Installing a Building Automation System (BAS) in your facility offers immediate and significant reductions in one of your biggest overheads: energy costs. An effective implementation also lets you double on these savings over time through increased operational efficiencies and lower maintenance costs.
In this blog, we take a closer look at the savings you can expect through lower energy and maintenance bills, as well as less tangible benefits such as greater worker productivity, improved environmental compliance, and increased property values. Read on to find out more.
Plugging In: How a BAS Saves You Money Over Time
Modern building automation systems (BASs) allow fully integrated automation and control of energy-hungry lighting and HVAC systems in your facility, but what sort of savings can you expect, and when?
While results will vary widely depending on the size and nature of your buildings and the type of commercial or industrial operations you are running, you should expect to see immediate bottom-line savings on your energy bill, especially if you’re integrating legacy systems in an older facility for the first time.
Over time, however, you’ll see the benefits of your upgrade turning up in your balance sheet in many other, often surprising ways. Here’s how and when you can expect to see the benefits of rolling out a BAS in your facility.
1. Immediate
Energy Costs: Expect to see lower power or gas bills immediately after commissioning new BAS equipment as automated systems begin to work together and you can tie the supply of on-tap services like heating and lighting to actual demand patterns in your facility. Optimizing smart systems should deliver increased benefits as your system is fine-tuned to your needs.
2. Short Term
Operational Efficiencies: You’ll see real savings within months in the time and labor needed to monitor, adjust, and maintain automated systems. That means fewer tickets and weekend callouts and smarter use of your staff’s valuable time, plus an improved ability to predict and manage your labor needs.
Maintenance Costs: Improved integration and smarter technology means improved predictive maintenance. By dealing with potential issues before they become major problems you can reduce emergency overtime and rushed parts replacements. You’ll also extend the lifespan of critical equipment.
Improved System Uptime: Better equipment and more efficient maintenance mean more up-time for critical heating and cooling systems. You’ll limit power-chewing restart and catch-up operations and bank the benefits of consistent, optimized operations.
3. Long Term
Integrate, Save, Repeat: Energy and operational savings from a BAS are not one-time or short-term benefits. They’re ongoing savings that make a contribution to your bottom line month after month.
Property Values: Well-implemented BAS systems increase your building's value by making it more attractive to high-quality tenants or even potential buyers who value efficiency and comfort. That can be valuable in an increasingly competitive commercial real estate environment.
Compliance and Incentives: Improved HVAC and lighting system performance can help your buildings comply with increasingly stringent energy efficiency standards and environmental regulations, and can help your company qualify for valuable tax incentives, rebates, and certifications, such as LEED.
Future-Ready Systems: The non-proprietary systems and open-source standards used in modern BAS equipment give your facility cost-saving flexibility when it comes to future expansions and upgrades, meaning your BAS investments will last longer without needing a complete systems overhaul.
Savings You Can Bank On
Where are you most likely to see the savings over a typical year? While generalizations can be difficult between buildings and industries you may expect to see potential annual savings within the following ranges:
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Bookable Cost Savings |
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5-15% |
Energy |
A BAS can reduce energy consumption for heating, cooling, lighting, and other systems, especially in buildings where there were substantial inefficiencies to begin with. |
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10-30% |
Maintenance & Labor |
A BAS can help reduce the time staff spends on monitoring, adjusting, and maintaining systems. Exact savings will depend on the degree of automation and the efficiency of the building's operations before the BAS implementation. |
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10-20% |
Repair |
A BAS can deliver lower wear and tear as a result of improved systems efficiencies and predictive maintenance, depending on the age and condition of the building and its systems before the BAS installation. |
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Non-Bookable Gains |
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Improved Equipment Lifespan |
System optimization and better maintenance can extend the life of your equipment, allowing you to defer major capital expenditures. |
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Better Space Utilization |
A BAS may allow you to achieve more with less HVAC equipment or other infrastructure, potentially freeing up valuable space in your facility. |
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Improve Compliance |
Better systems will make it easier to avoid fines for non-compliance with local regulations and qualify for valuable certifications and potential tax rebates. |
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In real terms, property operations and building managers tell us they see their BASs delivering savings of anywhere between 5% and 15%, depending on how energy-efficient their buildings were before the BAS installation.
Calculating Return On Investment
While bottom-line savings are measurable and off-book gains are real, your owners, partners, and investors will want to know how quickly a BAS installation will pay for itself. Working out this return on investment (ROI) means balancing the savings and benefits we’ve discussed with the cost involved in rolling out an effective BAS installation in your building or facility.
Understanding Costs
The full cost of your BAS is going to include both the entire installation costs as well as the cost of operating it month after month to generate savings.
