Keeping Your HVAC System In Great Condition

3 Incredible Features Of Smart HVAC Technology

30 November 2016

Herbert Franklin

More and more people are becoming concerned about the rising costs of heating and cooling, especially those who own office buildings and other commercial properties. The good news is that, thanks to recent technological innovations, it is more than possible to maintain--or even lower--your HVAC costs. If you would like to learn more about maximizing your HVAC efficiency, read on. This article will discuss three incredible features of so-called smart HVAC technology.

The Basics

Smart HVAC utilizes technological innovations to automatically adjust and optimize heating and cooling in your building. At the heart of an HVAC system is a sophisticated computer, capable of making independent alterations to various settings. Yet in order to perform these adjustments, the computer relies on a series of sensors to supply it with real-time data about the conditions in your building.

Thermal Sensors

As you can probably guess, thermal sensors are used to supply information about the temperature in your building. This information tells the computer when it needs to turn the furnace or air conditioner on or off. However, unlike traditional thermostats, a smart HVAC system doesn't just have one temperature sensor. Rather it utilizes a number of different sensors, each one tied to a particular zone of your building.

This allows the computer to make appropriate changes for each zone. For instance, say that sunlight happens to be falling heavily on one side of the building, thus driving up the temperature. A smart HVAC system can increase the air conditioning in that particular zone, without altering the conditions in parts of the building free from the warming effects of direct sunlight.

Carbon Dioxide Sensors

Smart HVAC systems are capable of making sophisticated readings well outside the bounds of traditional systems. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their ability to measure carbon dioxide levels in different parts of a building. A recent study conducted at Harvard found that elevated carbon dioxide levels have a negative effect on both decision making and thinking. When carbon dioxide sensors detect such levels, a smart HVAC system can increase the amount of fresh air being supplied to those areas.

Occupancy Sensors

Thanks to the increased mobility of contemporary technology, today's workforce is not as tied to the office as in decades past. That means that building occupancy levels are not as predictable as they once were. A traditional HVAC system, unfortunately, is unable to tell whether a particular zone of a building has any occupants or not. As a result, much energy is wasted in heating and cooling empty areas.

A smart HVAC system utilizes occupancy sensors to avoid this problem. These sensors measure occupancy by means of motion detection cameras. When a particular part of the building remains without detectable motion for a certain amount of time, the system will automatically reduce the amount of heating or cooling energy being expended there.

For more HVAC information, contact a company like A Bailey Plumbing.

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