Whitepapers

LoRa Alliance ® and LoRaWAN ® are registered trademarks. Used with permission. ©2021 LoRa Alliance ® The LoRa Mark is a trademark of Semtech Corporation or its subsidiaries. www.lora-alliance.org AUGMENTING BACnet WITH LoRaWAN ® WIRELESS IOT Case Study: Talkpool HOW TALKPOOL LEVERAGES LoRaWAN FOR SUSTAINABILITY Talkpool offers security solutions for smart buildings, and provides Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems that are now optimized through LoRaWAN. "In most countries, buildings account for 20-40% of the total energy consumption," says Stefan Lindgren, Chief Technology Officer at Talkpool. "Around a third of that energy is used by HVAC systems. Optimization of these systems is critical from a sustainability perspective." Most HVAC systems today run on default or manually controlled settings which do not respond to changing conditions. Yet connected systems can take into account real-time indoor air quality data, daily energy price fluctuations, and forecast weather. "Our solution bridges this gap and transforms old HVAC systems into modern, demand-driven HVAC systems," says Lindgren. "We use data from our LoRaWAN air quality sensors as well as weather and energy forecasts. All these data feed into an artificial intelligence algorithm which models the building and learns how to optimally control the HVAC system. This is then implemented on top of the existing BACnet or building management system." The result is a significant increase in service quality and reduction in carbon footprint, adds Lindgren. "LoRaWAN is an essential part of our commitment to provide sustainable smart building solutions." Finally, it is not necessary to choose either a backhaul or complementary network option, as a LoRaWAN device network can function entirely separately from a legacy BMS, with the only integration taking place at the analytics layer where data is collected from any number of sources. The LoRaWAN implementation route will depend on many factors. Users will need to ask what specific capabilities does the organization want to add to its legacy system? They may need to determine whether the priority is to add new layers of data and control ability to all facilities, or to bring a new remote facility within the system. What is the need for scalability? What is the sensitivity to cyber risk? But there are advantages that are common to all LoRaWAN implementations. The technology is as reliable as alternative communications standards such as cellular systems, but with a much lower cost of ownership and lower cost per device. Users can also choose to subscribe to a LoRaWAN service (such as a cellular model), or build a completely private network for their own use (such as a WiFi model). There already exists a rich ecosystem of providers, devices and end-to-end solutions, all offering a fast-track to more intelligent buildings management and better employee health and productivity. After all, the built environment is the human environment. Houses, offices, factories, hospitals, libraries, museums– these are the places that frame people's lives. The way the built environment is managed determines the quality of lives and the quality of work. Maximising that quality is the purpose for which LoRaWAN was built.

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