"One Degree Equals $1 Million Per Year"

Is That Your Appliance Calling? ... In April this year Carrier and IBM announced the launch of MyAppliance for web-enabled air conditioners in Europe -- thus allowing a person to control one's thermostat with a mobile phone.  Although that might sound a little far fetched, there are strong arguments for using the net to remotely monitor the operations of distant HVAC units.  For example, Carrier claims that a one-degree deviation in temperature can cost a chain-store operator with 800 locations $1 million a year.  (Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2001)  And, according to a conversation that I had with Jim Lee of Cimetrics at the IDRC World Congress in Orlando, remote management is so important that a consortium of HVAC manufacturers, BACnet, has actually agreed to adopt a standard protocol for linking building automation and control devices. 

So it was fun to visit buildings remotely with Terry Diaferio of EggSystems via a WebX demo.   EggSystems develops facility networking and building web interfaces to reduce operating costs and improve service responsiveness.  We started by going in real time to an office building in Singapore where we looked at a graphical representation of the building's HVAC systems showing the status of fans, filters, flow switches and smoke detectors.  Tenants, of course, could not see this level of detail.  But tenants could log on and request HVAC after hours.  Next, we went to CalPERS' office building in Sacramento, CA, where we could book conference rooms, choose furniture layouts (theater or classroom), order audio visual equipment and even request catering service online.  Very cool.

Many other firms offer building operations and service-scheduling systems -- for example, Corrigo, essention.com, iBuilding and WorkSpeed, to name a few.  (Yes, I know that there are significant differences between them!)  But they all aim to make life easier for owners, managers and tenants.   And they all require a very serious commitment of time and money.  You've heard my mantra before: It's not the technology that's the challenge.  It's the cultural workflow hurdles that organizations must leap that will determine the success of initiatives in this area. ...  How is your firm preparing to make the leap?

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com