Watch the Buyer's Guide to IoT Sensors

Introduction

Welcome to the Nexus Labs Buyer's Guide to IoT Sensors.

Dive into IoT Sensors with James Dice and Aaron Lapsley where they discuss the following:

- How IoT work and the layers of the stack
- Special focus on Indoor Air Quality and Occupancy sensors
- Applications: the who, what, where, and why
- Buying considerations from our Buyer Community, including budget costs
- Lessons learned from our Buyer Community

Presentation

Article

For our Buyer’s Guide to IoT Sensors, we were happy to have Aaron Lapsley from System2 join us once again (catch him on our Buyer’s Guide to Fault Detection & Diagnostics, and our Buyer’s Guide to HVAC & Lighting Controls too!)

IoT sensors are the nervous center of any building, allowing the building’s systems to sense and respond to their environment — much like our own human nerves. Or, as our member Liam Bates from Kaiterra put it, “Imagine if you only ever knew how fast your car was going when you got pulled over by a cop giving you a ticket. IoT sensors are like speedometers.”

Spedometers, like IoT sensors, are vital. In this Buyer’s Guide, we focus on two in particular — Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and occupancy sensors. Then, we offer a few questions that buyers and owners should consider before jumping in. If you’re reading this and not sure of your answers, we encourage you to reach out to our team and we can help!

IAQ Sensors

When it comes to IAQ sensors, most buyers primarily seek to maintain a healthy indoor environment. But why? Is it to improve occupant experience, fulfill a corporate health & wellness program, measure the effectiveness of your HVAC system, or all of the above? 

Once you’ve identified your goals, there are then three main use cases for achieving them.

1. Automation: This is the most common reason for IAQ sensors, allowing buildings to sense and react to changing environments automatically. This use case requires integration with your HVAC systems beyond just a simple read-only monitoring implementation.
2. Standards & Certifications: If your goal is to achieve a WELL or LEED certification, monitors — including those that are RESET certified — can help in those efforts. At the same time, they require only representative coverage to meet the requirements of the certification and likely don’t require a sensor in every room.
3. Comprehensive Monitoring: While less popular, there are buildings and buyers out there who are looking for extensive monitoring of their air, including sensors in every space that can provide rich data and identify issues as part of corporate wellness programs or other goals. 

Identifying your use case is the first step towards determining what sensors, if any, should be incorporated into your system, as well as creating a strategy for their deployment, calibration, and maintenance over time. 

One consideration when evaluating various IAQ sensors and monitors is whether they have been RESET certified. While a relatively new certification, RESET has provided a standard for commercial-grade IAQ sensors, where previously only lab and consumer guidelines existed. 

Occupancy Sensors

Although still rarely applied to buildings, occupancy sensors provide worthwhile data about how people interact with buildings – a critical piece of data to keep the occupants of the building at the heart of decision-making.

Unlike IAQ sensors, occupancy sensors can achieve a broader range of goals. These go from the most basic (how many people are inside) to desk occupancy and seeing how people flow through the entire space of the building. 

These goals mean the capabilities of occupancy sensors are also more broad. They range from:

1. Automation: Like IAQ sensors, occupancy sensors can provide data to help automate other systems such as lighting, HVAC, access, and more. 
2. Active Space Management: With live occupancy data, systems can accomplish tasks in real time. This could include releasing bookable space if it’s not being utilized, or even turning off lights and cooling if no one is inside the space. 
3. Analytics: Occupancy sensors can help building facilitators to better understand how spaces are used, and the flow of movement within them.
4. Facility Management: With occupancy sensors, managers can better determine models and plans for soft services like cleaning.
5. Safety & Security: Beyond just access and preventing tailgating, occupancy sensors can also support in emergencies or situations where knowing where people are quickly and accurately is essential. 

After identifying your use cases, it becomes easier to determine which type of occupancy sensor fits your building best. Basic infrared sensors can achieve the bean-counting of people in and out easily and cheaply, while more advanced PIR and LIDAR sensors can provide the rich data necessary for more extensive management. 

One last question to consider… cameras or no cameras? While the perception of cameras constantly tracking identifiable individuals may be off base, the fact is that perception can be reality. If your users will be wary, you should be too.

‍Questions for Buyers & Owners

When it comes to IoT sensors of any kind, buyers and owners have some key questions to answer:

• Consider the power and communication needs of each device. Wired vs wireless, battery vs powered? These are questions you should consider before making a purchase.
• Can you use the sensors to achieve multiple outcomes? Beyond creating a healthier, safer environment, can these sensors help you achieve certification standards you may be wanting further down the line? Think about your long-term strategy upfront. 
• What are the software and hardware capabilities of your system, and do they pair together? Having a mismatch could make the system far less useful. 
• Who will be taking action? Considering who will be doing the installation, calibration, monitoring, and maintenance of the system could change your mind about which sensors are best.
• Cnsider the end user. How are you planning to use the data these sensors will provide, and who will be using it? Will they need help with support?

Finally, buyers and owners should consider the tradeoffs. It’s unlikely impossible that any one system will satisfy all of your use cases. That’s where the strategy you’ve already identified comes into play. Is it important that you cover every location no matter what, regardless of cost? If so, you may need to make sacrifices on ease of use and integration. If you’re on a limited budget, looking at options that cover most of what you want may not get you everything, but can still accomplish many of your goals. 

No system is perfect. Something as small as a spider or accumulated dust can throw off an entire system. But with clear use cases, defined strategies, and the technology to back them up, any building can use IoT sensors to become smarter and more capable. 

Want to dive deeper? Watch the full recording of this Buyer’s Guide if you haven’t already, and if you need more help with the process, send us an email to hello@nexuslabs.online.