Robust HVAC & BMS System Monitoring

A well monitored heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system will optimise a building’s energy-efficiency, whilst providing its users with thermal comfort. HVAC is usually a key component of Building Management Systems (BMS) .

To achieve better performance from HVAC systems, interior monitoring can provide unbiased evidence of system operations – good and bad. It can help locate the source of comfort problems and diagnose HVAC equipment operation, leading to insights for correcting inefficiencies and optimising equipment, plus verifying savings, and contributing towards achieving environmental certification.

Key BMS/HVAC Monitoring Product Categories

Temperature/Humidity Sensors & Data Loggers
Handheld Temperature/Humidity Meters
Air Quality Sensors
Motor On/Off Data Loggers
Energy Data Loggers
Lights On/Off Data Loggers
Occupancy Data Loggers
Legionella Temperature Kits

Today, many building managers and owners are looking to increase energy efficiency, often making changes to their facility that can lead to comfort complaints. Actions such as installing sun screens, moving thermostats, altering day and night set points, and overall building recommissioning can affect occupant comfort, and therefore complaints may increase after these changes are implemented.

Although it can be challenging for any facility manager to juggle the various factors to consider when evaluating worker comfort – including the season, the clothing worn by individuals, whether workers are sedentary at their desks or moving about the room, and simple variation in temperature preferences – ASHRAE Standard 55 can serve as a guide. ASHRAE55, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, addresses the range of indoor thermal environmental conditions acceptable to a majority of occupants. It also describes and quantifies how air temperature, relative humidity, air flow, and occupant activity and clothing together create an indoor thermal environment.

In addition, ISO 7730 presents methods for predicting the general thermal sensation and degree of discomfort (thermal dissatisfaction) of people exposed to moderate thermal environments.

Getting Answers

Before determining the possible root cause of a comfort complaint (e.g., lack of proper zoning, poor workspace design, solar gain) and taking corrective action, facilities managers first must establish whether the subject area is in fact too hot or too cold.

To validate temperature-related comfort complaints, an increasing number of facilities managers and HVAC contractors rely on battery-powered data loggers. Data loggers are low-cost compact devices that incorporate highaccuracy sensing, recording, and battery power in a self-contained package.

Data loggers can employ sensors that measure temperature, relative humidity, light, and other parameters, and they monitor and record data at user-defined intervals (minutes, hours, or days) and can collect data for months at a time.

Many temperature loggers are small enough to be placed in out-of-the-way locations where they can gather information in a workspace without being seen or disturbed. They can also be used over and over again, so the investment in a few data loggers can pay off big, even in a large facility.