Incessantly discussing the weather is a very British pastime and has always been one of the characteristics that defines us a nation – and we do it for a good reason. The weather in the UK fluctuates massively from hour to hour, so much so that it can sometimes feel like we’re experiencing all four seasons in one day. Despite this, our buildings respond to heat changes slowly, especially the ones with high thermal mass. Therefore, attempting to heat a building based on the current outside air temperature is often problematic and wasteful.
As an example, it could be 6°C at 5am on a cool Spring morning and this would cause the BMS optimisers to fire the boilers, open all the valves and aggressively heat the building in time for occupancy from 7 or 8am. Staff then arrive, turn on lights and computers and add to the heat input. Meanwhile, the outside air is up to 19°C by 9am and the building quickly becomes too hot. However, because of its thermal mass and the warm outside air the building can’t lose that heat so the control system fires up the chillers and by mid-morning the air conditioning is on.
This is Weather-Wise comes in. Directly linked to the Met Office, Weather-Wise is a smart weather optimisation solution that can determine how warm or cool internal spaces will need to be based on the daily weather forecast. Weather-Wise reads the weather forecast from the Met Office and automatically adjusts set-points to suit the day ahead, maintaining comfort levels while minimising heating and cooling loads. It also reduces the carbon footprint of the building and saves on maintenance by reducing run-time on expensive plant.
As well as a swift return on investment, an integrated smart weather optimisation solution can help create a more comfortable and productive working environment for building occupants – whatever the UK weather throws at us.
