BuildingLogiX Simplifies Chilled Water Plant Operations for Healthcare Facility
Read how BuildingLogiX’s services simplified a healthcare facility’s chilled water plant operations using analytics.
Chiller plants are complex systems that increase in complexity when their size and scale is expanded. See how BuildingLogix used Data Organization, Rules Based Analytics, and Data Visualization to improve chiller plant operations for a large healthcare facility by using our Connected Building Services (CBS) solution.
Suspicion of a Problem?
Our healthcare client had suspicions that their chiller plant was operating inefficiently. The hospital, and correspondingly their chiller plant, had been expanded several times over the past many years. As a result, the complexity of plant operations had expanded exponentially. Chiller plants are often the most significant energy users in a building, and keeping them efficient reduces utility costs and increases their operating life. The hospital decided to take a holistic view of chiller plant operations which started with finding a way to gather and organize all of the relevant data, and at a price point that fit their budget.
Implementing Connected Building Services (CBS)
The hospital was impressed with the breadth and diversity of analytic tools and data visualization tools available through Connected Building Services. It then became apparent that CBS is highly adaptable to the unique needs of their large chilled water plant which greatly reduced the installation costs of the analytics tools. The extensive rules based library which comes as a part of the Connected Building Services offering meant that the hospital could be up and running with organized data, advanced analytics, and clear understanding of chiller plant operations on time, and at a price that easily fit their budget.
Expanding chiller plant systems creates issues because operational excellence depends on understanding the entire system and how the components work together. We offer a Chiller Plant Portal that generates graphically driven analysis to make understanding the process straightforward and manageable for front line facilities team members, and back that up with a multi-disciplinary team of HVAC, BAS, and Energy experts.
The Results
The CBS chiller plant portal allows the clients to easily keep track and monitor chiller plant operations, often faster and easier than checking their BAS system. Our solutions adapt to unique situations and easily connect to the facility’s existing system. Healthcare facilities have the added pressure of maintaining temperature and humidity levels to support patients and the medical team that cares for them. In addition to supporting operations, CBS generates a tangible platform for tracking operations over time and being able to communicate success and challenges to their financial and executive level decision makers.
CBS now allows the client to extend the service life of their equipment by identifying and repairing minor issues in their chiller system before they turn into major problems.
We used our CBS solution to recommend operating savings and asset preservation opportunities for the client.
Streamline Your BAS With BuildingLogiX
Are you ready for a powerful building energy management system and to enter the modern age of building analytics? Contact BuildingLogiX today and see how we can help with BAS monitoring.
Healthcare Energy Management FAQ
Why Is Energy Management Important for Healthcare Facilities?
Healthcare facilities use significant amounts of energy. They’re tasked with maintaining temperature and humidity levels to enhance patient care and keep their staff happy. This high consumption rate automatically means higher utility bills and a need for high reliability. These conditions put a premium on being able to pin point problems in operations, equipment or systems as early as possible. By addressing small problems early, HVAC and building systems can optimize performance and utility costs while maintaining world class reliability.
Is Building Automation (BAS) Alone Enough to Manage the Complexities of a Healthcare Facilities?
Healthcare facility managers face multiple issues when trying to manage their buildings, including:
Do Your BAS & Building Controls Communicate Seamlessly?
Many hospitals end up with multiple BAS and Building Control Systems, and typically these do not communicate together. That means having to perform training and support multiple front end systems, and their unique variances of operation. In addition multiple control systems put more time pressure on the FAcilities team.
Is Current Performance Good Enough?
BAS is good at showing the current status of a data point or piece of equipment. However it does not easily show operation of equipment or systems over time. In addition, most operating points do not have a benchmark for performance or historical reference of performance thereby putting a premium on the local team to know if current operations are “good enough”.
Budget and Staff Reductions
Facilities teams are increasingly being asked to do more with less—pressures to reduce headcount and limit spending increases the difficulty of tracking a healthcare campus’s BAS.
How Can we Work More Proactively?
Since Facilities’ teams are typically not expanding there is constant pressure to “keep up”. Endless PM tasking, and constant work order requests make for long days. Most of our hospital clients want to work proactively, but very few can achieve this condition without working proactively through a building energy management system.
Increased Campus Size
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are consistently expanding their facilities and footprint, but more space doesn’t always lead to a higher budget or increased staff. This causes a maintenance team to be stretched thin and exposes the team’s ability to keep their system’s across campus working as efficiently as possible.
How Can Connected Building Services (CBS) Optimize Operations for Healthcare Facilities?
CBS allows healthcare facilities to see where problems and faults occur and instantly judge the severity of the operating condition. It offers a variety of benefits for healthcare facilities, including:
Reduced Costs
CBS develops a positive economic impact by alerting managers to where their buildings are inefficient. Typical CBS installations produce operating cost reductions in excess of 17% in their first 3 years of operation. This allows your maintenance team to make cost-effective improvements that reduce operation and labor costs and improve your building’s overall performance.
Increased Productivity
The data generated by CBS allows your maintenance team to know the problems and the tools necessary for repairs. This knowledge reduces labor costs and increases staff productivity.
Improved Indoor Air Quality
Maintaining a healthy indoor air quality improves the patient experience and protects your staff. Our solutions connect to your BAS and pinpoint areas of continuous improvement. This allows you to consistently deliver healthy indoor air quality.
How Does BuildingLogiX Implement CBS?
Data Analysis
Our matrix of analytics processes the organized data and generates graphs, charts, and trends that provide information regarding:
- Building System Performance
- HVAC System Performance
- Air System
- Chilled Water System
- Hot Water System
- Chiller plant performance
- Building System Performance
- Actual energy usage vs. budgeted usage
All reports are available via an online portal for building managers to make continuous improvements to their building operations..
KiX-Start
Our implementation process starts by working with your maintenance and IT teams to determine the preferred pathway for data gathering and storage. We’ve worked on the toughest data systems in the world – military, casino, international government, and global banking institutions, so we have the experience & expertise to work with you and your IT team to create the proper solution for your facility. Once a data pathway is laid out, we work with your team to establish the proper connections to your BAS and building systems and our BDX Data eXchange, and the journey begins.
The Data Journey
CBS extracts data from all connected points, tags each point and organizes the data for use by the analytics engine. CBS has a unique “data organization” process that provides high velocity analytics and user-friendly visualization of collected data and its analytic outputs.
Power of Information to Drive Action
The power of analytics creates opportunities and options for facility managers. Clients have direct access to the entire portfolio of CBS outputs such as reports, tables, graphs, charts, data widgets. In addition BuildingLogiX has a team of expert engineers: HVAC, BAS, Energy, and Mechanical, on staff to support you and your team. Our team uses CBS analytics to conduct a regular review of your building’s performance and then we share our findings with you in a format and frequency that works for your schedule.
Let BuildingLogiX Simplify Chiller Plant Analysis
BuildingLogiX has been an industry-leading provider of technology-driven solutions since 2006. Our solutions optimize building performance, reduce operations costs, and maximize productivity. We consistently deliver 17%-30% reductions in yearly utility spending for clients, allowing us to provide predictable results. We’re committed to lowering our clients’ energy usage, and we’re available for regular meetings to offer suggestions for improvement. Contact us today to learn more about our wide range of technical services.
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