Asset Condition Monitoring Management: Guide to Smart Use
Investing in smart building infrastructure can transform your management efforts for the entire structure or facility. That means everything from optimizing energy efficiency to improving indoor air quality (IAQ). Asset condition monitoring (CM) is a prime example of a smart building technology that can deliver multiple benefits simultaneously. It involves using sensors to provide continuous, real-time assessments of HVAC equipment, not just occasional inspections.
On the surface, CM may not seem that different from standard preventative maintenance procedures since it involves predicting when maintenance is needed. However, the smart use of data can pinpoint equipment and systems that need adjustments before repair becomes necessary. CM can potentially improve the operation of the entire building by reducing energy use, lowering repair and operational costs, and enhancing indoor air quality.
Asset condition monitoring management tracks equipment health to predict failures before they happen. IAQ and asset health are deeply interconnected because failing equipment leads to poor air quality. That's why so many facility managers are choosing to upgrade now rather than later. Embracing a more advanced monitoring system can improve your facility management workflows and provide a surprising return on investment (ROI).
Modern Asset Condition Monitoring Management Vs. Traditional Maintenance
Moving to a predictive maintenance strategy means ending ineffective reactive or scheduled models that leave you at risk of costly downtime. Reactive repairs mean downtime is guaranteed because it's only triggered by breakdowns, increasing workload and emergency repair costs. Scheduled maintenance still creates opportunities for unexpected failures that take equipment offline for hours.
Asset condition monitoring focuses on optimizing the maintenance schedule for each piece of HVAC equipment. It creates a 'brain' for smart facility management that can minimize losses and unnecessary maintenance alike. You can track various performance factors with the combination of sensors and smart building software platforms and catch subtle indicators of pending failure, like increasing vibrations, sound output, or internal temperatures.
Even other forms of predictive maintenance, such as those based on manufacturers' recommended maintenance schedules, can't compete with CM. These are often based solely on the calendar and can’t adapt to changing conditions over the seasons or varying projects affecting your equipment. CM lets you know when a single chiller or boiler is failing faster than expected, highlighting subtle signs of worsening performance that indicate the need for attention.
Smart building designs regularly implement CM sensors to track the performance of HVAC units, chillers, and boilers. This optimizes energy use and performance while also detecting the perfect moment for maintenance.
The IoT Tech Behind Real-Time Equipment Health Tracking
The key types of analysis behind real-time equipment health tracking include:
Lubricant spectrometry, tracking everything from contaminants to viscosity over time
Vibration analysis, providing waveforms of equipment vibration that can indicate issues with rotating HVAC equipment like condensers and pumps
Thermal imaging and probes, capturing temperature measurements in compressor fluids and near boiler heating elements to indicate slow loss of function or overheating
Electrical signature analysis, measuring the current and voltage in essential HVAC and chiller motors.
IoT sensors help capture all this data. Of course, it's not enough to simply gather real-time data for assessment. Tracking increasing vibration patterns or rising temperatures in your HVAC equipment must lead to real action in real time, such as an inspection from a technician. Acting upon the data you gather generates genuine value as you get to optimize performance in a timely manner without spending resources on unnecessary maintenance.
From Data To Action: Creating Predictive Workflows
There are four main steps to implementing this kind of facility management monitoring strategy:
Identifying opportunities for CM
Installing real-time sensors appropriate for each location and system
Establishing baseline operation parameters and range limits
Defining routines for responding to deviations from the baseline
The exact management strategies and workflows for your condition-based maintenance depend largely on your facility. For example, a school running on a tight budget may want to identify the last possible chance for repairs before failure. A hospital is likely to take a much more pre-emptive approach to cleaning ducts and replacing essential ventilation units for IAQ.
The key is to determine what provides the best ROI for your specific maintenance challenges. CM reduces downtime by helping you detect when vibrations or temperatures rise or drop outside the usual parameters. CM can reduce the workload by automating the process of analyzing sensor data, issuing alerts, and creating prioritized work requests.
The Bottom Line: ROI Of Proactive Asset Management
When you constantly monitor assets and remain active in their maintenance, you help them run more efficiently and last longer before needing replacement. This provides double savings — you get to reduce energy consumption and capital expenditures at the same time.
HVAC equipment like condensers, chillers, and boilers run efficiently when small problems like clogged filters and worn bearings are resolved promptly, before they can grow into bigger problems that cause downtime. That means you need to know your equipment is struggling long before the more obvious signs occur, such as rising operation costs, more frequent repair calls, and complaints from tenants or occupants.
AI-powered software can help you detect problems early without manual intervention. It lets you maximize your facility management ROI from a single investment in AI and IoT for energy efficiency. Instead of spending excessive time and effort assessing IoT sensors, you can rely on AI-powered software to generate automatic warnings under your preferred parameters.
CM also makes it easier to meet the requirements of facility energy-efficiency programs like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and the WELL Building Standard. It allows you to generate reports that show precisely how you’ve minimized HVAC energy use.
Why A Unified Platform Is the Smart Building Gold Standard
Continuous monitoring plays a valuable role in facility maintenance, from protecting indoor air quality to preventing costly HVAC breakdowns that require emergency repairs. Attune specializes in tracking IAQ data and gives you real-time visibility into your critical building assets with the comprehensive Asset Condition Monitoring Platform.
We provide a network of sensors you can deploy to gather the necessary data and analyze the current and historical performance of your HVAC assets. This allows you to optimize your HVAC efficiency, giving you holistic visibility instead of leaving you guessing about blind spots in your data.
Obtain a new level of insight to power up your decisions with Attune. Contact us today to find out more about how we can enhance your HVAC tracking and optimization efforts.
