High Rise / Low Carbon: Nimble Brains for Complex Buildings

As buildings transitioned from analog to digital systems, controls were dominated by platforms with high financial and educational entry thresholds. But with a movement towards relying on natural energy flow and the emergence of ubiquitous, sophisticated software, low-cost sensors and compute devices, and reliable wireless communication, our ability to orchestrate complex systems in buildings has transformed. It is now possible to capture and redeploy heat throughout a building, continually optimizing this thermal dispatch model in real time and keeping HVAC systems running at the highest possible level of performance, without cumbersome hardware.

Resource Efficient Decarbonization requires a high level of integration and optimization between legacy HVAC systems, heat pumps, thermal storage, and thermal distribution systems in large buildings. Leveraging software to enable grid interactivity through building thermal management can radically reduce the amount of grid-level electric battery storage necessary, allow for better utilization of renewable electricity, smooth building demand peaks, and reduce the need for peaking natural gas power generation.

During this High Rise / Low Carbon series program, hear from experts who are deploying these technologies and utilizing Resource Efficient Decarbonization strategies to optimize performance in low-carbon retrofits.