Business Specialties
Technology
Jul 10, 2009
By: Adam Perrotta, News Writer
The commercial property sector has been increasingly concerned with energy efficiency for some years now. With ever-dwindling and nonrenewable resources being consumed at faster rates than ever, the industry has been among the leaders in efforts to increase efficiency. And the current economic downturn has only served to render efficiency even more vital to property owners’ bottom lines. Aiming to serve the growing demand, Scientific Conservation Inc. has just launched a software program that it says will enable owners to save up to 25 percent on energy costs. And for clients such as Santa Clara County in California, that savings is more important now than ever.
The program, dubbed SCIwatch (pronounced “SKY-watch”), is what’s know as an automated continuous commissioning (ACC) platform—meaning that, once installed, it automatically can predict, detect, diagnose and prioritize the system faults and anomalies that reduce energy efficiency in commercial buildings.
“With…SCIwatch, we have figured out a way to package and greatly simplify the…tasks of analyzing a facility’s energy consumption,” noted David Wolins, CEO of Scientific Conservation Inc. As a result, said Wolins (pictured), “Commercial buildings can now be monitored continuously and comprehensively to detect anomalies.”
Santa Clara County was one of the first clients to sign on for the SCIwatch system. California’s legislature has mandated that the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the next 10 years, and so the County knew it had to take steps to improve the efficiency of its property holdings. The County operated several facilities that were racking up high energy costs—most notably, the 16-story East Wing office building, which houses many county government agencies. After some preliminary exploration of the building’s inefficiency was unable to unearth enough specifics, the County turned to SCIwatch.
“The speed with which SCIwatch discovered system problems was nothing short of remarkable,” noted Lin Ortega, utilities engineer program manager for Santa Clara County. “Not only did they locate the problem quickly, they also were able to pinpoint the source of these problems,” he said.
For Santa Clara, SCIwatch’s automation is a vital aspect of what makes the system so effective. Ortega identified the ability of SCIwatch to “continuously monitor and measure…performance so you can detect problems before systems break.” Without such automation, Ortega noted, a problem could occur that would allow a building to operate inefficiently for a lengthy period of time before it is discovered, diagnosed and fixed.
Such an inefficiency could do real damage to an owner’s bottom line, especially given today’s high energy costs. The phenomenon called “energy drift” can cause a building to lose 17 percent of its energy efficiency every one to two years, according to Scientific Conservation. Energy drift can be caused by any number of factors, from something as simple as a clogged filter, to a larger-scale electrical or HVAC system fault. And with electricity costs running close to $2.00 per square foot, pretty soon an owner is looking at a significant financial hit should an issue persist unchecked. Indeed, since installing SCIwatch, Santa Clara is saving $126,000 in annual energy savings on the East Wing building alone.
SCIwatch is available to clients for a one-time installation fee, as well as a quarterly subscription rate, based on each facility’s size, as well as the service level the client desires: Silver, Gold or Platinum.
By: Adam Perrotta, News Writer
The commercial property sector has been increasingly concerned with energy efficiency for some years now. With ever-dwindling and nonrenewable resources being consumed at faster rates than ever, the industry has been among the leaders in efforts to increase efficiency. And the current economic downturn has only served to render efficiency even more vital to property owners’ bottom lines. Aiming to serve the growing demand, Scientific Conservation Inc. has just launched a software program that it says will enable owners to save up to 25 percent on energy costs. And for clients such as Santa Clara County in California, that savings is more important now than ever.
The program, dubbed SCIwatch (pronounced “SKY-watch”), is what’s know as an automated continuous commissioning (ACC) platform—meaning that, once installed, it automatically can predict, detect, diagnose and prioritize the system faults and anomalies that reduce energy efficiency in commercial buildings.
“With…SCIwatch, we have figured out a way to package and greatly simplify the…tasks of analyzing a facility’s energy consumption,” noted David Wolins, CEO of Scientific Conservation Inc. As a result, said Wolins (pictured), “Commercial buildings can now be monitored continuously and comprehensively to detect anomalies.”
Santa Clara County was one of the first clients to sign on for the SCIwatch system. California’s legislature has mandated that the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the next 10 years, and so the County knew it had to take steps to improve the efficiency of its property holdings. The County operated several facilities that were racking up high energy costs—most notably, the 16-story East Wing office building, which houses many county government agencies. After some preliminary exploration of the building’s inefficiency was unable to unearth enough specifics, the County turned to SCIwatch.
“The speed with which SCIwatch discovered system problems was nothing short of remarkable,” noted Lin Ortega, utilities engineer program manager for Santa Clara County. “Not only did they locate the problem quickly, they also were able to pinpoint the source of these problems,” he said.
For Santa Clara, SCIwatch’s automation is a vital aspect of what makes the system so effective. Ortega identified the ability of SCIwatch to “continuously monitor and measure…performance so you can detect problems before systems break.” Without such automation, Ortega noted, a problem could occur that would allow a building to operate inefficiently for a lengthy period of time before it is discovered, diagnosed and fixed.
Such an inefficiency could do real damage to an owner’s bottom line, especially given today’s high energy costs. The phenomenon called “energy drift” can cause a building to lose 17 percent of its energy efficiency every one to two years, according to Scientific Conservation. Energy drift can be caused by any number of factors, from something as simple as a clogged filter, to a larger-scale electrical or HVAC system fault. And with electricity costs running close to $2.00 per square foot, pretty soon an owner is looking at a significant financial hit should an issue persist unchecked. Indeed, since installing SCIwatch, Santa Clara is saving $126,000 in annual energy savings on the East Wing building alone.
SCIwatch is available to clients for a one-time installation fee, as well as a quarterly subscription rate, based on each facility’s size, as well as the service level the client desires: Silver, Gold or Platinum.
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