Installation costs vary widely from project to project based on factors including:
- The complexity of the system and level of integration of your system
- The size of your building
- Whether you opt for proprietary or non-proprietary (open) systems
- Whether you are integrating or entirely replacing existing “legacy” equipment
Deciding how much to spend on installing a BAS can involve tough choices. For example, hydronic systems use heated or cooled water to regulate temperature in a building but are most efficient when used with smart systems that target off-peak power windows to heat or cool water, which requires a larger up-front investment.
Alternatively, installing fully proprietary systems is the quickest and cheapest way to roll out a BAS, but it may make your system harder to integrate with other manufacturers’ equipment in the future, especially if the original manufacturer stops supporting its products.
Operating costs will include the cost of maintaining your BAS, including software updates, adjustments and optimization, and occasional upgrades.
How to Calculate BAS ROI
Here’s how to calculate the ROI for your BAS implementation over a given period.
First, decide the period over which you want to calculate ROI, from several months to several years. Then consider the following: |
Use these factors to calculate ROI for the period using the following formula: |
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ROI = Total Benefits-Total CostsTotal Costs100 |
You can also use the return on investment your BAS delivers to calculate your payback period, which is the time it takes for the savings from the BAS to cover its initial costs, or in other words, how long it will take for your investment in a BAS to pay for itself.
Use the following equation: |
Payback Period = Initial Costs Annual Savings (where annual savings include both energy and operations savings) |
Intangible Benefits
Installing a BAS in your building can also deliver benefits that are less easy to calculate or monetize. While benefits like property value or even regulatory compliance add value in the form of higher rent or sales prices or avoid costs such as taxes or fees, the true value of these benefits may be difficult to value. These benefits may include:
Increased Productivity: Depending on your business, you may be able to estimate the increased productivity per square foot of office space due to improved employee comfort, but the true value of making your facility a more pleasant and engaging place to be is difficult to gauge.
Improved Business Reputation: Qualifying for a recognized certification such as LEED may allow you to raise rents if you are a property owner, but operating a recognizably more sustainable and efficient building can also improve your business's reputation. Again, the full benefits of this may be difficult or impossible to measure.
How Exactly Does a BAS Deliver Value?
Where do these gains in efficiency come from? Here are some key ways that modern BASs deliver value through better integration and automation of a building’s critical control systems.
1. Total Room Automation
Total room automation refers to the ability of a BAS to adjust lighting, heating, and cooling needs of occupants in a specific room or area independently of the rest of the building. This minimizes waste and can lead to significant savings, especially for areas that are used irregularly, such as conference rooms or storage areas.
2. Non-Proprietary Systems
BASs that include non-proprietary technology that adheres to common standards and protocols are easier and cheaper to integrate than fully proprietary equipment. Open-source standards allow equipment from different manufacturers to “plug and play” out of the box, making installation, maintenance upgrades, and expansions all easier.
3. Predictive Maintenance and Legacy Upgrades
Smarter integrated systems make it easier to spot potential problems before they become real issues, and to schedule regular maintenance with minimum downtime. Improved connectivity through open-source systems also means legacy systems can be upgraded by switching out only the components that need updating, rather than replacing the whole system.
4. Data Utilization and Visualization
Smart, integrated systems can collect data from multiple sensors and analyze it to identify where energy is being wasted. Powerful visualization software can turn complex data sets into graphs and charts to track energy consumption, while machine learning systems can identify hard-to-spot opportunities to boost efficiencies.
The Value of Working With a Trusted BAS Partner
In determining the costs and benefits of installing or upgrading your business’s BAS, it is difficult to overstate the value of working with a trusted equipment supplier with the experience and industry-specific know-how to deliver a system that meets your needs.
Not all building control systems suppliers have the ability to provide fine-grained total room automation or the skills needed to turn data from multiple sensors into usable data visualizations.
Neither do all suppliers offer the deep experience needed to integrate your existing systems with cutting-edge equipment based on modern open-source protocols line BACnet, or the capacity to support your BAS installation with training and ongoing maintenance services.
MACC offers unparalleled experience rolling out leading-edge BAS systems for buildings and facilities including offices, shopping malls, factories, hospitals, and even stadiums. We combine a deep commitment to robust, reliable non-proprietary systems with a unique ability to combine cutting-edge automation equipment with many legacy proprietary devices.
Contact us about your building’s BAS needs. We can help you with:
- Cost and ROI analyses
- System design, engineering, and installation
- Project management services
- BAS upgrades, maintenance, and training
Ready to experience the immediate savings and long-term return on investment only a professionally implemented BAS installation can deliver? Contact us today or click below to get started.
