Ready for Retrofit Rollout

Already in my previous blogs Digitization - Who pays for it? Who earns? and Why a property must become a Turing machine I explained the quantifiable benefits of digitalization initiatives for the various portfolio holders. As a reminder:

• Corporate real estate managers (CREMs) benefit from better utilization of space and resources as well as greater employee efficiency and comfort.

• Real estate developersmake the building available to portfolio holders in digitalized form, thereby increasing its sales value.

• Asset managers ensure the sustainable operation of their buildings, can provide better and even preventive maintenance and make their properties attractive to their tenants through 'digital readiness'.

• Facilities managers can offer services more cheaply, at a higher quality or offer some services for the first time.

We had also seen that one person's investment helps another - and can therefore be monetized several times over.

However, all of them must be able to demonstrate the cost/benefit ratio and justify investments. For CREMs, AMs and FMs, the question for portfolio holders is: How do I digitize them? And in such a way that I can leverage the economies of scale of a digital retrofit plan across the entire portfolio without having to proceed specifically for each property.

On the software side, it's easy: a building operating system like Thing-it only needs the relevant BIM data for each property - and the first step for many digitalization functions such as room, workplace and parking space booking or indoor/outdoor wayfinding is done. Wait a minute! We rarely have BIM data for existing buildings, don't we? No problem: thanks to artificial intelligence, essential BIM data can be easily extracted from floor plans - even if faded and smudged - and digitally reworked where necessary.

The main retrofitting costs arise on the hardware side - i.e. the integration of modern sensors and actuators for the various scenarios and the need to connect them on the power supply and data side.

Existing building (control) technology

Many existing buildings, even older ones, have a lot of building technology. In fact, the trend is to design primary systems in new buildings to be rather slim. However, building technology is of course digital. Computers and digital measurement and control technology have been around longer than the internet and smartphones. Even if some of the protocols used are a bit 'dusty', the whole zoo of DALI, m-Bus, modbus, KNX etc. can usually be homogenized to the incumbent BACnet with simple adapters - or this has long since been done. Transporting the corresponding data streams to the cloud, perhaps to cell phones and back is not rocket science.

New lighting technology

A somewhat larger retrofit project - but exciting in many respects - is the replacement of the lighting. People want LEDs as an energy-saving measure anyway and the increase in comfort through human-centric lighting makes the initiative even more attractive. As the LEDs can be operated with low voltage and low power consumption, and because they are to be intelligently controlled anyway, it makes sense to supply them via data cables with Power over Ethernet (PoE) or similar approaches. As data is already flowing anyway and because there is usually a good place for it 'above', i.e. in the ceiling, manufacturers such as Signify or wtec also supply sensors that can be connected to the power supply and data exchange via the Ethernet cable.

And because there is already electricity in the ceiling, the lights contain sensors as well as Bluetooth beacons - often incorrectly referred to as sensors - which do nothing other than emit identifiers similar to those from a GPS satellite and thus enable the positioning of people (or more precisely their mobile devices) in the building or the marking of so-called points of interest ('This dishwasher here is operated as follows'). Although this does not work quite as well as GPS positioning, the operating system manufacturers Apple and Google meticulously support this technology and the positioning modules in apps such as Thing-it have now achieved very good levels of accuracy. Bluetooth meshes can also be used to track objects in buildings such as projectors, tools or hospital beds.

Incidentally, light can also be used for positioning: Manufacturers such as Signify support the modulation of data onto visible light with their Visual Light Communication (VLC). This allows a cell phone to determine its position with an accuracy of up to 30 cm. The disadvantage: the camera must be on and the app must be in the foreground, but this may be acceptable for many applications in the office and retail environment.

The IoT jungle and the radio cadastre

However, a large proportion of modern sensor technology in particular cannot be wired easily and cheaply in terms of power and data. You may not have any LED/PoE ambitions at the moment or the cable to the room control unit, desk, soap dispenser or waste garbage can is simply not feasible. This is where wireless protocols such as EnOcean, LoRa, Zigbee and Bluetooth - or proprietary approaches such as disruptive technologies . The crux of the matter is that a power supply via radio waves - which the genius Nikola Tesla had already tried with his Wardenclyffe Tower - is not practical. The power cable is therefore not so easy to eliminate.

EnOcean takes a very elegant approach here: the energy required to operate the actuators and sensors is obtained from ambient energy sources: from sunlight or office light, from the heat of a heater or even piezoelectrically from the mechanical energy when a light switch is operated. The EnOceanians have established this technology in a large ecosystem of sensor manufacturers, so that you can get a sensor or actuator for almost anything imaginable. And if there isn't one yet - electronics are now being developed almost as agilely as software.

Tackle the retrofit bacon

As you can see, connecting the existing building technology, EnOcean-style wireless technology and replacing the lighting technology with LED/PoE are powerful approaches that can be rolled out easily and at moderate cost to existing buildings - regardless of who the owner is. The portfolio holder does not have to plan and organize such rollout measures themselves: Companies such as e-shelter security, GMS or even the industry giant BOSCH offer such rollouts for Thing-it as a general contractor. A digital retrofit can therefore perhaps be implemented more efficiently than many a vaccination strategy ...