US technology group Johnson Controls Systems & Service will launch its build- ing efficiency system, Panoptix, in South Africa this month, to assist customers in interpreting the data produced by the company’s building management system (BMS), the Metasys control platform.

The Metasys controls the functionality of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in a single building and incorporates different digital controllers, which it links to enable the system to control the HVAC system in any building.

The Metasys uses standard Web technology platforms that allow users to receive relevant information captured by the technology. Users can access information worldwide through devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones.

However, Johnson Controls Systems & Ser- vice Africa GM Neil Cameron says, while the control platform constantly produces information, the information needs to be available in a format that is meaningful to users.

He says the three major challenges that users face are the lack of available skills to interpret the information delivered by the BMS, the expense in obtaining these specialist skills and the need to access this information from wherever the user is.

To help alleviate these challenges, Johnson Controls Systems & Service created the Panoptix.

The Panoptix takes data from the Metasys onto a cloud platform where specialists or live guides are available worldwide to analyse and interpret the data.

These live guides create reports that allow users to obtain meaningful information from the BMS data.

“The experts examine data from facilities and recommend where efficiencies can be improved and where money can be saved. Diagnostics and algorithms are run to determine the output of various scenarios, after which a report is produced on the savings that can be gained by implementing the recommended measures to improve the building,” Cameron explains.

He says this adds greater value to customers’ control platforms and management systems, such as the Metasys, which mainly controls air-conditioning and climate control systems, such as temperature and humidity control systems, fans, heaters, coils, valves, flows and switches.

Lighting, generators and uninterruptible power supply solutions can also be integrated for greater control.

The Metasys also produces alarms and alerts, switches equipment on or off, delivers reports and even generates energy audits.

“The control platform uses a group of controllers that are application specific to different systems and they enable open protocols and older proprietary protocols to be brought together into a single, cohesive management system,” Cameron states.

Meanwhile, the company launched its Central Plant Optimisation (CPO) worldwide a year ago to manage and control the different components of a central chiller plant.

Many facilities around the world are now benefiting from lower energy consumption as a direct effect of managing their plant rooms more efficiently, Cameron says.

The CPO assists cooling plants in running efficiently and safely by optimally controlling the flow of water, examining loads, configuring the optimal chiller for loads and by altering the configuration as loads change.

Cameron says the flow of water to chillers is critical in ensuring that chiller plants continue to function.

He explains that if the flow of the water reduces too quickly, the water can turn into ice, which expands and can burst the internal piping of a cooling plant. For this reason, the minimum water flow must be maintained.

“As a result, building and facilities managers previously erred on the side of caution, preferring to control water flow rather than opting for higher efficiency, as repairs to this type of equipment are expensive,” he says.

The CPO has a graphic user interface that allows the user to indicate the number of chillers in the plant, their size and type, the type of part load characteristics of each chiller, the types of pumps available and the circuitry.

Once all the specifications have been entered, the CPO automatically controls these for opti- mal operations.

Cameron says the CPO will allow for the most energy efficient cooling plant operation, as it continually ensures the optimal configuration of the chillers, pumps and cooling towers.

The controller can also turn chillers off and on when needed and it runs chillers equally where more than one of the same type of chiller is in use, increasing their operating life.

As plants start to get older, the CPO can also select the most efficient chiller for use, based on the load-duty cycle. Therefore, users save money by improving cooling efficiency without having to compromise on safety and perform- ance.

“Ten years ago, if 100% of the chiller load was not needed, the only way to scale back on the cooling was to make the chiller less efficient. This meant that, while it was cooling less, it was still running at full capacity and this wasted a lot of energy. As a result, a lot of research and development went into part-load efficiency and, therefore, part loads have become more efficient,” Cameron notes.

He says other new developments, such as variable-speed drives, have enhanced part-load efficiencies.

The CPO can be retrofitted into an existing plant room and is capable of connecting and working with any chiller from any manufacturer.