A Perspective on the IoT for Buildings As the community of professionals, service companies, engineers, and vendors that serve building owners, we should be doing all we can to clarify and simplify these topics and reduce the noise around IoT technologies for buildings.

John Petze, Co-Founder, Partner, SkyFoundry

The term IoT seems to be used almost everywhere these days. A steady stream of articles talks about the IoT and the “IoT market” often implying it is a single tangible thing. In many ways, it’s good to have a simple name for something we want to talk about - how else would we hype things? And, the focus on IoT term has been helpful in that it has created societal awareness of the capabilities and benefits of new technologies for connecting and managing devices and deriving value from their data. That said, the hype being generated around the IoT is leading to confusion among building owners and operators.

The reality is that there is no such thing as the “IoT” or IoT market.” In fact, the Internet of Things is not a thing at all. The IoT refers to a range of technologies that allow us to connect devices and their data in new, more cost-effective ways to achieve new and better solutions for owners and operators. Core to this is the ability to collect and analyze equipment and operational data to provide more cost-effective and performance-effective operating results for buildings.

The Search for Simplicity
Managing and operating buildings isn’t simple. There are many technologies involved, from the "hard" assets - the physical equipment - chillers, air handlers, that require good old mechanical engineering knowledge and skills, to the many computer-based systems that require IT, data and computer skills.  Now we add to that a new generation of “IoT” technologies.

It is also important not to forget the many "constituencies" involved in designing, constructing operating and managing buildings. They have different responsibilities and perspectives based on their roles and the incentives that surround their piece of the puzzle. It is not uncommon for there to be a lack of coordination among these groups and budgeting systems often make it difficult to invest in technologies that cross budgetary boundaries and areas of responsibilities. Combine these factors together, and we have very fertile ground for confusion and impediments to the successful use of IoT technologies and device data.

As the community of professionals, service companies, engineers, and vendors that serve building owners, we should be doing all we can to clarify and simplify these topics and reduce the noise around IoT technologies for buildings. We should resist becoming an echo chamber for the hype that naturally occurs around new, and admittedly, exciting technology.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Some ideas on things we can do to help:

• Understand, and then educate owners and operators. Owners need to understand not only the value of using IoT technologies, devices and their data, but also the requirements and challenges involved – from the challenges associated with acquiring data from older systems, to roadblocks created by proprietary technology, to assessment of IoT supplier business models and data ownership, to the need to involve and educate operating staffs to ensure investments in IoT technologies provide their intended benefits.
  

• Communicate the key concepts of using IoT devices and their data – from a starting point of visualizing operational data to enable humans to manually perform analysis (think charts and graphs), to technology to perform automated analytics to detect patterns that represent faults, deviations, anomalies and opportunities for improved performance, to the use of tools like machine learning. We need to help owners and operators by providing clear education on where the various tools and technologies fit, and what they are capable of, and what will be required of them to derive maximum benefit from investment in these technologies.
  

• Interact with young people entering the industry to make them aware of how exciting these technologies are, and how they can build exciting and successful careers by applying these leading-edge technologies to the built environment.
  

The next great wave of change in operating buildings is upon us. While it won’t result in an overnight reinvention of the buildings market, it’s up to us to take hold of these technologies and challenges and deliver value to owners and operators.

About the Author

John Petze is a partner and Co-Founder of  SkyFoundry, the developers of SkySpark™, an analytics platform for building, energy and equipment data. John has over 30 years of experience in building automation, energy management, and M2M, having served in senior-level positions for manufacturers of hardware and software products including Tridium, Andover Controls, and Cisco Systems. At SkyFoundry he works to bring the next generation of information analytics to the “Internet of Things.”

More information on SkySpark® analytics is available at www.skyfoundry.com