It used to be the case that you couldn’t manage what you didn’t measure. But, in the past few years, thanks to the rapid development of sensor technology and the internet of things, we very rapidly gained the ability to measure anything and everything: how many steps we take; how long we sleep for; and even our hearts’ electrical activity thanks to the electrocardiogram capabilities of the latest Apple Watch.
Some doctors, however, are worried that this Apple Watch advance could result in false positives, and unnecessary treatments and anxiety. (In some cases, of course, this feature could save lives.) So, more data is not necessarily a good thing, if you can’t tell the difference between meaningful data and noise; or get the right data at the right time, and be able to contextualize it within historical trends to get a clear idea of what action needs to be taken.
The same applies to the facilities you manage. Advances in building management systems (BMS) and automation systems (BAS) mean data is created in real time on all manner of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and related systems, and how they are performing and inter-relating with each other.
But just like your own personal metrics, the context of the data is everything. What does the trend say? For this you need to be able to easily access historical data in a meaningful way. What if the situation changes? Can you still piece together the profile of the incident? What if hundreds, or thousands, of alerts are being raised? Do you know which ones happen most often, have been going on the longest, and have the most impact on your facility?
Today, you have definitely got the data, but do you know what to make of it?
This is where the powerful analytics tools offered by automated fault detection and diagnostics software (AFDD) come into play. By overlaying an AFDD software over your BMS, you can cut through the overwhelm and deluge of data, and unlock the tons of value sitting in your BMS data that you simply haven’t had a chance to make head or tail of. By monitoring everything, all the time, automatically and methodically, and then applying customized algorithms to the data, an AFDD service can make connections and spot patterns that have been invisible before, because previously you only had a single view of a moment in time.
Unlike that Apple Watch owner, you probably had to buy a BMS to manage the complexity of your HVAC systems in your facilities under management. The good news is, though, that also unlike that Apple Watch owner, you can make your BMS pay its own way though savings, efficiencies, preventative action, scaling your team, and an overall better service. All thanks to the insights and clarity gained from an AFDD service.
