Lincoln Property takes office building to the next level of energy efficiency - IoT-enabled solutions that drive operational and energy efficiency
Background
One Burlington Business Center is made up of three buildings that are connected by two dramatic four-story lobbies. The buildings are designed to offer flexible layouts to tenants who want to be located along the Interstate 95/Route 128 high-tech corridor north of Boston. The Burlington, Massachusetts, area is very desirable due to its proximity to an international airport, world-class hospitals and universities as well as upscale shopping and fine dining.
Lincoln Property Company, one of the most respected and diversified service firms in the United States, manages this 180,000 square foot office building for an equity firm. They have been updating the building’s systems over the past several years with TAC I/NET and other efficient components to meet Energy Star requirements. When the owners of the building decided
to pursue LEED® Certification as a differentiator in this highly-competitive market, Lincoln Property Company worked with their trusted advisor, Schneider Electric, through its local Andover, Massachusetts, branch to take this 1970s building to the next level of energy efficiency.
The facility has three roof top units RTUs with DX cooling and 300 terminal units with electric reheat. Over the past five years Lincoln Property Company has been changing out terminal units and adding TAC I/NET DDC controls to the field equipment. The existing I/NET system was used to integrate to the tenant boxes as each space was converted.
The new DDC system unmasked some issues that the management team wanted to address. After careful analysis of the needs of the customer, Schneider Electric recommended that the facility transition to a EcoStruxure™ Building Expert** powered by EcoStruxure™ Building Operation*. By transitioning to EcoStruxure™ Building Expert**, Lincoln Property Company could realize their energy efficiency goals, without sacrificing the investment they had already made with Schneider Electric.
The management team was delighted to be able to maintain what was working and incorporate new technologies to keep them competitive in their market. Important requirements for the new system were short- and long-term trending, remote access and more robust scheduling.
EcoStruxure™ Building Expert* gave Lincoln Property Company access to those and other cutting-edge features, and because the upgrade was largely software-based it was performed quickly without causing any discomfort or disruption to tenants.
Lincoln Property Company’s chief concern was the facilities’ HVAC, because it is usually tenants’ number one issue. “If you don’t have reliable air conditioning and heating, tenants will want to move out,” said assistant vice president of Lincoln Property Company, Sam Ajanaku. “You’ll get emails and phone calls and work orders coming in, and that’s a nightmare when you’re trying to do the other functions of your job.”
The customized EcoStruxure™ Building Expert* that was installed at the facility focused on two major areas: tenant comfort and energy efficiency. These two areas have traditionally been thought of as opposites, but EcoStruxure™ Building Expert* is able to achieve both. For example, before the transition, tenants had free control over the temperature in their space and would frequently change the setpoints throughout the day. As a result, the building’s HVAC system ran non-stop. EcoStruxure™ Building Expert* solution enabled Lincoln Property Company to set temperature boundaries within a chosen range for tenants and automatically turn the system on and off at chosen times. The company also keeps trends of the temperatures in the twelve zones to share with tenants. These changes resulted in a dramatic decrease in energy costs as well as tenant complaints.
The feature that Lincoln Property Company is most excited about is the robust trending capabilities of the system. Attaining LEED Certification requires a lot of reporting that includes detailed short- and long-term trending. EcoStruxure™ Building Expert* enables them to trend any point in the system by simply dragging and dropping it onto a trend chart. And because the system automatically saves the Change of Value (COV) for every hardware input and output point, Lincoln Property Company can trend anything, anytime.
“I love the new system. It allows me to respond immediately when a tenant calls about being too hot or cold. I can remotely see exactly what temperature their space is and adjust it for them. It means a lot to be able to keep our tenant happy,” said Sam Ajanaku. “I also like the anytime, anywhere access which has me feeling very high tech. This winter I will be able to remotely turn on the parking lot lights if we need to be plowed out rather than driving in. Overall, I am very happy with the new system.”
EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform.
EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers.
EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level including Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services. EcoStruxure has been deployed in 450,000+ installations, with the support of 9,000 system integrators, connecting over 1 billion devices.
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The Internet of Things starts with the best things. Our IoT-enabled best-in-class connected products include breakers, drives, UPSs, relays, sensors, and more. Devices with embedded intelligence drive better decision-making throughout operations.
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Interoperability is imperative to supporting the diverse hardware and systems in building, data center, industry, and grid environments. EcoStruxure enables a breadth of agnostic Applications, Analytics, & Services for seamless enterprise integration.
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