Legal Office Case Study
Building:
Single story, masonry and steel frame construction office building
Square Footage:
29,073 SF
Built:
2013
Location:
Rochester, NY
Background:
- Single story law firm office building with open concept workspace, offices and conference rooms.
- Packaged rooftop units with single stage heating and cooling.
- Honeywell programmable thermostats.
Issues:
- No visibility to equipment performance.
- No ability to assess and track energy savings.
- Reliant on tenant discomfort to identify issues.
- Must be on site and at the control to make adjustments.
Cognition Install:
Results Summary:
- 15% reduction in HVAC equipment energy use from tools to maximize unoccupied time and range.
- Equipment Issue Intelligence identified two equipment issues over 6 months. Root cause of both was rooftop HVAC equipment control board failures.
- Equipment insights for preventative maintenance identified 5/13 units managing the periphery of the building account for 90%+ heating runtime during cold weather months, while a different 5/13 units account for 70%+ cooling runtime during warm weather months.
- Data-driven conversations to manage comfort with tenants, and conversations with HVAC Pros.
“And I already shut down an argument with one of my more “thermos-sensitive” employees using it, so win-win!”
“We never really think about how hard it is to remember all of the little issues, and [the Equipment Notes] section really puts it all in front of your face. Besides the normal equipment issues that have popped up, we are keeping right where we should be.”
Energy Savings
With Cognition tools you are running your HVAC equipment less compared to your programmable thermostat settings because:
- Cognition automatic management between unoccupied and occupied ranges has extended the number of hours when an unoccupied schedule can run, and expanded the unoccupied range
- The Schedule exceptions feature extends unoccupied hours to one-off holidays
With 31 hours (+18.5%) now running on an unoccupied schedule, you have reduced HVAC equipment energy use by ~15%
Energy Insights
Cognition tracks your equipment runtime and converts it to a kWh estimate for greater clarity on how your comfort preferences impact your utility bill. From January 1 to June 30, 2023 we calculate that your HVAC equipment has used ~730kWh of electricity.*
*We use the squarefoot of your space and the typical energy use values of light commercial rooftop units (RTUs) to convert your equipment runtime into kWh estimates.
Equipment Issue Identification
Cognition actively reviews how your HVAC equipment operates and compares current performance against past performance to proactively alert you to issues so you can avoid service disruptions and unnecessary emergency costs.
On Jan 28 and June 23 our Equipment Issue algorithm identified degradations in equipment performance. In both instances, the root problem was a failure of the HVAC equipment control board, which was solutioned by your HVAC firm.
Building Insights
The Cognition Data explorer tracks how your space behaves at the zone/room level, offering a quick visual overview of how your space and HVAC equipment are behaving. Orange bars indicate heating calls and Blue cooling calls to the HVAC equipment. Historical data illustrates how different zones and equipment behave, and how preventative maintenance needs can differ.
Zone N2 – John’s office, is a northwest facing corner office. The consistent Green indoor temperature pattern from December through March illustrates HVAC equipment that effectively managed through the peaks and lows of the outside temperature (Grey line) to keep the space comfortable.
As the seasons changed, runtime was low through temperate April. As temperatures warmed, the tenant’s preferences shifted, illustrated by the slight upward trend in the green indoor temperature pattern.. This is typical as tenants wear fewer layers and the experience of AC air on the skin is chilling causing comfort ranges to shift upward..
In contrast, Zone S2 is an interior office space with no external facing windows. As illustrated by the lack of heating calls from December through April, comfort in this zone was managed by the zones around it. The HVAC equipment for S2 had effectively no wear and tear in these months. As the weather warmed through May, this space has accounted for 20% of cooling runtime. Zone N2 – John’s office, is a northwest facing corner office. The consistent Green indoor temperature pattern from December through March illustrates HVAC equipment that effectively managed through the peaks and lows of the outside temperature (Grey line) to keep the space comfortable. As the seasons changed, runtime was low through temperate April. As temperatures warmed, the tenant’s preferences shifted, illustrated by the slight upward trend in the green indoor temperature pattern.. This is typical as tenants wear fewer layers and the experience of AC air on the skin is chilling causing comfort ranges to shift upward..
During prime heating months, the majority of your runtime came from zones along the periphery of the building – N4, S4, N2, N1 and S1. The HVAC units associated with these zones will require preventative maintenance much sooner than the others.
In contrast, during warmer weather, the equipment for zones S2, N7, S3, N6, and S5 in the center of the building run more frequently to cool these spaces.
