Speedy, the UK’s largest tools, plant and specialist equipment hire provider with over 200 depots across the UK and Ireland, recently opened its new Innovation Centre in Milton Keynes; an industry-first low carbon facility packed with cutting edge smart control technology.
Part of Speedy’s mission is to reduce energy usage, emissions and shrink its carbon footprint whilst increasing the emphasis placed on employee wellbeing. Speedy recognised the need to address inefficiencies in its future state network planning and endeavoured to use the Milton Keynes facility as the blueprint for efficiency gains across its UK sites. To help achieve this at the Milton Keynes site the hire specialist turned to global associates.
Buildings like the Innovation Centre can be difficult to retrofit with energy efficient technology due to their mix of office, retail and warehouse space. A ‘one size fits all’ Building Management System (BMS) was therefore not an option.
From the initial site visit at Milton Keynes, global associates focused on the need to provide a smart solution which met the objectives of Speedy whilst ensuring that every single item installed added value to the project. This was achieved thanks to the implementation of a Smart Eco Solution which brings together Edge computing, Cloud enablement, LoRaWAN wireless sensors and a Tridium N4 powered control platform to create a hybrid IoT BOS (Building Operating System) solution.
The global associates system enables integration of every area of the Innovation Centre with information feeding back into the smart control platform to provide centralised control and real time energy usage data via a user friendly dashboard. The dashboard provides the occupants with access to real time energy usage data which allows them to see the effects of their actions and make continuous changes to the way they are working. More importantly it allows them to see and take ownership of their energy usage.
Carefully controlled ambient levels of heating and cooling create a healthier working environment to maintain the comfort and wellbeing of staff, whilst occupants also benefit other energy saving measures such as PIR controlled lighting which uses daylight harvesting to maintain a fixed lux level.
Features of the installation include:
The global spaces® Smart Eco panel is the real star of the show, enabling master systems integration services to really shine through. A fully pre-commissioned, pre-packaged Smart Eco panel was installed with ease, allowing simple connection of services, whether that be HVAC, lighting, third party integration or wireless field equipment. The Smart Eco panel has become the central data concentration point for site intelligence.
With a fully managed global spaces® SaaS platform in place, global has real-time data analytics across all services, ensuring it is tuned in to respond to efficiency alerts.
This project presented challenges that allowed global to be deterministic in its approach, ultimately delivering an ideal solution for Speedy. Maria Willings, Speedy Regional Director for Midlands and Anglia, comments: “By monitoring conditions in all rooms, the global system has provided us with unparalleled levels of control over air quality, heating and cooling, allowing us to monitor energy use in real time.
“With this system in place we have seen significant reductions in energy usage and can run the whole site on less energy per hour than it takes to run a shower. Consequently, we are now taking these ideas to our other properties and looking at similar ways to improve efficiency.”
Read the Case Study here
