Smart Buildings Explained

What are smart buildings?

Smart buildings are places that use technology to track and analyse various building characteristics, generate insight into the patterns of usage, and other trends that can be used to make the environment safe, comfortable, and efficient for occupants, and optimise the building’s operations.

Smart buildings go beyond what a building management system offers – they use various state-of-the-art technology and are custom-fitted in a way that allows for the integration of future technologies as well. 

Internet of Thing sensors, artificial reality technology, and machine learning are some of the most popular types of robotics that may be used to optimise the performance of a building.

Smart building technology has an array of operations, but they work under a common premise: the system will monitor and track the building, collect relevant data, analyse it, and offer actionable insights which can be used to make important decisions related to the building’s efficiency and performance.

The role of people counting technology in smart buildings

The global people counting market is estimated to reach $1.4 billion by 2026. People counting technology is playing a crucial role in the development of smart buildings as it can determine the number of people entering and exiting a building and help make the space more comfortable and safe.

Understanding visitor numbers and patterns in commercial spaces play a critical role in creating smart buildings. Having real-time and historical data related to visitations and occupancy is a key driver for helping organisations plan and manage their operations based on demand, which not just improves service and productivity, but also reduces costs and increases profitability. It plays well to the ecological approach and mindsets of businesses of the future, supporting waste reduction for a cleaner, greener, safer working environment.

Implementing Social Distancing: Since the start of the global pandemic, businesses have been restricting the number of people allowed inside their premises at any given time. Technology like live occupancy sensors can measure foot traffic and occupancy on each floor. By tracking the number of people within a specific place, this technology can manage space capacity, set limits to how many people can enter the space safely, and show alerts that stop people from entering when the building has the maximum number of people inside. 

Optimising Cleaning Services: Ensuring the health and safety of a building’s occupants and visitors is a priority these days. It is important that you keep all the public facilities in your building cleaned and disinfected. People counting data are equipped with the technology that can pinpoint areas that see the most traffic, understand the peak time of the activity, and respond to an urgent demand. This software can also set cleaning times based on historical activity patterns and set alerts for cleaning. This can help ensure efficient and high cleaning, prevent over-cleaning, and ensure optimal use of cleaning resources.

Improving Comfort and Efficiency: Tracking the traffic and occupancy level of the space in your building can optimise energy and the use of resources. For example, business owners may need to turn on the AC to the max when the capacity is full to reduce customer discomfort. This data may also be used to optimise the use of HVAC in spaces that are not occupied, and hence can reduce energy costs.

Measuring Footfall Traffic: There’s an array of people counting technology that can be used to determine the number of people who visit your business. Surveillance cameras, thermal sensors, Wi-Fi location analytics, and time of flight technology can all be used to find out the number of people visiting the building, the peak time of activity, and the spaces most people visited inside the building. This data can be analysed to understand customer behaviour and make important sales decisions.

Enhancing Air Quality: People counting software can also be used to ensure good indoor air quality to improve the comfort and health of the building’s visitors and occupants. The technology may use critical environmental metrics like raised levels of carbon dioxide along with traffic density information to configure ventilation systems in the building to reduce the risk of illnesses.

Delivering Personal Security: People counting software is especially useful in case of an emergency like an intrusion, fire, or other threats to the building’s safety. This technology can provide real-time data on where people are located in the building in case of an emergency to ensure quick rescue efforts and to bring them to safety in a timely way.

One of the most pressing concerns of the owners of retail stores, commercial businesses, and organisations is inefficiently used building resources, which lead to a lot of wasted costs as well as lost business opportunities. Now that concerns for customer experience, health and safety, and energy conservation are rising, it has become even more important for buildings to implement people-counting technology that can improve the engagement of your visitors and significantly optimise the performance and operations of your building, no matter what industry you may be working in.

Flexicount has been offering people counting analytics to the commercial industry for over 24 years so that businesses can make smarter business decisions, support their operational efficiency and sustainability, and reduce costs. Contact us today to see how we can help your business!