Energy Efficiency
Strategic Acquisitions of Startups in the Smart Buildings Space
February 1st, 2021Will Biden Inauguration Mark a Turning Point for the Smart Buildings Market?
January 20th, 2021HVAC Manufacturers Collaborate with Startups to Unlock the Potential of Connected Buildings
This article was written by Daphne Tomlinson, Senior Research Associate at Memoori. Two European HVAC manufacturers, ebm-papst and Belimo have accelerated investment in digital solutions and strategic partnerships with startups to enable rapid technology transfer for data-driven connected, energy efficient and healthy buildings. The ebm-papst group, headquartered in Mulfingen, Germany, is the world’s leading manufacturer […]
The Human Brain Represents a Vast Edge Computing Resource for Improving Buildings
The rise of smart building technology often makes energy efficiency feel like a technical problem, where better devices, configurations, and maintenance can provide the solution. Buildings are human spaces, however, where occupant decisions can be some of the most influential factor in how energy is used and how it can be saved. While some advanced […]
Why We Need to Develop Occupancy Sensor Testing for the Real World
Occupancy sensors and occupancy data analytics have promised a lot over the last decade but the number of commercial buildings that actually use them remains low. A 2019 study by Yamanda et al. estimated that only 6% to 10% of commercial buildings are equipped with occupancy sensors, showing just a 5% improvement from the start […]
New Distributed Energy Policies Ensure Utilities Will Be Living On the Edge
On September 17th, 2020, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the groundbreaking new Order 2222 that will enable aggregators of distributed energy resources (DERs) located on utility distribution systems or behind a customer meter, including small energy storage resources, to participate in organized wholesale electricity markets. This fundamental shift allows regional transmission organizations […]
Building Occupancy Levels Matter to the Environment
“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations — one that is spreading human suffering, infecting the global economy and upending people’s lives,” stated UN Secretary General António Guterres. “We must ensure that lessons are learned and that this crisis provides a watershed moment for health […]
Global Warming Leads to Building Cooling, Which Leads to More Global Warming
The global warming problem is driving a global cooling addiction that threatens to further accelerate climate change and challenge the reliability of electricity supply. The rising trajectory of air conditioning (AC) sales in both economically developed and developing nations has become a major concern for environmentalists and grid operators alike. Buildings, again, sit at the […]
Developing a ‘Stand-By Mode’ for Buildings in the COVID-Era
As COVID-19 cases rose and lockdown measures came into effect around the world, commercial building occupancy dropped dramatically, from 100% to almost zero in the space of a week in many places. Many might expect near-zero occupancy to mean near-zero energy consumption, but new data reveals that this is not the case. In fact, many […]
Ahead of the Curve? Big Telecom to Disrupt the Smart Building Industry in South Korea
The building was once the domain of the operational technology (OT) industry until things started getting smart. As buildings began to generate more and more data, the information technology (IT) industry leveraged their expertise to take its share of the evolving market. Today, OT firms race to develop the data capabilities that will allow them […]