What’s great about connected devices—or a smart office—is that it allows you to have ongoing access to your building’s thermostat, furnace, air conditioner, and fans.

If your office has the ability to connect with your HVAC, here’s what you should know.

1. Get well-versed in temperature set points and various modes

Make sure you or someone else who is on-site understand the right way to use temperatures and thermostat modes with your smart devices. It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often an office manager or business owner isn’t sure how to use the set points, temperatures, and/or the thermostat mode (1).

If people don’t know all they can do with their smart office devices, you can end up using more energy than needed—or people simply won’t be benefiting from automation as much as they could be.

Single set points thermostats have a single temperature setting that the thermostat tries to maintain. Know that dual set points thermostats have two temperature settings, a lower and upper set point.

Another option often available is 3 set point thermostats Be sure you understand all the skills your specific setup has, including the implications of each “mode” you activate (1).

2. Make sure you don’t over-automate

One of the great things about office automation is you can set it…and often REALLY forget it!

But be sure you have the ability to make sure the right people, at any time, can get key alerts from your system.

Say that you have an alert setup if CO2 levels in a building rise above a certain threshold. If that text goes to a facility manager, and he or she is out of town, it can mean action is delayed on investigating the issue. The lesson is this: be sure your automation has a hierarchy of people that can be involved, when necessary.

It should be easy if, for example, one person takes over as facility manager, to change over or to add to your settings.

3. Lock your smart devices or leverage a range of acceptable settings

By nature, many settings are easy to change on smart devices. But you can limit what employees or visitors can change. After all, it’s not uncommon for people to be curious about a smart device, especially if they haven’t seen devices or a setup like yours.

It may be innocent or they just may not know what they are doing, but by implementing certain controls, you make sure major changes aren’t made without your knowledge AND you can make sure security is still tight. (More on that later.)

Not sure you want to have the smart thermostat on total lock down? You can also just “lock” the device so that it stays within a custom range. That way you are let people tweak the settings, but you can have peace of mind that nothing is way out of line. (If someone does need to major a major change, have no fear: many smart devices simply have a pin or other way of authenticating, so even then, it shouldn’t be difficult to make changes as desired.)

4. Leverage Your Data

30% of offices don’t leverage data from smart devices and sensors with other buildings.

If those facilities were to integrate and share that data, it could save companies a great deal of money. Ask us if you want to learn more about ways you can benefit from automation and connected devices within your business or across your facilities.

Concerns About Smart Tech in the Office?

Smart offices can mean greater productivity for workers. It can also mean savings to your bottom line and better inventory management.

So what holds offices or buildings back from using more smart tech? Sometimes people are concerned about security, which is an understandable concern. Although simplified, here are 5 steps to take to ensure your office is as safe as possible when it comes to your connected devices:

• Start with a policy. Make sure workers fully understand and adopt that policy.
• Make sure every device is authenticated and implement network segmentation.
• Ensure data security standards are upheld and that data encryption is built into your devices and infrastructure. Again, this starts with having a formal policy that employees are well aware of.

Other Tech Optimizing Your Work Life

Smart offices are arguably much more than a trend. Gartner reports that by 2020, connected devices will reach about 24 billion, and that as much as $6 trillion will be invested in the next 5 years (2).

There’s other smart tech that’s impacting how people work (and live). Here are a few examples:

• Industry-specific applications. Take for example logistics, where location, speed, and storage condition can be examined;
• Smart-enabled devices for employee security/check-ins;
• Smart-enabling locking systems;
• Smart devices that help support worker safety, including smart PPE and other tools;
• Wearables to support health and safety of workers.

GC Home Services is Your Reliable Heating and Cooling Contractor

We’re here to help you find a solution so you can have reliable comfort in your office, facility, or building—whether that smart technology, or not. Whatever your commercial HVAC needs are, know that GC Home Services Heating & Air Conditioning is here for you. Call us today at 859-491-4915 or toll free at 844-491-4915.

Sources

1. https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/build-smart-home-skills-for-hvac-devices.html#setpoints-temperatures-and-thermostat-mode
2. https://dzone.com/articles/5-awesome-example-of-internet-of-things-applicatio