How London Workspace Reduced Electricity Consumption By 31% In 5 Months

A flexible workspace of 2,741 square meters in London aimed to create a progressive urban experience for its tenants. This goal was complemented by a focus on health, well-being, and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making the deployment of intelligent, sustainable, and highly accurate technology a necessity.

Envio Systems and Disruptive Technologies transformed the client’s offering from a simple space lease to one of “Space as a Service” (SpaaS). By creating an IoT-powered workspace, our client optimized its energy consumption, reduced its carbon footprint and manual labor, and improved the customer experience in just 5 months.

“Space as a Service" (SpaaS)

The multi-functional 6-story building required a solution that supports comfort and function for various zone types. Our client transformed a regular workspace into a premium space thanks to our wireless temperature sensors, which provided data for legionella reporting, occupancy, and energy optimization.

Envio Systems enabled remote monitoring and control of the workspace’s infrastructure through data analytics and reporting. Due to COVID-19, the provided benefits also covered tune-downs, re-entry guidelines, baseline analyses, energy optimization strategies, and additional reporting types.

SpaaS gains included:

• Wireless temperature sensors for legionella risk and compliance
• Highly accurate temperature and indoor air quality monitoring
• Touch sensors for feedback and enhancement of customer service
• Monitoring of main energy use in the building and subsequent discovery of root cause behind excessive energy spend
• Occupancy insights to improve space utilization
• Reporting and alerts
• Ease of use and ability to stick sensors anywhere—pipes, desks, and more.

The Foundational Structure for a Healthy Environment and Sustainable Business

COVID-19 brought the importance of air quality and occupancy detection to the forefront of facilities management. Through our humidity and temperature sensors integrated with Envio Systems, our client could monitor health and comfort components and adjust operations automatically to meet safety standards. 

Analytics and reporting verified optimal operations, enabled data-driven decisions, and kept employees engaged and accountable in building management activities and service to the tenants. By reducing manual labor, redundant tasks, and unnecessary operations, we also helped our client reduce their carbon footprint and energy consumption.

As a result of remote monitoring and next-generation automation, in just 5 months:

• Monthly electricity consumption decreased by 31.20%, resulting in cost savings of approximately 58,771 GBP.

• Manual labor hours were reduced by 48.59%, yielding cost savings of around 10,909 GBP.

• Monthly CO2 emissions were lowered by 30.44%, which equates to saving approximately 14 tonnes of CO2 gas.

Increased Health & Safety Benefits

The health and safety benefits of the solution have been further extended by combining the data processing capabilities of Envio Systems with the versatility of the DT temperature sensors.

The technology can now help prevent the presence of the potentially life-threatening Legionella bacteria in the water systems. Being aware of the risk of Legionella is important for office workspaces, as it focuses resources on areas of concern instead of conducting numerous routine checks, and ensures that water quality is optimal.

Using data collected from sensors on key water systems including hot and cold water storage, delivery, and handling equipment, an informative report was created.

This report informs the customer, in a simple-to-read, color-coded format, of potential risks caused by high temperatures and stagnant water within the systems, the two key factors that can lead to the growth of the Legionella bacteria.

A variety of tests are performed for each system to determine if it passes, fails, or is about to fail the required standard. Corrective and appropriately targeted actions, such as flushing a pipe, can then be performed to eliminate the problem.

Using the sensors and analytics application, it is estimated that “Legionella alarms” were raised on 42 occasions across 36 taps in the building during the first year of monitoring.

How The Solution Works

Disruptive Technologies provides tiny, peel-and-stick wireless sensors. They also come with touch functionality for easy deployment and are highly scalable without compromising accuracy, while maintaining cost efficiency. At 19x19x2.5 mm, they can last up to 15 years and have a robust IP68 design.

Envio Systems provides Envio TRIA Gateway, a device coordinator and protocol consolidator. The TRIA Gateway enables monitoring and control of existing infrastructure through the Envio cloud-based operating system, EOS. Additionally, space functionality can be enhanced with an Envio CUBE, a universal IoT controller and main meter integration. The Envio Operating System is the interface for reporting and sensor analytics. The platform can automate operational activities based on data collected by the Disruptive Technology sensors.