Energybox Enhancing Facilities Management with IoT & Automation
Energybox is an IoT and automation company. We monitor and automate multi-site facilities, equipment and processes. We offer fully integrated solutions – our own sensors, control, software and AI. In the context of multi-site Storage Facility Management, Energybox provides a network of monitoring devices and sensors that make the building smarter and facility maintenance easier.
We have provided our solutions to a leading HK based Self-Storage Group with over a hundred sites locally and overseas.
EnergyTracker monitors the energy consumption of equipment at a granular level, analyzes the energy usage pattern of individual equipment and can be compared and benchmarked for optimization.
SiteHero monitors the temperature and humidity of self-storage spaces in real-time as well as cold storage for wine to ensure compliance and to optimize the ambient condition of the facility. This solution also monitors door access in real-time across all sites which eliminates the need for routine security checks and reduces energy waste by tenants.
Our notification system alerts the facility manager for immediate attention, such as unusual rises in temperature and if the main door is left open for customers outside of business hours.
Multi-site Energy Monitoring
Multi-site Energy Monitoring across all sites enables our customer in promoting best practices via our analytical insights. Self-Storage operators can optimize equipment usage and maintenance.
The below image is an example of a comparative analysis of energy consumption across all sites.
A further breakdown of energy consumption per space and equipment can be viewed on the Energybox platform. The ranking of energy consumption by equipment might change from month to month, which has helped our customer in deciding on which particular equipment needs to be turned off and optimized for equipment rotation in order to prolong equipment life.
Some interesting case studies to show how easily self-storage facilities can monitor temperature, door access and automate their facility with Energybox solutions.
Monitoring- Air Conditioning
We at Enerybox, leverage the information gathered by sensors in the facility to understand the functioning of air-conditions and provide analysis through our digital Energybox platform to optimize facility usage, reduce energy wastage and improve overall equipment life.
Challenge: In the self-storage facility, we monitored air-conditioner usage patterns and we were amazed to find that air-conditioners are unequally loaded. For example: In this Self-Storage site, Storage AC 1 and Storage AC 3 are loaded more, while Storage AC 2 is loaded less, and Storage AC 4 is off.
Compare this with an equally loaded scenario:
- Storage AC 1 degrades faster by 31%
- Storage AC 3 degrades faster by 40%
Solution: By understanding the problem, we were able to immediately notify the customer that their heavily loaded air-conditioners will need earlier maintenance. We eventually were able to help them even out their equipment load (equipment rotation) in the most efficient way.
Monitoring- Wine Storage
Temperature & Humidity maintenance of wine storage is an important factor for Wine Storage Facility. Temperature and relative humidity (RH) maintenance allow the wines to mature slowly, reduce mold growth, keep the corks from drying out, and prevent spoiling of the labels.
According to Wine Storage Management Systems – WSMS, “humidity at any point inside the storage area (running average within a day) shall be 55%-80%,” with the “accuracy of humidity equipment shall be ±5%.”
Challenge: In the self-storage facility, Red wine storage relative humidity seems to drop below 55% which can become not only a violation of humidity compliance as per WSMS standards, but will also spoil the products inside the storage facility.
Solution: Real-time alerts were sent to the facility manager to inform them about the conditions. This helped them to maintain the red wine storage temperature between 11°C to 17°C and the max daily fluctuation is below 3°C and they no longer have to worry about temperature and humidity fluctuations which may lead to product loss.
Monitoring- Main Door Access
Customers of the self storage facility can access their rented space outside of business hours. Sometimes the main door was kept open by a customer and had not been closed. The Energybox Platform is configured to notify staff when any door is left open for an unusual amount of time which allows them to take necessary actions for security measures and energy conservation.
Challenge: The main entrance of one of the self-storage sites was left open for more than one hour which created safety concerns. This incident happened because a tenant forgot to close the door before leaving the facility. This activity was captured by Energybox platform as shown in the below sensor reading graph.
Solution: Our Automated Notification System, immediately alerted the customer to take a look and solve this alarming problem. Now, Energybox monitors all the doors across all sites. Facility owners and managers monitor their operations remotely through the Energybox platform.
Energybox’s Complete IoT Solution
Energybox’s Monitoring and Automation Solutions offer a competitive advantage to facility managers who want to improve their tenant’s experience with optimized ambient conditions and security of their belongings while saving money and energy. Remote monitoring of equipment allows managers to take control of their lighting, ventilation, air-conditioning, door security and much more.
