Smart buildings are becoming more and more common in modern society. These buildings are able to communicate real-time conditions so that property managers can take action.
From water leaks to atmospheric conditions, smart buildings are useful for mitigating damage-related risks and ensuring tenant comfort.
Luckily, any building can be turned into a smart building through the proper installation of smart sensors. There are multiple types of these sensors, with various functions to make handling a property easier and more manageable.
But what exactly are smart building sensors? And how do they work?
Read on to learn everything about these smart devices, how they function, and which smart building sensors are the best for commercial use.
What are Smart Building Sensors?
Smart building sensors are smart devices that collect operational and environmental data of buildings, allowing you to take action as problems arise. These sensors are often part of a larger system of sensors, allowing you to monitor your building for a variety of potential issues.
Smart building sensors can provide information on things such as:
Humidity
Temperature
Water leaks
Smoke
Gas
Motion
As you can see, smart sensors represent excellent aid for property management. They are essential for preventive operations, including maintenance, security, and other emergency services.
What are the Benefits of Smart Building Sensors?
Because of their functions, smart building sensors have various benefits. You can use motion sensors to keep track of the movement of key safety equipment. Smoke detectors can augment existing fire safety systems to provide an additional layer of real-time protection beyond your certified primary detectors.
Not only can you monitor ongoing conditions, but you can also use collected data to cut costs. For example, temperature sensors can help you understand when certain areas have fluctuations in atmospheric conditions. This allows you to take energy and money-saving measures, such as the installation of automatic doors or automation of air conditioning functions.
Here are some benefits of smart building sensors:
Providing precise building insights
Making maintenance predictable
Reducing energy consumption
Improving overall building efficiency
Providing a comfortable experience for all occupants
Increasing productivity
Easy installation
Improving security
Reducing your building’s operational costs
Protecting your valuable assets
Smart sensors are an excellent choice for offices, hotels, food services, retail, and manufacturing services. They help these buildings operate better and provide clearer insight into everything happening inside and outside the building.
What types of smart building sensors are useful for commercial buildings?
There are a lot of different types of smart building sensors on the market, which may make it difficult to know which sensors would be beneficial for your building.
If you’re struggling with so many choices, follow the list below, and learn which building sensors are useful for commercial buildings.
Water Leak Sensors — These sensors are easy to install, and they come pre-configured for your property. They use WiFi to notify you whenever there’s a leak or any water presence near them, potentially saving you a lot of money on costly water damage repair. Our Droplet Pro™ and Droplet Duo™ are both great choices for commercial use.
Motion Sensors — Excellent for securing any type of equipment or belonging. These sensors detect vibrations and notify you when a particular thing is moved. Motiv™ is our motion sensor, which is often used to track safety equipment.
Temperature and Humidity Sensors — Excellent for always knowing the temperature and humidity levels in your building. Also, you can mount them anywhere and can easily adjust both through the mobile app, which is very convenient. We have two ambient sensors that allow you to track both temperature and humidity, Mercury™ and Mercury Surface™.
Smoke Detectors — These detectors help you reduce the potential of fire hazards by detecting smoke around them and alerting you. They are an excellent tool for increased safety which is why every commercial building should have them. Vapor™ is a combined smoke and heat sensor that can augment your existing fire safety systems by sending you real-time alerts.
Natural Gas Leak Sensors — These sensors can detect the presence of methane or natural gas and alert you and your staff. They are quick, reliable, and have a long battery lifespan.
Carbon Dioxide Detectors — This detector measures the CO2 levels in the air and will notify you when CO2 levels surpass the configurable threshold. Because of their function, these sensors allow you to improve your air quality and reduce health risks.
Occupancy Detectors — These can detect when someone enters or moves in a room. Many can give you data such as time of movement and the number of occupants, which can help you further optimize your building.
If you would like to learn more about the sensors Perceptive Things® has created for commercial buildings please check out our products page.
How Do Smart Building Sensors Work?
Smart building sensors collect data and provide you with the information in real time. They are able to wirelessly notify you of various changes in your building.
Although this is the basic functioning principle of smart building sensors, each type of sensor functions slightly differently, depending on the function they perform.
That is why it is best to have multiple sensors in place to detect a variety of potential issues.
What does a system of smart sensors do?
Most smart buildings rely on a system of smart sensors to monitor everything happening inside the building. But how does such a system operate? And what does it do?
A system of smart sensors provides 24/7 monitoring within your building to achieve maximum comfort and optimal loss prevention. Since it’s impossible to have staff and eyes everywhere around your premises, these sensors allow you to observe all changes from absolutely anywhere.
You can select different types of sensors to monitor various aspects of your building. Whenever there’s a change to the usual setup, the sensor will react in seconds, notifying the person in charge.
Once your system is set up, you will be able to receive real-time notifications via text, call, and email.
The best part? Most sensors allow you to configure your notification threshold so that you are only alerted when certain conditions are met.
Check out this video to see how a system of water leak sensors operates:
Final Thoughts on Smart Building Sensors
Smart building sensors are gaining more and more popularity due to their various benefits, particularly related to risk reduction and repair savings.
If you have a commercial building and are looking for a way to ensure that your tenants and building are protected, consider investing in these sensors.
They will make your building smart, quickly notify you of any problems and allow you to monitor everything in the building, regardless of your actual location.
What are the smart building sensors you are using? What type of buildings do you think would benefit the most from smart sensors? Drop us a note in the comments!