Five quick wins hiding in most existing BMS installations
Schedules, overrides, setpoints, sensors and alarms - five low-cost checks worth making on almost any BMS.
Buildings change. Tenants move, spaces are repurposed and plant is replaced, but the BMS strategy is often left as it was on handover day. A few targeted checks can recover energy and comfort without any new equipment.
1. Time schedules that match the building today
Occupancy patterns drift. Check that schedules still reflect real occupied hours, bank holidays and any areas now used differently. Plant running for an empty floor is one of the most common sources of waste.
2. Points left in hand
Overrides added during a fault or a hot spell are easy to forget. A regular review of anything in hand or manual - valves, fans, setpoints - often finds plant that has been running flat out for months.
3. Heating and cooling fighting each other
Where heating and cooling setpoints sit too close together, or zones disagree with central plant, both can run at once. A sensible deadband between the two, and a check of the sequence logic, stops the fight.
4. Sensors that no longer tell the truth
A temperature sensor reading a degree or two out drives everything that depends on it. Spot-check critical sensors against a calibrated reference, and look for ones that are badly placed - in sunlight, near a heat source or in a dead air pocket.
5. Alarms people have learned to ignore
If the alarm list is always full, the alarm that matters gets missed. Review priorities, remove nuisance alarms at their cause and make sure the important ones reach the right person.
Where to start
Trends are your friend: a week of logged data usually shows which of these applies. Our free tecTools include sensor scaling, setpoint checks and savings and payback calculators, and tecTraining covers BMS fundamentals and commissioning good practice.
