Demand for smart building technology has ebbed and flowed for at least three decades and now several factors are conspiring to propel a new growth spurt. Notable triggers this time are the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the emergence of 5G, and maturing of more joined up IoT services. These are drawing in developments around the core components of building intelligence, namely HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning), energy management, lighting, advanced communications, air quality control, maintenance and general surveillance.
These components are usually served by ICT infrastructure and knitted together increasingly by wireless communications rather than wired options. The wireless networks include WiFi, cellular and various lower power options, including established indoor protocols such as Zigbee, as well increasingly as longer range LPWAN options like LoRAWAN and the two cellular variants, NB-IoT and LTE-M.
The impact of 5G, and also the latest sixth generation of WiFi, is to enhance some off those core smart building components, for example introducing prediction with the help of machine learning into maintenance of critical systems, including HVAC itself. It is also ushering in new applications only achievable with the higher performance and lower latency, such as augmented reality (AR)-based wayfinding in the case of larger, more convoluted sites such as convention or exhibition centers.
The pandemic has had a more immediate positive impact by increasing demand for technology that makes more efficient use of space and facilitates sharing in line with a trend towards mixing more homeworking with attendance at the office.
With some elements of social distancing and protection against viral transmission through the air or via surfaces likely to be maintained, surveillance is being combined with sanitization within smart building environments. This extends to features like self-sanitizing connected door knobs and even use of surveillance to monitor duration of hand-washing, a concerning development for those more squeamish about privacy. It is undoubtedly true that the pandemic has shifted the bar away from protection of privacy towards perceived safety at work and enforcement of hygiene.
This does lead though to an area that is of growing concern for health and that is less contentious, the broader field of indoor pollution that has been illuminated by the pandemic.
Earlier on during the first round of lockdowns in many developed countries, it was observed how much air quality had improved temporarily in cities as a result of reduced vehicular traffic. But with many people spending more time indoors, there was growing focus on impact of key pollutants there. These come in two main categories – gases such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and ozone; and small solid particulates of dust, dirt, soot, smoke, skin or other organic sources. Sensors that monitor these indoor air pollutants have increasingly been installed in workplace or public buildings and integrated in some cases with filtration systems as part of HVAC.
The pandemic seems to have galvanized activity on this front among various players in the smart building arena, including one of the largest and longest established Honeywell, which in November 2020 introduced a new line of electronic air cleaners including UV systems and incorporating indoor air quality sensors. A key goal is to clean the air without impeding flow from AC systems, which itself would increase energy consumption and defeat some of the object of filtration if it just made the air staler.
These sensors include options for detecting volatile organic compounds as well as particulate matter PM2.5, meaning particles less than 2.5 microns diameter, a key category for exclusion from indoor environments because of their contribution to respiratory conditions, especially asthma and bronchitis. Concentration of some pollutants is often 2-5 times higher indoors than typical outdoors.
There has also been some Covid-19 specific research aiming at identifying the size of aerosols containing virus particles, that is virusols, at levels likely to cause transmission indoors. Before the pandemic surprising little was known about this, despite research with influenza and other respiratory viruses. This lack of knowledge reflected partly insufficient interest but also the difficulty in distinguishing between the sizes of particles that are a threat from those that are not.
The upshot is that this has been an active period for smart building research and development, as well as for sales. According to Dan Drogman, chief executive of London based Smart Spaces, developer of a platform for intelligent building connectivity, demand for smart building technology has soared by 400% over the last year. Speaking on Tech Talk Radio recently, he attributed this in large part to the pandemic.
Some aspects of smart buildings have been boosted particularly, such as visitor management systems, which are set to play an increasing role in workplaces as they open up more to returning staff as well as guests. A key component of such systems is registration by smartphone, so that building managers can control admissions and keep tabs on who is entering and leaving. This is another example of privacy being sacrificed on the altar of perceived health and safety, but is something that looks like outlasting the Covid-19 pandemic itself, even if the virus is here to stay in some form.