By Basant Singhatwadia, VP of IoT Product Strategy, Accruent

A powerful IoT solution should enable you to take control of your operational setpoints and schedules.

A setpoint is a defined value that drives device operation. Often, setpoints and operating plans do not align with corporate standards. The setpoints are changed to fix a temporary problem, and the revert is forgotten or changed intentionally to prevent future issues. Whatever the reason, this misalignment can unknowingly cost companies via energy consumption every year.

At a minimum, an organization’s IoT platform should notify users that changes have been made outside of corporate standards. With the ability to raise an issue when a setpoint is changed, the system can provide greater visibility into why changes are made and help alleviate additional energy cost, assuming the setpoint returns to standard. This would ultimately remove the practice of making a provider visit a facility every 2-3 years to ensure setpoints are maintained and keep them from going out of range.

The next step in achieving savings is to provide users the ability to change setpoints and adjust schedules quickly at an enterprise level.

A simple example of a cost savings opportunity would be to reduce consumption during peak-demand times. During these hours, energy costs are considerably higher, and enterprises can reduce wasteful spend and cut their energy costs significantly by avoiding the peak-demand charge. There are also scenarios of energy droughts, where utility companies will incentivize an enterprise for curtailing load. However, without the ability to make setpoint and schedule changes at an enterprise level, enterprises typically cannot take advantage of these energy-saving scenarios.

To combat this, a remote monitoring solution will provide insights into setpoints and schedules across an enterprise by sending notifications when they are not in line with corporate standards. But a best-in-class remote monitoring IoT platform will make setpoint changes and then revert them back. This slight difference in functionality is what allows enterprises to take advantage of those additional energy-saving scenarios.

This is the conclusion to our “Essentials of an IoT Remote Monitoring Platform.” These six topics highlight where organizations should focus on gaining additional value out of their IoT solution. Without concentrating on other functionalities and use cases, it can be challenging to see the ROI organizations need to justify purchasing a new solution or adding an IoT solution to your CMMS.

If you have questions when it comes to selecting an IoT solution — or even where your organization should get started — contact our IoT experts today to get started.

Explore the rest of the “Essentials of an IoT Remote Monitoring Platform” series:

  1. Introduction.
  2. The Importance of Hardware Agnostic IoT platforms.
  3. Cutting Out Alarm Noise to Focus on Real Issues.
  4. Creating a System Between Your People and Your Remote Monitoring Platform.
  5. Creating a Closed Loop Maintenance System for Your Business.
  6. Stop Reacting: Use Data to Get Ahead of Equipment Failure.
  7. Gaining Enterprise Control of Your Setpoints For Next-Level Savings.