Zurich UK launches new smart building devices

Zurich UK has launched a new smart building proposition to help businesses cut property losses and boost sustainability.

The self-installed devices monitor the real-time ‘health’ of buildings, allowing firms to increase operational efficiencies, reduce risk and optimise energy use to support carbon reduction.

Known as Zurich insite, the technology taps into operational and environmental data flowing around buildings, collecting as many as 26,000 data points every hour ranging from building temperature and air quality to occupancy levels and lighting.

The data provides actionable insights to improve efficiency and identify issues with buildings before they would normally be detected.

Louise Kerrigan, Head of Property and Energy at Zurich Resilience Solutions, said:

“Not only do smart sensors improve a building’s efficiency, they also reduce risks. Insights from the sensors can help detect dangers in real-time, alerting building managers and helping them take action to mitigate or remove threats before they become loss events. This saves costs, improves business resilience and keeps people safe.”

Mark Budd, Zurich UK’s Head of Innovation, said:

“Unlocking the power of data is the key to achieving safer, smarter and more sustainable buildings. By providing more effective controls over energy usage, this technology can help businesses to enhance their efficiency, reduce utility costs and promote a greener workplace. This is even more critical as firms adapt to changing occupancy levels brought on by agile working.”

Data collected by the sensors is analysed against Zurich’s risk grading factors and best practice on sustainability, giving customers a score on their building’s performance.

The performance scores are presented to customers in a 60-day health check report and real-time dashboard. The health check suggests ways for clients to gain sustainable savings and reduce risk, while the live dashboard allows users to set notification alerts when specific data points hit set thresholds.

Zurich has installed the sensors in a number of its offices space in the UK to focus on risk monitoring and operational improvements. It has already saved an estimated £7,500 per building, when the data revealed heating and cooling systems were in conflict at times.

Zurich predicts that most clients will generate a return on their investment in the devices within the first six months.

The sensors can be used in a variety of buildings, including manufacturing facilities, schools, education settings, hotels, offices, data centres, warehousing and retail buildings. They plug into existing building management systems and can be installed by building owners, making them easily scalable and affordable.

Zurich is holding a webinar – Smart Buildings: Managing Risk with Data – for facilities managers and risk and insurance professionals who want to know more about how data can be used to manage property risk. The webinar will take place on Tuesday 14 June at 2pm.

• Register to join the webinar by clicking here

Case studies

Zurich’s offices

Zurich installed the devices at some of its offices spaces in the UK to focus on risk monitoring and operational improvements.

A single observer device collects as many as 26,000 data points from the existing building management system. This is augmented with a matrix of additional sensors monitoring mechanical and electrical components not connected to the central building management system.

In total over 50,000 data points per hour are collected and transmitted in real time to cloud storage via 4G. The data includes measures of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, pumps, boilers, temperature, flow, internal & external physical temperature, humidity, occupancy and lighting, emergency valves, fire protection and fire detection.

• A hot spell in spring led to a gradual humidity build-up in an air handling unit in a communications room. This was compounded by a blockage in a condensate pump. If this had continued undetected the communications room would have had an escape of water, potentially leading to serious computer processing and network outage. By detecting the issue, the devices helped Zurich to avoid an estimated loss of over £100,000, plus business interruption.
• The cooling and heating systems were found to be working against each other creating energy inefficiency and undue mechanical system stress.
• The heating activation times were brought forward to 7am and shut off at 4pm in Spring and Autumn as the building was sufficiently warm. The energy saving from changing the heating activation times was estimated at up to 15% or £7,500 annually per building.

Bakery

During a pilot, the technology was rolled out to a bakery with more than 30 sites across Europe. These large-scale bakeries have raw material storage, ovens, refrigeration, offices, and product storage.

A single observer device collects 6,000 data points from the existing building management system. This is augmented with a matrix of additional sensors monitoring high-risk components not connected to the system.

In total over 24,000 data points per hour are collected and transmitted in real time to cloud storage via 4G. The data includes measures of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, pumps, ovens, boilers, temperature, flow, internal & external physical temperature, humidity, occupancy & lighting, emergency valves, and fire protection.

• Gradual build up in humidity levels were identified in a specific Air Handling Unit (AHU) over a six to eight week period. The issue was not physically visible and would not have been identified until after the failure occurred, resulting in a major escape of water and damaged AHU. By detecting the build-up of humidity in roof top units that could cause an escape of water into the main building, the devices helped to avoid an estimated loss of €160,000 plus a business interruption claim for loss of revenue and production time. The cooling & heating systems are found to be consistently working against each other creating energy inefficiency & undue mechanical system stress.
• The building management system’s configuration was causing some systems, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning to run during shutdown periods with no demand for operation.
• Data from electrical substations indicated high power consumption during shutdown periods.
• Energy savings estimated at 5% or €60k annually, from eliminating competing cooling and heating systems and demand for heating or cooling during out of operational hours. Savings based on continuous monitoring of the key industrial chillers in food processing areas, with comparisons across different climate seasons and different production cycles.