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Convia Dynamic Load-Balancing Software
Aug. 7, 2009 — "So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's a load-balancing act." Or at least that's what Dr. Seuss would have written in Oh, The Thinks You Can Think had he been a co-op or condo board member. We think.
Habitat itself has written about the similar issue of heat balancing, in which building automation software (BAS) uses wireless sensors to read inside temperatures and then signals risers to increase or decrease heat in pinpointed spots. Taking that idea a step further, some companies now offer smart-building software that monitors HVAC usage, public-area occupancy, lighting and other factors, and adjusts your electrical load and other building systems accordingly. And oh, the savings you can save.
Convia, a division of the legendary design and office equipment company Herman Miller, Inc. — which gave us the Aeron Chair, the Eames Lounge Chair and, um, the office cubicle — estimates that up to 40% of a building's energy goes to lighting, often at peak-demand prices, and that HVAC puts added pressure on your grid. Convia’s trademarked Dynamic Load Balancing software (sans hyphen for some reason; hey, they're designers, not grammarians) lets you program electrical-power zones with a priority plan of your devising in order to reduce the electrical load by a targeted percentage. As the company puts it, "When energy thresholds are exceeded, the Dynamic Load Balancing event can be executed [to] reduce lighting levels and HVAC loads in lower priority power zones ... to keep power usage below the targeted threshold."
Aside from cost and energy savings, of course, this kind of software can help you achieve LEED certification. (While there are federal tax credits for this sort of thing, they're only, at this point, for commercial buildings. OK, then! Here's an issue for residential co-op / condo coalitions to take up!) Whether your building can reap enough energy savings to make implementing this technology worthwhile, we can't say. But there's no need to rush. Take your time and thinks about it.
Convia • 1370 Abbott Court, Buffalo Grove, Ill. 60089 • (847) 876-6925 • E-mail contact form here
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