Page 29 - College Planning & Management, October 2018

connected, or “intelligent,” buildings. The potential of these buildings seems limitless for tracking energy use and the presence of students within a facility.
What is an intelligent building? In short, an intelligent building is one that re- lies on the automation of various processes to control everything from temperature, to lighting, to ambient noise levels. The auto- mated processes responsible for controlling these elements are largely regulated using the IoT, a network of devices, sensors, and other physical elements that connect the physical world with the digital world.
While the definition provide a basic framework for what intelligent buildings are and how they work, it barely scratches the surface of how they may benefit the campus facilities department.
JB Groves is an instructor at Wharton County Junior College in Wharton, TX, and has been studying these systems from their inception and knows all about the power they offer. “We are currently in another iteration of the industrial revolution,” says Groves. “The power and cost savings these intelligent buildings with IoT can offer is huge and growing every day. Everything is now connected.”
Monitoring Made Easy
How does this connectedness benefit campus facilities managers? The most important element for many campuses is se- curity. Intelligent buildings and the IoT offer many features that make safety and security easier to manage. Integrated fire and secu- rity systems use sensors and the Internet
to monitor everything from occupancy to lighting in an effort to keep campus spaces safe. Even a connection to first respond-
ers can be made by an intelligent building system, saving time in an emergency.
Intelligent buildings and the IoT can determine space occupancy at any given time. “Foot traffic and WiFi traffic can be measured based on WiFi use, and that is important,” Groves states. Measuring how many people pass through a space or are in a space matters when it comes to installing security measures
or creating an emergency plan.
Take, for instance, the lighting in a
building. On many campuses, lights stay on all day, even into the late evening hours (if not all night). There are, however, ways to cut costs. Solar-powered halogen lights are one intelligent option, according to
Groves, along with replacing LEDs with intelligent motion-sensing lights. “They go off in the middle of the night. If anyone walks under them they go on—it’s win/ win for security and energy management. Colleges could save so much money with intelligent lighting,” he adds.
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OCTOBER 2018 / COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 29