Environmental Monitoring Systems: Ultimate Commercial Guide

Blog

May 26

Beyond the Basics: What Modern Environmental Monitoring Systems Actually Do

Commercial environmental quality monitoring systems use sensors to collect data on air and water quality, water leaks, and energy use. IoT-powered sensors transmit the data to a reporting platform through an internet connection.

Modern, connected systems are always collecting and reporting data. Your building managers get a real-time view of building systems. Before IoT systems, you likely checked air quality manually and looked for leaks in person. Or you waited until a tenant complained that the roof tiles were dripping before you knew you had a leak.

Environmental monitoring systems detect small changes in air, water, and energy and send alerts. You can identify and fix problems before a tenant is ankle-deep in water. Set preventive maintenance alerts on crucial building systems so you’re not dealing with costly downtime for a big repair.

The Core Pillars of a Total Building Awareness Strategy

Creating a welcoming environment isn’t just in the air. There are five types of environmental monitoring:

Air
Soil
Waste
Water
Noise

Monitoring four layers of environmental quality makes your building more appealing and boosts your building’s efficiency:

Indoor Air Quality: Air quality monitoring systems measure CO2 levels, dust and other particles, and volatile organic compounds. The best indoor air quality monitoring solution measures multiple air quality metrics in one system.
Leak Detection: These systems use sensors to measure pipe temperatures, humidity levels, and other data to detect leaks or freezing pipes.
Energy Usage: A total building environmental monitoring system will measure how much energy you’re consuming across the building to pinpoint high-use areas.
Noise Levels: These systems measure sound levels and internal acoustic conditions.

Tracking indoor air quality, leaks, and energy usage impacts your tenants’ health and satisfaction. These components of environmental monitoring also ease building operations. You identify small issues before they become big, expensive problems.

The Business Case for Real-Time Environmental Data

Buying and installing an environmental monitoring system might seem like a waste of money. If your building owner is happy collecting data from utility bills and meter reads, you might struggle to get them on board the technology train.

But these systems offer cost savings in multiple ways. Solely relying on billing data doesn’t make your building more energy-efficient. You need real-time environmental data visibility on energy use and other systems to find and fix energy suckers.

For example, looking at sensor data may show that you are using a lot of electricity in your copy room. If this room is small and poorly ventilated, it heats up whenever someone is doing a big print job. Your employees might crank up the air conditioning to cool the room down. Moving your copy machine to a larger room with better ventilation prevents the issue, and your energy bill goes down.

Environmental monitoring an assessment for buildings also help you mitigate risks. A leak detection system alerts your building manager of potential pipe freezes instantly. If a pipe freezes over the weekend, maintenance can come run hot water through the system before it bursts and floods the building.

You also need water and energy consumption and air quality metrics on hand to meet environmental regulations. Modern systems collect data and automatically generate reports. All you have to do is print them and share them with investors or regulatory agencies.

From Data Centers to Classrooms: Monitoring in Action

Attune has worked with commercial clients ranging from real estate developers to educational institutions to customize environmental monitoring systems. Environmental monitoring for data centers keeps servers running smoothly.

Processors in these buildings generate a lot of heat. An environmental monitoring system that integrates with the smart HVAC system consistently monitors temperature and adjusts the cooling system. Your servers are running a mile a minute and sweating all the time. IoT sensors monitoring temperature and humidity levels are like the assistants fanning these servers as they run.

Data center operators rely on continuous building monitors to respond to unstable conditions without having to be on site all the time.

Hospitals have strict environmental regulations. Precise temperature, humidity, air pressure, and air quality levels keep the place sterile and reduce infection risk. EMS sensors transmit data to the HVAC and other systems to maintain these levels.

Building managers get notified of potential problems in real time, which keeps patients and hospital staff safe.

Indoor air quality contributes to a quality education. Try taking the SATs in a smoke-filled room and watch your score plummet. Educators understand how environmental quality makes students attentive and eager to learn.

School administrators use EMS systems to transmit data to their HVAC systems and automatically adjust ventilation and temperature. Some schools in older buildings have used EMS data to justify air purifiers in classrooms that can’t be redesigned for better ventilation.

Finding the Right Fit for Your Property Portfolio

Adding environmental monitoring systems to your building portfolio may seem daunting and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Attune’s IoT-based environmental monitoring solution is customizable. Our plug-and-play solution gives you the right blend of hardware to measure indoor air quality, detect leaks, and track your energy usage.

We have built modularity into our system to make it scalable and easy to install. You identify what you need to measure and add Attune hardware in each area. We offer devices that connect to sensors, meters, or devices you’re already using.

Our platform gives you real-time data in an easy-to-read format with helpful visualizations, dashboards, and alerts.