The Objectives

The Hotel aims to reduce resources consumption and waste, with proven returns on investment within 5 years (by 2023). Concretely, the objectives are to:
• reduce water consumption by 20%
• reduce electricity consumption by 35%
• reduce gas consumption by 25%
• increase reactivity (from several days to 15 minutes)
• improve the footprint through a reduction of the CO2 emissions by 20% and by improving the PEB from D to B

The Strategy

Before starting, Sensorea performed a benchmark analysis based on the energy performance of tertiary buildings (PEB), which allowed to identify the PEB objective. The strategy followed includes two main elements : real-time monitoring and consumption forecasting.

In practice:

1. Data is collected automatically from meters, submeters, devices (chillers, HVAC, boilers and fiber optic sensors).
2. Water, gas, electricity, temperatures, humidy and CO2 are monitored in real time in order to detect and react fast to any anomaly.
3. Behavioural models based on thermal principles and validated by historical data from previous years, they allow to forecast consumption precisely. Based on the expected consumption, Sensorea experts identify drifts and react immediately.
4. Reports are generated periodically to inform management, technical teams and client

The solution

Monitoring of Water consumption to identify leaks and prevent financial losses

Monitoring water consumption allows The Hotel Brussels to prevent water leaks. As soon as an overconsumption is identified, an alarm is triggered by e-mail to the technical team. For example, during lockdown, the system allowed to identify and resolve a leak in just 2 days (on the 27th of April in the dashboard below). Without such a system, it would have taken between 1 and 2 weeks or until the reception of the utility invoices. The financial gain is important as water leakages have also an impact on electricity and gas consumption (pumps, chillers, boilers,…).

Consumption forecasting to identify disparities and optimise performance

1. Creation of behavioural models : Sensorea creates consumption models based on weather data, occupancy and historical data. These models allow to forecast the hourly
consumption for each day.
2. Identification of drifts: by comparing the threshold consumption (black line) to the monitored consumption, Sensorea identifies disparities in real time and reacts immediately.
3. Identification of the PEB objective: by comparing the monitored consumption to the PEB objective (the green line
represents B performance).
4. Alerts: they are generated and sent automatically to the technical team onsite via email in order to notify them of abnormal situations based on predefined thresholds.

The expertise of a team

In order to get the most out of the data, it is essential to count
on experts who know the building and who can interpret the
data and react promptly when an unanticipated abnormal
profile emerges.
In the graph on the right for example, we can see that the boiler was starting to behave abnormally. The malfunctions were not significant enough to trigger an alert. However, the chief engineer, thanks to his expertise and knowledge of the building and equipment, was able to interpret this data and thus prevent a boiler failure.

« Energis allows us to easily manage energy and to react quickly to anomalies. After investigation, and actions in the building, it allows to follow impacts of our actions and to ensure that we are on the right path to achieve our objective of decreasing the environmental footprint. »