Are the energy bills for your commercial building 30% higher than they should be? If your building lacks an energy management system, the answer is yes! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that almost a third of the energy used by commercial buildings is wasted, primarily by the unnecessary heating, cooling, and lighting of unoccupied areas. Since commercial buildings account for nearly 20% of all the energy this country consumes, that means a tremendous amount of energy – and money – is being needlessly wasted. Fortunately, there is a simple, cost-effective solution. Installing an energy management system that monitors, controls, and adjusts energy usage according to occupancy can lower your energy costs to a more reasonable level by significantly reducing the amount of energy your building uses.

At any given time in a commercial building, at least 30% to 40% of the facility is unoccupied. In a building without an energy management system, the lighting and temperature control remain on in these empty areas, wastefully expending energy. Upgrading an individual building system will not correct the problem; in order to improve the energy efficiency of a building, the electrical, mechanical, and security systems need to be integrated by a building automation system, so they can share information and adjust each system accordingly. By turning off the lighting and temperature control in unused areas, an energy management system can reduce energy usage by as much as 30%.

Once a building automation system integrates all the various control systems in a facility, it gathers information from each system, using that information to improve energy efficiency. For example, motion sensors, access card readers, or passive RFID scanners can register when occupants leave and a building area becomes unoccupied. The building automation system leverages that information to ensure that energy is not wasted in empty rooms, shutting off the HVAC system and turning out the lights. Scheduling features can be programmed to turn the HVAC on and off at a certain times during the day, week, etc., ensuring all building areas are at the desired temperature point by the time occupants arrive in the morning. For the greatest degree of control, tenants can access an Automatic Tenant Override system via their tablet or smartphone, remotely adjusting HVAC settings so the desired temperature is achieved by the time they arrive.

The lighting control offered by energy management solutions extends to more than simply turning off the light in unoccupied areas. A full range of lighting control options is available, from a basic control system for lighting and equipment switching applications, ideal for use in facilities where time-of-day control is being managed from a time clock or centralized building management system, to a fully automatic lighting control for all of your facilities’ lighting circuits. Lighting control can be implemented as stand-alone system or as part of an integrated network solution for facilities of all sizes.