How You Can Harness the Power of Data

Posted on by Bridget Donofrio

Sophisticated energy management platforms are capable of collecting reams of data. It’s a powerful tool if you know how to harness it.

Telkonet engineers have built powerful data trackers. But what can you do with this data? The raw data in and of itself has limited value. It becomes a powerful tool when that data is analyzed for you and presented in ways that make it easy to understand.

The analysis can answer some common questions building owners and managers may have about their HVAC equipment.

Devices with Low Savings Since Last Month

Devices with low energy savings present a red flag. There are a number of reasons why energy savings could be lower than most others in the facility. Perhaps all of the rooms with lower savings are on the sunny side of the building;  no action needs to be taken. Or perhaps it’s as simple as dirty HVAC filters that need to be replaced. Or it may be a sign of something more series, like an old, faulty HVAC unit that needs to be replaced.

Excessive Runtime

An EMS platform can present you with side by side comparison of HVAC runtimes: a list of the rooms with the lowest HVAC runtimes on one side and the highest HVAC runtimes on the other side. Perhaps it’s a good idea to switch out the hardest-working HVAC units with the ones with no forced time off. This can prolong the life of the HVAC units.

HVAC Forced Off

Devices that run non-stop are forced off at a certain point. There are a number of reasons a device can be forced off. For example, it might be an indication of a device that is failing, or of a patio door that was left open.

Here are some other examples of how HVAC forced off data can be analyzed:

  • The average forced-off time per device
  • An overview of forced-off time per device
  • Specific devices that were forced off are displayed

Floor Planner

We love this EMS feature. We can upload a blueprint of every floor into our EMS platform, and get a visual overview of all sorts of data. Perhaps maintenance needs to enter all rooms on a particular floor. At a glance, they can determine which rooms are physically unoccupied at this very moment. Or we may need to track patterns of offline devices. To an extent, almost all of us are visual learners and the Floor Planner tool is valuable in its efficiency.

Battery Report

Some thermostats and their attached devices such as external occupancy sensors and door contacts may run on battery power. Most will run a single battery for years, but eventually, they’ll need to be replaced. A report of devices with low battery power increases efficiency because maintenance only needs to change those with low batteries; not every single battery.

Setpoint Differential

Here are examples of how setpoint differential can be analyzed:

  • Differential distribution for devices in occupied rooms
  • Room temperature and setpoint distribution
  • Occupied devices that are too cold and too warm
  • Differentials trending poorly
  • Fluctuating differentials

Rooms by RH%

Here are examples of how relative humidity data can be analyzed:

  • the number of rooms in the sample
  • the number of devices with relative humidity sensors
  • the average relative humidity

In summary, just because we CAN gather this data, does it mean we SHOULD? In and of itself, the answer may be “no”. But as they say, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you DO with it. By presenting facts and figures in relation to or in combination with other factors, the data that an EMS can generate becomes infinitely more valuable.

Are you interested in harnessing the power of data at your property? Get in touch with us. [email protected] or 888-703-9398.