Building Management System (BMS)

9% of the world's energy is controlled by Building Management Systems (BMS) but the reality is that most buildings, small and medium-size, still need to make large investments to retrofit or install a BMS. Wattsense changes that.

What is a BMS?

A Building Management System is a computer-based system installed in buildings to manage and monitor equipment such as air-conditioning, heating, ventilation, lighting, power systems, security devices, IoT sensors, energy and gas meters.

Traditional BMS consists of servers, supervisory devices, field buses, controllers, inputs, and outputs. They are also known as Building Automation Systems (BAS).

A BMS connects the HVAC and different building equipment to work as one integrated unit. Ideally, they should centralize operations and make data easier to visualize using a user interface or console.

BMS has evolved into a series of incompatible components and impenetrable architectures. Their correct use saves 30% of the energy bill, but they are only present in 15% of large and upscale buildings due to their cost and complexity.

We break through chaotic infrastructure with our IoT connectivity solution and provide access to the BMS to all buildings operators. Wattsense allows small and medium-sized buildings to create a BMS network and access their equipment by removing technical complexity. Providing quick access to BMS data helps companies deliver higher technical staff efficiency, increase building occupancy comfort, and significantly decrease energy and carbon footprint.

What is the role of a BMS in day to day operations?

Control a building's HVAC
Manage energy consumption
Decarbonization
Monitor in real-time building's operations and performance
Schedule operations
Put in place Fault Management and alarms
Data Reporting

Wattsense allows small and medium-sized buildings to have a BMS by removing technical complexity easily. Providing quick access to BMS data helps companies deliver higher technical staff efficiency, increase building occupancy comfort, and significantly decrease buildings' energy and carbon footprint.

Buildings use 40% of the world's energy, and the BMS's duty, among other things, is to make sure that this energy usage is kept to a minimum. A poorly setup BMS, or the absence of a BMS, will typically result in a building using 10 to 30% more energy.

That is why Management systems in buildings are quickly becoming the norm worldwide to reduce carbon emission and energy consumption; for example, by 2025, Building Automation Control Systems (BACS) will be mandatory in all tertiary buildings in the EU. Key players in the building sector, from property owners to facility managers, are aiming for BMS that can be quickly installed and configured to comply with these regulations.

According to the Building Management System Market Global Forecast report, building automation can help automate the HVAC and lighting systems, saving from **5% to 30% **of a building's overall energy consumption.

With Wattsense you can help buildings

Save energy

Upgrade the BMS software and save 30% of the building industry energy consumption, 400B€ in bills, by easily and quickly deploying smart building applications.

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The difficulties to integrate energy-saving applications in buildings have a significant impact on the world's energy consumption. We designed an abstraction layer over the legacy BMS infrastructure so that any building can benefit from software upgrades powered by state of the art, digital companies.

Deliver comfort

Create or implement a software solution that wins the thermostat war, and fixes BMS deficiencies that cause building occupants discomfort and frustration over temperature control.

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Flexible and affordable BMS software solutions will change the daily lives of millions as well as improve employees and customers satisfaction. Many buildings are confronted with iffy indoor climate regulations, even in modern constructions.

Manage facilities

Reduce maintenance and reparation fees by helping facility managers and technicians monitor and control systems remotely through your app.

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HVAC systems have high service requirements. Multiple times a year, they need maintenance checkups. The technicians that provide that service are highly skilled and costly. As a reference, in Western Europe, a senior refrigeration technician earns up to 5000€/month.

Around the world, there are 500.000 HVAC service professionals. Their profitability and productivity are reduced by the time they spend driving their van from point A to point B. When a customer calls because its cold-room does not work, the only option the technician has is to drive there as soon as possible. The unalterable need for the onsite presence of the technician to assess and solve the problem delays the response time. HVAC professionals dream of apps which would help them monitor and control systems remotely.

Facility Management (FM) integrates, within the built environment, people, places, and processes with the objective of improving the quality of life and the productivity of a business. By incorporating FM practices, you can deliver long-term asset sustainability while reducing energy costs and carbon footprints.

Demand response

Develop a demand response software solution that delivers no disruption of operation and offers tremendous value for the power grid. We believe that the deployment cost of demand response in buildings can be cut by ten and we are busy trying to deliver on that claim.

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Power grid operators must balance electricity demand and supply. The world’s transition to renewable energy sources represents a historical challenge for them. While legacy energy sources (gas, coal, nuclear, etc.) are relatively stable, renewable energies are highly variable creating much greater balance swings.

Demand response is a well-proven solution to reduce the energy demand when the supply cannot keep up. It allows to down-size power grids while maintaining continuity of service during peak demand. Currently, demand response programs cover about 3% of the load side. Used primarily by high-load industries (steel plants, hypermarkets, cement plants, etc.). Increasing the demand response coverage is a strategic topic for countries as each additional percentage point of world coverage saves around 100B€ in power plants construction. The financial and technical challenge of the energy transition pushes states to increase demand response incentives to expand the coverage ratio. Energy utilities and aggregators turn these incentives into increasingly attractive deals for energy consumers.

Two major factors can scale demand response offers:
Minimal impact on the customer’s operations. To truly scale, there should be no impact at all.
Shortest return on investment. The ratio of (deployment cost) / (monthly value creation) is crucial.

HVAC systems are the preferred loads for scalable demand response solutions because:
They have high inertia (building masses, water loops, buffer tanks, cold rooms, among others) and can be operated as an energy battery with virtually no impact on the building occupants and operations.
They are high energy loads translating in sizeable demand response value creation.
The cost of the deployment with legacy solutions is very high. As an example, it costs 7.000€ for a 1.000m2 office building already equipped with a BMS or 21.000€ if there is no BMS. As stated by the French energy agency in 2017, this is a major limiting factor for demand response scalability.