Smart and ready for the Internet of Things
Issue :
read all articles online
read as pdf
The Arcadia Group, a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, has recently started the upgrade of their Top Shop and Top Man brand in partnership with Smart Buildings. The first implementation was in the Top Shop store in Edinburgh, the resultant energy saving has been an immediate success.
Impressive results
Smart Buildings are innovating the way the Arcadia portfolio manages their energy – with ultra smart integration of their retail network. Learning how the network operates and the understanding of strategic applications is paying big dividends for the high street retailer. Applying the smart expertise has already provided a saving on electrical energy of more than 30%. Starting with simple wins through to complex software algorithms the return on investment (ROI) is coming out at less than 12 months per store.
Connected to the cloud
Once the system has been applied to the store network access and management of the building, it is directly connected via any smart device hosted within the cloud. The user parameters and control limits are set per user’s access level and defined within the cloud. For instance, the room temperature set point can be easily managed to restrict change to an agreed value against set point.
The system is made up of a series of apps and these are smart device ready, so users can view and change the parameters locally. Engineers can access the information from anywhere in the world via the cloud and the Arcadia headquarter can keep updated on the performance, energy usage and initiate automated services such as the Smart Maintenance tool kit.
Self-powered and easy to retrofit
The retrofit requirement was that the store continued to trade unhindered during the upgrade, this was made possible by utilizing the wireless and battery-less EnOcean technology. No new cables had to be pulled. The system is using temperature, humidity and CO2 EnOcean-based sensors in order to feed back the sensing data to control and monitor the environment to achieve energy and cost savings. EnOcean-based switches and sensors are used comprehensively within the application and these are reducing plant run times by monitoring the CO2 and automatically sweeping the store shutdown on the wireless final exit key switch. The AC is also benefiting from the use of EnOcean PIRs and these are sensing the occupancy within the rooms and reducing the run time of the AC as well as controlling the lighting within the space. Another benefit from this service is the reduced service and maintenance requirement, as there are no batteries used.
The use of battery-free temperature and CO2 sensors enables maintenance-free monitoring and control of the building while at the same time ensuring cost and energy savings.
This case study is a great example of how easy self-powered and smart devices can be retrofitted without disturbing running operation. In connection with cloud-based services, connected devices enable new possibilities and massive savings concerning energy and costs.
New articles in Smart Spaces
Top articles
