A Smart University Gets Smarter

Challenge

Energy consumption in commercial buildings accounts for more than 36 percent of global energy and nearly 40 percent of total CO2 emissions¹. Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates wanted to combat this issue and reduce operating costs across its smart campus. To do this, it needed a solution that could work with its existing third-party systems to avoid an upfront capital expense. It also required a solution that would protect occupant comfort levels in its buildings and didn’t require it to change its operational processes to achieve savings.

Solution

Thanks to a combination of Honeywell Forge’s machine learning and autonomous control technologies, HBMSU piloted a closed-loop solution that evaluates the internal set-points for a building’s HVAC system every 15 minutes to determine if it's running at peak capacity. By analyzing factors such as time of day, weather, occupancy levels and dozens of other data points, the solution makes automatic, calculated adjustments up to 96 times in each 24-hour period to reduce energy consumption.

Result

By automating adjustments based on real-time data, HBMSU experienced a 10 percent reduction of energy consumption across its campus. And these savings were achieved without manual intervention and while keeping students and teachers comfortable on their smart campus. 

“We remain steadfast with our commitment in Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University to deploy the latest technical and smart innovations on our campus to ensure the provision of the highest levels of operational efficiency to match the best in the world. We were pleasantly surprised by the positive results that we saw from Honeywell Forge, which enjoys a high ability to drive further energy savings beyond our achievable optimization with the techniques we utilize.”

 -  Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU)

¹ International Energy Agency, Buildings