Welcome to CopperTree’s new Application Series – a collection of articles focused on answering key questions around relevant principles and concepts in our building analytics domain. Our main objective is to offer practical how-to advice, clarifying terminology and highlighting benefits help…
Fundamental Series on Building Analytics: How Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics Complement Energy Information Systems
After careful analysis and consultation, an energy manager at a large corporation has set an energy reduction target of 190 ekWh/m2 (18 ekWh/ft2) in her regional portfolio, a goal to be achieved within the next four years. Her team has prepared…
Fundamental Series on Building Analytics: How Does an Energy Information System Help Manage Building Energy and Why is it Needed?
The quote, “If you can measure it, you can manage it” is often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker. However, those who have done literature review believe that Renaissance mathematician and astronomer Rheticus coined the phrase back in the sixteenth century….
Fundamental Series on Building Analytics: What is Fault Detection and Diagnostics?
We have all experienced the frustration of not having our household appliances or electronic devices work as intended. During those times, we wish we would quickly know what is wrong, learn how to fix them, and move on with our lives….
A Case for Virtual Metering
This is a tale of two buildings, Building A and Building B. Both buildings have electrical and natural gas services provided by their local utility companies, with main physical meters sending energy consumption data to their respective Building Automation System (BAS)….
Auditing Building Comfort Series: Safety & Energy Use in Lab Spaces
Lab spaces in K-12 schools and especially on university campuses are notorious for consuming a large proportion of the overall energy expenditure in their building portfolios. This is largely because of the necessary safety measures that are taken to maintain a…
How to Invest In Occupant Comfort (& Get ROI)
6 variables drive an occupant’s thermal comfort: air temperature, surface temperature, humidity, clothing level, activity level, and air velocity, but these factors don’t tell the full story behind the maintenance involved in optimizing temperature in office buildings, commercial buildings, K-12 schools,…
How Analytics Help Facility Teams Transition to Preventative Maintenance
On the whole, facility teams struggle with a lack of resources. Dwindling workforce and budget cuts in parallel with steadily increasing responsibility contribute to a constant feeling of playing catch-up. Making the transition to preventative maintenance can seem, frankly, unattainable –…
How Facility Teams Can Avoid Information Overload (& Get Stuff Done)
Today, we have no lack of data for our buildings. The issue that we need to tackle as our world becomes more and more saturated with data is avoiding information overload and instead curating important data that is actionable in the…
Where is Facilities Management Headed in 2019?
by Andrew Marsh, Building Automation Expert With 2019 officially here, I thought I’d reflect on the changes I see coming in the industry for the New Year and beyond. The facility management space has been slow to change, but we are seeing…