A few months ago, I took a trip to Las Vegas with my wife. After checking in to the hotel, we went to our room and as soon as we walked through the door, the curtains opened, lights turned on and the TV came on. Not only that, the TV started talking to us, welcoming us to the hotel by name. It then proceeded to walk us through a tutorial on how to use all the energy efficient devices in the room.
Think about if we had those kinds of capabilities in our office buildings. Maybe you work for a company that has multiple locations, perhaps a dozen buildings in all. Imagine the kind of savings you’d get if all those buildings were “smart,” like that Vegas hotel room.
You’d come to work and swipe your badge to get in the door. A physical security camera picks you up, knows you’re in the building. As a result, the HVAC, AC, network and phone power to your cube all fire up. You put in a full day and when it’s time to leave, the same thing happens in reverse. Once you exit the building, everything in your cube is powered down.
Today, aside from maybe some smart lighting, all those resources are powered on all the time. Even if you’re not in your cube using your phone and computer, there is a cost associated with having power delivered to all those devices, as much as 10% to 40% of the overall energy bill for the building.
This is the kind of smart building technology that Schneider Electric is creating, along with our partners such as Cisco. From Schneider Electric building management systems including StruxureWare, Andover Continuum and TAC Vista, you can control the power to Cisco EnergyWise-compatible resources including Cisco Catalyst switches, phones, printers and more to create a far more energy efficient building.
In addition to the kind of smart building technology described above, companies can create energy policies that are aligned with their business schedules, such as shutting down unused office areas during a second or third shift. At the same time, you can ensure emergency systems, such as certain phones and surveillance cameras, remain functioning as necessary. The system gives you fine-grained energy monitoring and control, right down to individual phones and data ports.
Check out this PDF to learn more about how we’re working with partners like Cisco to deliver an experience like the one I had in Las Vegas. We think you’ll be as impressed as I was.
Conversation
Matt Laherty
11 years ago
Tony–I’m looking forward to working on new solutions with Schneider Electric. I posted a follow up to your blog on my site at the Smart Connected Communities Institute.
naz786
11 years ago
I been reading a lot of articles about the building management systems , and a lot of people complain about the requirement of a GATE way {protocol translator ) but when i see the system architecture of Sneider , there is no GATE way.
from the Andover Continuum Architecture , IS it correct to assume that
CX9702 Access Controller (TAC CX9702) has an In Built Gate way {Protocol Translator)? and can this be assumed as a DDC ?