SkyFoundry is nominated for the ControlTrends 2012 Best Automation Graphics Tool of The Year. The following was submitted by the SkyFoundry Team for review by our world wide Control Trends Community:
SkySpark Introduction from SkyFoundry on Vimeo.
SkyFoundry SkySpark®
The Internet of Things is here! Smart networked devices are now generating vast quantities of data about our homes, buildings, energy usage, and environment. Whether it be building automation systems, electric meters, thermostats, appliances or even individual sensors – smart devices of all types are now capable of communicating valuable information about their environment and operation.
Access to this data opens up new opportunities for the creation of value-added services to help businesses reduce cost and to identify opportunities to enhance operations through improved control, and replacement of capital equipment. But access to the data is just the first step in that journey. The new challenge is how to manage and derive value from the exploding amount of data available from these smart and connected devices. SkyFoundry’s SkySpark® analytics platform directly addresses this challenge by automatically analyzing data from diverse systems to “find what matters”, allowing businesses to transform the data provided by building automation systems, metering systems and other smart devices into actionable information.
Moving to Data Driven facility Management – When we implement a building automation system we take our best understanding of the building and equipment systems and write control sequences based on our assumptions, past experience and the information available at the time. Those control sequences do exactly what we “tell” them to do – no more, no less. And while they are often called “feedback loops” the only feedback they respond to is the value of the variable they are attempting to control – the supply air temperature, the room temperature, etc.
Who is watching to verify that what they are doing is right? That the control strategies were well designed? That the assumptions were correct? That they are still running as expected and haven’t been interfered with or overridden by human operators – a common problem.
Buildings are too complex for this to be done solely by humans. There is just too much data, and the equipment systems are too complex. Never mind the fact that almost all buildings are different. Add to that the impact of economic decisions that have resulted in fewer people being available with the necessary knowledge of systems and it’s easy to see why buildings rarely operate at maximum efficiency.
But the good news is that the keys to addressing this situation are finally here. Advanced “operational analytics” software can now automatically consume our data and identify the issues that matter to operators, owners and managers.
SkySpark® takes the data from all types of systems, and automatically identifies issues, patterns, deviations, anomalies and opportunities for savings, helping operators understand how their facilities are really operating and where their time and resources are best spent to improve operations.
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