Demand Logic has adapted to Covid-19 with all team members working remotely. Indeed we are pleased to say we have not had to furlough anyone and have in fact expanded our team by hiring Tom Muncey as a Building Performance Analyst. We believe the need for remote building monitoring is particularly valuable at present as buildings are no less prone to anomalous activity, even with reduced occupancy. As an industry we should therefore not lose sight of sustainability targets or become complacent due to assumed reduced running times.

We have been doing a lot of work on building operational performance scoring, a feature provided to all our customers in which performance can be measured as a single score. Considering the complexity of buildings and the simplicity of a single score we are considering opening up our initial methodology to the wider industry so others can contribute towards something which could potentially transform our industry. This is already beginning to gain interest from industry bodies such as CIBSE, RICS and BBP. If any of our partners would like to know more we would be delighted for you to be involved.

Mike Darby's latest CIBSE article

Mike Darby to speak at RICS FM conference

Latest features

DL Connect

Due to the variety of building use patterns (unoccupied, partly occupied etc.) and the amount of, sometimes contradictory, guidance to support these patterns there is a need for improved remote access to enable multiple operational changes without continually attending site. Given that we already have a secure infrastructure into a building we realised that there is an opportunity to provide a service to allow our partners and contractors access to the BMS itself to make these changes as and when required.

It is important to note that we have noticed other companies and organisations offering a similar service but we have genuine concerns over the security of these systems. The security of your BMS data and DL Connect is paramount so we will require your authorisation for single buildings. It is a service that we are pleased to offer free of charge whilst we are in lockdown. For more information on how we can enable DL Connect at your buildings please contact your Technical Account Manager / Technical Services Manager.

Collections views

We have introduced a new feature which allows users to display multiple assets (equipment within a building), superimposed over one another so the performance of each one can be compared against the whole system. An example of this is the ability to view the run status or thermal power delivery of a collection of terminal units or flow meters within a water system.

Virtual meters

We are accelerating our plans to roll out virtual metering for every asset. This has been a popular request and will allow users to critique individual assets in terms of how much power they are consuming. This will also be available as a collection view so ‘thirsty’ assets can be identified more quickly. This is also something that we envisage contributing to a building’s energy score on the platform and would be a valuable insight for zeroing in on sustainability targets.

Alert bot

We are also accelerating our work on an Alertbot which will notify users when certain changes occur within systems. Crucially the aim is to avoid flooding users with alerts, one of the main problems with a BMS, and allowing it to concentrate on areas of interest to the particular user.

Support during COVID-19

We covered five key areas which building owners should still consider during lockdown and how we can support our partners with them. They are;

1. Health and safety,
2. Asset damage,
3. Energy costs,
4. Insurance risk and,
5. Business critical systems

Despite a reduced operation in a lot of buildings it is important not to lose sight of these areas as their continued consideration will be essential when we begin to re-occupy buildings as well as remaining compliant. Legionella build up, mechanical seizures, unexpected running, pipework damage and appropriately conditioned server rooms, to list some examples, are no less important during lockdown.

Demand Logic is proud to be able to support our partners by providing full operational visibility during this time and helping them plan for re-occupation. We have witnessed several examples of buildings still not behaving how operators would expect, even when systems are being shut down. In some instances there are even examples of equipment even resetting to 24 hour operation which we have been able to quickly pick up. These are just a few examples and provide a good case study as to why, even during a period where many buildings are mothballed, they can behave with an unexpected autonomy.

We have put together some useful tips below;

Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic

How Can Property and Facilities Managers Tackle Complications with Lower Occupancy Rate Buildings?

Date of the next event

We are hoping to host a panel based webinar discussion in the coming weeks with the intention of considering some of the positives that will come from the lockdown. If you would be interested in being involved or listening to the discussion please let us know.

The next partner event will likely take place in October or November where we hope to share further development in some of the above and hopefully some new exciting features. It is unclear what restrictions will still be in place by then but we live in hope that we will all soon be able to share a post-event drink in the not too distant future! Thank you again for your continued support and we wish you well in the coming months.

The Demand Logic Team