by an increase in energy use, according to a study by the University of Cambridge.

The study, which analysed the gas-use patterns of more than 55,000 homes across England and Wales, found that the fall in gas consumption achieved by retrofitting wall insulation was voided within four years.

Retrofitting lofts proved half as effective, with any gains becoming “insignificant” after year two, the researchers said.

Further research is now needed into the causes of this “rebound effect”, which is preventing energy savings from continuing long-term.

But the study posits that it could be due to the simultaneous construction of home extensions, which can increase a household’s energy consumption by around 16 per cent.

“We found that energy efficiency retrofits are often combined with home improvements that actually increase consumption, such as extensions,” explained Cristina Peñasco, an associate professor in public policy at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study.

Home insulation “not a magic bullet”

Other possible causes include the fact that 18 per cent of English households have conservatories, which according to the study negate any energy savings within the first year, as well as the possibility that energy and cost savings could in turn encourage increased consumption.

To achieve a long-term reduction in gas use and the associated emission – in line with the UK’s mission to reach energy independence and net-zero emissions – the researchers argue that insulation thus needs to go hand-in-hand with the installation of heat pumps and regulations to change people’s behaviour.

“There are very real benefits to households from good insulation, not least in terms of health and comfort,” said co-author Laura Diaz Anadon, who is the director of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance.

“However, home insulation alone is not a magic bullet,” she added. “In the long term, simply funding more of the same insulation roll-out to meet the UK’s carbon reduction and energy security targets may not move the dial as much as is hoped.”

Wall insulation causes seven per cent drop in gas use

Published in the Energy Economics journal, the study is the first to track the long-term effects of insulation in households across England and Wales, according to the researchers.

Their analysis is based on data collected by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, tracking households’ gas use for five years before and after insulation was installed.

Factoring in the age and size of the building, as well as the weather and gas prices at the time, the study found that cavity wall insulation was the most effective, leading to an average seven per cent drop in gas use in the first year.

In comparison, retrofitting loft insulation saw an initial fall of only four per cent.

“Insulating the lofts and cavity walls of existing UK housing stock only reduces gas consumption for the first year or two, with all energy savings vanishing by the fourth year after a retrofit,” the study concluded.

Retrofits must include heat pumps

In low-income households, these savings were even smaller – an average of three per cent during the first and second year post-retrofit – suggesting that any savings are immediately redirected into keeping the home warmer for longer.

This proves that insulation is effective in democratising access to heating and fighting fuel poverty, the researchers argue, especially in light of the current energy and cost-of-living crises.

But the study also shows that, to actually cut down on gas use and emissions, insulation retrofits must go along with energy reduction targets for households and waivers on energy bills for low-income households, the researchers argue.

In addition, they argue electric heat pumps should be installed alongside insulation to decarbonise residential heating, which is responsible for around 14 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions.

The country’s housing stock is among the oldest and least energy efficient in Europe, which has long led industry groups including the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Construction Leadership Council and the Architects Climate Action Network to call for a comprehensive national retrofit strategy.

Alongside insulation, they argue a holistic approach would must include the addition of “low-carbon” heat pumps and triple-glazed windows at the same time.

The top photo is by Jupiter Images.

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