Flagship children’s centre makes energy efficiency child’s play
A newly refurbished Nursery School and Children’s Centre in the North East is using the EnergyDatastream by Synetica to monitor how much power, water, and gas is being used throughout the facility, and how this usage can be made more efficient. The EnergyDatastream communicates with the school’s building automation system to display the utility usage information that its monitoring. This data is then presented in an easy to understand format, allowing for simple data analysis.
Project Type
The local council used a retro commissioning authority to complete an audit of the Centre to determine where there were inefficiencies in the buildings’ performances. They subsequently verified the design of the energy systems and found that a number of performance areas could be dramatically improved upon if the school updated its control system. Engineers are now using a remote online log-in to view the EnergyDatastream data in order verify that the new control system design is in fact providing the energy efficient results that it was planned to do.
The school is working on additional small steps to encourage efficiency, such as lowering the temperature in the building to save costs. About 100 children currently attend the nursery school and both children and staff are encouraged to help do their part by saving water and switching off lights when they are not in a room. Now that the usage can be viewed in real-time and for specific locations using the EnergyDatastream, they will be able to develop additional strategies to help reduce water, gas and power wastage.
Upgrading the building automation system with a newer KNX control system designed for energy efficiency will also allow the Nursery School control system to be synchronised with the new refurbished Children’s Drop In Centre that is currently under development. The Drop In Centre is being designed to feature fuly integrated facilities and is scheduled for completion in March 2010. The school had noticed a sharp rise in energy use first thing in the mornings and it was established that the Drop In Centre was the cause, due primarily to the older electric water heaters being turned on when the voluntary staff arrived.
Customer Expectations
As we work to a very tight budget and are conscious of the importance of installing environmental awareness into the children, we had to look at being at the forefront of building technology and management. The ability to collect, store and transmit all our data for energy management was critical in helping us to hit and continue to maintain our objectives.
Customer Comment
We had an idea where the spike was coming from, but now that the new KNX control system and the EnergyDatastream is in place, we’ve been able to verify that it was the old Drop In Centre. The increased energy use at this time of day is when people arrive and start getting ready for the parents and children. The performance of the refurbished Drop In Centre will be greatly improved in comparison to our old one.
Top Features of the Synetica EnergyDatastream
- 8 x Pulse Inputs: 8 digital pulse inputs for energy meters or digital status monitoring (S0 class meter inputs)
- 8 x Analogue CT Inputs: 8 analogue inputs for wired current transformers
- Modbus RTU and TCP/IP Communications: Connects to serial Modbus enabled meters to retrieve, log and forward Modbus meter readings. Optional Modbus TCP slave to allow access via the network to internal registers including time clock, digital, analogue, EnOcean and Modbus RTU meter values.
- EnOcean Wireless: Optional link to EnOcean wireless sensors and Synetica’s EnOcean wireless Current Transformers (CT) to rapidly install additional wireless meter points
- Ethernet Interface: Built in high speed 10/100 Mbit Ethernet links to the Internet or corporate Intranet
- GPRS/GSM: Optional GSM/GPRS communications for remote applications
- Security: User ID/password security with optional guest web page access level
- HTTP Web Server: Built in Web server for simple device configuration and data presentation (another sample)
- File System: Protected file system maintains logged data when powered down
- CSV Files: Logged data may be exported via email / FTP / Web browser as CSV file format for use in spreadsheets and aM&T systems
- Email Server: Built in SMTP to send logged data via email
- File Transfer: Built in file transfer (FTP) can send logged data to a host computer at configurable intervals
- Time Synchronisation: Built in battery backed time clock with automatic synchronisation via the network (SNTP)
- Energy Profiling: Built in Energy profiling presents interactive charts in a Web Browser to reveal energy wastage
- Carbon Analysis: Built in calculation of carbon emissions included in CSV file
- Remote Updates: The DataStream may be updated remotely over the Ethernet network to reduce maintenance costs
