Facilities managers have always faced the challenge of managing the space most effectively. For example, in the following situations, construction managers are under pressure to make office space allocation decisions:
Once upon a time, space allocation decisions were made based on well-founded assumptions about how the building space will be used. With the advent of smart building technology, facility managers can use powerful tools to help them access accurate information about space occupancy, rather than relying on estimates and approximations. Occupancy sensors can help collect data about space usage and optimize space management decisions.
The integration of occupancy detection sensors and intelligent building management systems lays the foundation for smarter and more efficient workplace space allocation decisions. For example, occupancy detection sensors can track desk occupancy to generate an overview of space usage efficiency. This overview can then drive space optimization decisions, such as implementing space-saving strategies when desks are underutilized.
Overall, the most common occupancy monitoring applications in smart building and facility management include:
Occupancy monitoring can realize effective management of desks, offices and meeting rooms. Occupancy sensors provide real-time visibility into room, desk, and lounge area utilization for instant access to information about space availability. This visibility minimizes the time spent searching for available space while avoiding double bookings. It also does not require physical access to the space to check room availability.
One of the main benefits of occupancy monitoring is that it can provide a complete picture of the usage status of multiple offices, rooms, and buildings through a single entry point. This can realize optimization considering the organizational scope of all rooms and buildings.
In addition to providing real-time information about workspace usage, occupancy monitoring helps extract reliable statistics about the minimum, average, and peak usage of workspaces, including insights into when such peaks occur.
This information enables facility managers to estimate the exact requirements of various companies and provide them with solutions that meet their needs. In this way, companies can significantly save operating costs (for example, the cost of unused space).
In addition, the landlord has the opportunity to rent out the idle space to other tenants. Given the changing work patterns (for example, working from home regularly), these optimizations can now be very challenging, which makes it difficult for companies to estimate the exact space they need. In the post-COVID19 era, companies will pay more and more attention to optimizing office space costs, because telecommuting is likely to become a common practice.
Real-time occupancy monitoring provides a way to improve the comfort of tenants and employees. For example, it can drive fine-tuning of HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) functions based on proper integration with the building management system.
Facility managers can consider space occupancy density because the number of people in each space affects HVAC requirements. Likewise, it can ensure proper lighting conditions for the occupied space. Occupancy monitoring can help optimize tenant comfort while saving energy costs.
Occupancy monitoring requires the deployment of sensors to reliably detect the presence of tenants in desks, offices, rest areas and other building spaces.
Some examples of sensors that detect occupancy include:
These lights contain motion sensors that can detect occupancy in certain areas of the building. In most cases, the intelligent lighting system supplements its sensing function with driving functions such as lighting control.
Nowadays, many cameras have image processing functions, such as face detection and people counting. These systems provide methods for calculating the number of workers in each space to extract utilization information and related statistics. In some countries/regions, the use of such systems can cause privacy and data protection issues. However, when the face recognition function (ie, personal recognition) is not implemented, these problems are usually alleviated.
These systems use Bluetooth technology to estimate and track the occupancy of a given space. They can be operated based on mainstream smartphones and can provide accurate tracking of individuals. However, the premise of the Bluetooth solution is that employees carry smartphones and enable Bluetooth, but this is not always the case. Therefore, these solutions are not the most practical.
The infrared sensing system processes the heat signal from the work space and recognizes the interruption caused by the body heat. They can be deployed in different office parts, such as walls, ceilings or desks.
These systems can recognize the interruption of high-frequency sound reflection patterns in the workplace. When the interruption becomes continuous, the sensing system assumes that there is someone in the room.
Each of these solutions has advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, choosing the right sensing solution may require solving various trade-offs to balance the accuracy, universality, and cost-effectiveness of various solutions.
COVID-19 adds an extra layer to the occupancy rate discussion. According to social distancing rules, building and office managers need to ensure that they comply with regulations to return to normal safely and optimize space for employees working from home.