Smart Building Blog

When they decided to open their third location in the Twin Cities metro area, The Reserve, a premiere suburban co-working space, wanted their newest tenants to enjoy the same zone-controlled experience they offer in Woodbury and Edina. After deploying 75F in their first two locations, and seeing how efficiently the buildings were operating, the choice was clear to partner with 75F, once again, for an accessible, affordable building automation system.

Watch the video to learn why The Reserve's Chief Operating Officer, Mary Bartlett, sees 75F as an operational advantage and puts her business in a position to succeed!

Could your office building be described as… average? Maybe it doesn’t have a fountain in the lobby, or a view of the ocean – but you have four solid walls, a non-leaking roof, and only a few drafty cubicles. Have you ever tried to make your building work with an HVAC hack? Maybe you even taped a piece of cardboard over the vent to manage the airflow. That would be pretty clever of you, MacGyver.

So, if your office building is around 10-20 years old, has some wear and tear, but is generally in good shape, you probably have a Class B building. This is good news. Investors tend to target these buildings since, with a few upgrades, they can easily become Class B+ and compete readily with Class A properties. One of those upgrades is making your Class B smart – and it’s probably easier than you think.

Your building could be working harder for your occupants. The Occupant Experience (OE) is a key measure of building performance, creating multiple benefits for building tenants and owners alike, especially when combined with Operational Efficiencies (OE) to yield what we call OE² . Your commercial building can improve productivity, health & comfort with smart zone control of temperature, air quality and lighting to suit occupant preferences and workflows.

Is your building working for your occupants?

At 75F, we're on a mission to make buildings work for the people, especially the people buildings are designed to accommodate - their tenants. And, all building stakeholders, from building owners to facility managers to architects, can agree on the importance of creating the optimal occupant experience. However, comfort is recurring top issue and tenant complaint for commercial real estate properties. And, with 85% of commercial buildings lacking intelligent building systems, yet commercial real estate (CRE) properties are projected to have the highest growth in IoT connected devices deployments, the time is right to get smart with your building. It's more affordable and easier than ever to install a sophisticated IoT-based building automation systems to reduce energy and other operational expenses, while proactively optimizing workplace environments for employees and other occupants.

The WELL Building Standard provides important guidance around the interests of human health, wellbeing, productivity and sustainability with a focus on the occupant. It includes benchmarks, goals and compliance requirements for owners and other building stakeholders. The WELL Building Standard covers seven core concepts of health: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind – for all types of buildings, including commercial office, retail, industrial, residential and restaurants.

Our last blog post on the WELL Building Standard discussed how building owners can maximize their "comfort" concept score for WELL certification. This post, the second in our series, is focused on the why the WELL Building Standard is so important for the "indoor air quality" (IAQ) environments of the future and how 75F can help you deliver improved air quality for your occupants and achieve top air quality scores toward WELL certification.

 

 

Whether your HVAC system runs on Variable Air Volume (VAV) or Constant Volume (CV), you're currently missing out on energy efficiency and equipment efficiency opportunities.

The 75F Smart VAV with Reheat™ solution allows for variable air volume, temperature and pressure, as long as your desired space temperature is achieved. We work to optimize VAV with reheat performance with a continuous commissioning, pre-configured, out-of-the-box solution.

Why should you face limited choices when an energy efficient system is available that allows all variables to fluctuate for optimal comfort levels?

You know you're about to read about the energy cost savings that can be achieved by implementing predictive technologies, but do you know they can also help to boost your top line revenue and operating margin? Consider the fact that more comfortable employees are more productive. More comfortable shoppers and diners tend to stay longer and spend more. Satisfied hotel guests tend to return and may spend more money at your lobby bar or restaurant.

Commercial tenants and consumers increasingly view LEED-certified / green buildings and sustainable business practices as positive differentiators for which they are willing to pay extra. More productive employees and happier customers are revenue positive. Higher wages, other employee/customer retention initiatives and new investments become more achievable as your margins grow, aided by reduced energy costs.