Heating Controls Matter For Small Buildings



Boiler Control Systems – Why they matter even for Small Buildings.

The cost of energy to run large heating systems like those found in office buildings, schools, apartment complexes, government buildings, and industrial buildings can constitute some of the highest expenses in your P&L statement, coming right off your bottom line. For building managers, it’s a never-ending balance between keeping your residents or work area’s comfortable, without paying too much for energy.  As such it has become essential that building operations managers implement technology and systems that reduce these costs without compromising on comfort.  With utility bills running into the tens of thousands of dollars a month, even a fairly small percentage decrease in heating costs can quickly pay for the cost of installation of a modern boiler control system.

But what about the manager of smaller, say 20-unit garden apartment, with a single boiler in the boiler room? Will the hassle and expense of installing a commercial heating control be worth it?  How will they ever install it in my old building?  My boiler already has built in energy management controls and outdoor temperature monitoring, why do I need more than that?

It’s all about Return on Investment (ROI)

In the northern half of the country, heating costs can consume anywhere from 60 to 90% of your overall energy bill, especially during a cold winter, or older buildings with older boiler equipment or inefficient heating configurations. But in 2022, heating control manufacturers like Heat-Timer® have introduced systems that address the problems of retrofit, wireless integration, internet and mobile control, as well as maximizing heating efficiency.  Modern Heating Control systems like the Heat-Timer® Platinum Series, utilizes wireless space sensors to detect building temperatures and learns the heat-loss profile of your building. The control uses this information to carefully control one or more boilers and to anticipate demand and improve heating efficiency over time. 

State of the art heating controls like the Heat-Timer® Platinum, cost a small fraction of what the energy savings will be over time, even in a small building.  Studies have shown that a Heat-Timer® Platinum series control with space feedback can save anywhere from 15% to 30% more on fuel costs than a high efficiency boiler with just an onboard outdoor reset control, running on its own.  That’s because without the ability to get temperature feedback from inside the building(units), the adjustments a standalone boiler makes in firing are coarse, and ultimately limited.  We have seen many a super simply bypass the boiler control due to complaints from residents, making the boiler/s operation even less efficient. Without direction from a smart control that actually knows what’s going on with temperatures throughout the building, the so-called “smart boiler,” will fail to satisfy the human factors associated with heat management.

Save Money, Be Green

While this has been all about maximizing energy savings, there’s more to to be gained by implementing a state-of-the-art heating control system.  The environmental benefits are significant, as is any investment that reduces energy usage. This in turn lowers emissions and waste, contributing to a lower carbon footprint. 

Then there’s another kind of green benefit: government subsidies. To offset the initial investment of introducing energy efficient heating systems to your buildings,  there are often state and federal rebates to support these types of eco-friendly investments because they take pressure off the energy grid and are part of various state run “green” initiatives. Like New York City’s Local Law 97 which legally requires your commercial building to reduce its carbon footprint over the next several years.  Motivating, isn’t it?

Heating Control Systems By Heat Timer®

With energy prices skyrocketing, it has become easier than ever to justify the cost of a modern heating control system, whether your building is large or small.

Call your local Commercial HVAC contractor today.  And ask them about Heat-Timer®

Or contact us directly.  For questions or information visit https://heat-timer.com

Original blog posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/boiler-control-systems-why-they-matter-even-for-small-buildings/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Heat-Timer® Controls Can Make Your Building Management System Better

A  Building Management System  (BMS), also called Building Automation System (BAS) is a system that allows building managers to monitor and control a building’s major mechanical and safety systems in one central, easy-to-use application. A BMS can be thought of as a distributed network of building systems supervised and controlled in one central platform. The network of field controllers and other system controllers are distributed throughout the building and communicate to the BMS through a local area network. Field controllers can be general purpose, supplied by the BMS integrator and used for simple applications like lighting control, ventilation fans and building access. With a BMS, these applications can also be separated by zone, floor or other combinations to yield optimal HVAC performance. Field controllers for mission critical systems like fire alarms and heating are specialized and can act independently, as well as under BMS control. The Heat-Timer® Platinum se...
Read more

Water Safety For all Time

Image
Because of regulations put in place after the outbreak of legionnaire’s disease in the 90’s, installation of Domestic Hot Water (DHW) systems were changed for the sake of public safety.  All DHW systems, whether storage based or tankless, must now meet the conflicting requirements of holding DHW at a minimum of 140°F (60°C) to comply with such standards as OSHA Technical Manual Section 3 Chapter 7, to combat Legionella growth, while delivering hot water at a temperature that prevents scalding injuries in sinks and other fixtures. For decades, commercial plumbing installers have embraced a 3 way mixing valve or “tempering valve” as the perfect solution to the dilemma. Early tempering valves were controlled manually with fixed setpoints, but in 2020 we have evolved to using motorized valves under the direction of a standalone electronic control station that adds flexibility, reduces energy use, provides alerts and alarms, and generally improves the safety of any domestic ...
Read more

Heat-Timer’s Wireless Sensor Integration Just got a Big Upgrade

Image
  One of the most appealing parts of the Heat-Timer® Platinum Series is the wireless sensor connectivity that comes with our Building Net internet upgrade. There are thousands of clients who own an original, non-internet capable Platinum Series control and when they upgrade the control with our Building Net internet package they actually get two major elements: An Internet/Mobile ready control – The Building Net upgrade gives any platinum control the ability to be controlled via the internet through a simple browser connection to a web management portal, or via our free mobile app. In either case, reports, alarms, control settings, and real-time monitoring are all at your fingertips, wherever those fingertips may be. Wireless Sensor Integration – You can think of this as the second network access that is enabled by the Building Net upgrade. This internal Long Range network allows you to connect our wireless space sensors to the control, which by reporting temperatures in vari...
Read more