Control Network Newsletter
Contemporary Controls Helps Make Small Buildings Smarter
Contemporary Controls is a partner in the Smarter Small Buildings Campaign, a multi-year effort sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy, to help small-to-medium commercial building owners or managers improve energy efficiency and occupant comfort and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Managed by Berkeley Lab, the Campaign is geared toward small-to-medium sized commercial buildings (up to 75,000 ft2) equipped with packaged rooftop units (RTUs). The Campaign is looking for building owners/managers who want to add controls or enhance their use of existing controls.
According to a Campaign fact sheet, small-to-medium buildings account for 94% of the buildings in the U.S., and less than 5% of buildings have a smart thermostat installed. Today, off the shelf controls technology can enable savings of 10-20% on energy consumption.
Participants will receive free technical assistance and resources to support selection, installation, and/or ongoing management of HVAC controls for packaged RTUs. The Campaign also offers recognition for exemplary installation or operations processes and would like to hear from building owners/managers interested in gaining recognition for their achievements.
The Campaign partners with control technology vendors/manufacturers—such as Contemporary Controls—HVAC contractors, utilities, and other organizations to accelerate adoption of best-practice rooftop HVAC operations.
"Contemporary Controls is honored be a part of this project. We have a proven track record of helping customers integrate automated controls into existing buildings that have legacy systems or no systems at all, without having to do a costly retrofit," said Harpartap Parmar, Director of Product Management at Contemporary Controls. "Our BASstat communicating thermostats provide integration into BACnet/IP or BACnet MS/TP networks, with automated control for energy savings and occupant comfort. This can be used as a starting point to introduce automation which will improve sustainability and energy efficiency. Once a building owner sees the benefits of building automation, they will be open to expand the system."
To learn more about the Smarter Small Buildings Campaign, visit https://smartersmallbuildings.lbl.gov/.