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Energy consumption in buildings currently accounts for over 40% of all energy consumed in Europe and US. Human behavior alone is the source of 20%-40% of energy waste in buildings. This problem is being addressed by Turkish startup BEAD, an entrant in this year’s clim@ competition for startups organized by the Green for Growth Fund (GGF). BEAD seeks to develop fully autonomous buildings that, with the help of a sensor device, can learn and share data with other buildings and adjust their systems based on human interaction and flow pattern in order to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.
The BEAD sensor device analyzes and learns the daily use cycle, energy consumption, user behavior and occupancy changes in all kinds of buildings, and then provides feedback to its automation systems, connecting them to the real-time operation of the building in order to optimize marketing, operations, and energy efficiency.
Background
Energy consumption in buildings currently accounts for over 40% of all energy consumed in Europe and the US. This makes for the largest share of the total energy consumption, ahead of transport and industrial production.
Europe alone wastes over EUR 43 billion worth of energy in commercial buildings annually. The reason for this is that traditional automation technologies operate on fixed schedules and standard assumptions of occupancy in commercial and residential buildings. But in reality, only about one-third of these assumptions are true.
What is the reason for this? Traditional automation systems are disconnected from users and the environment in which they operate. As a result, they end up wasting the bulk of their operation hours lighting and ventilating empty buildings, storerooms, and flats.
BEAD’s solution
The solution for this is provided by Turkish startup BEAD from Istanbul (BEAD’s presentation), since this year with the head office in Berlin. BEAD has developed an IoT (Int
ernet of things) multiple sensor device and a cloud-based AI (artificial intelligence) platform that analyzes real-time occupancy in commercial and residential buildings in order to optimize marketing, operations, and energy efficiency.
The BEAD sensor device is integrated into a building at multiple points and with its built-in motion, temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors, it analyzes and learns the daily use cycle, energy consumption, user behavior, and occupancy changes in commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. This crucial process enables it to provide feedback to its automation systems, connecting them to the real-time operation of the building.
BEAD is an AI-based system that analyzes, optimizes and operates a building’s energy management, marketing strategies, and operations by measuring real-time occupancy data.
BEAD’s contribution to sustainable development
BEAD is focused on helping create not only smarter buildings but also intelligent systems that can improve themselves and create smarter energy grids with big data. The startup is pioneering the B-IoT (the Building Internet of Things) movement and is changing the entire conventional energy ecosystem from the ground up by combining the IoT, data science, and smart grid engineering expertise. Aiming to be the leader of the digital energy transformation, BEAD’s mission is to digitalize, democratize, and dematerialize energy assets using exponential technologies.
According to BEAD, the buildings are living ecosystems. People have to be connected with the building they use in order to develop a sustainable management strategy to save energy but also to reduce carbon emissions by optimizing operations.
With the help of BEAD, building managers and engineers will have the opportunity to operate buildings based on occupancy data. The data will provide them with the necessary information on how people are using a building and how they can operate the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) or lights in the building. Using the data enables switching air-conditioning or ventilation on or off as needed. That helps reduce energy consumption by up to 25%, while at the same time helping optimize operations by cutting down the personnel numbers needed to operate a building. As a result, the BEAD-powered building reduces its carbon footprint by up to 15%annually.
BEAD on the ground
The initial project was implemented with the biggest fitness chain in Turkey to address its problems with increasing and unpredictable energy costs at their 50 outlets. BEAD started with analyzing one of their locations in Istanbul, which runs monthly energy bills of about EUR 22,000.
The problem was that at that location the automation system and the building were basically disconnected from each other, which was a common pattern at most of the locations BEAD analyzed. The automation system was installed with a proxy of the maximum occupancy assumption and no intelligence to adapt. As a result, the system catered for service levels assumed to be necessary for 1,000 people coming to the location during the day vs. the real life 200 to 350 occupancy at any time.
BEAD enabled dynamic adaptations to the following patterns it identified:
1- The location was only occupied after 10.00 a.m. The dynamic adaptation to real-time occupancy saved the location close to 10% of energy costs.
2- The system registered energy consumption during nighttime due to cleaning and maintenance patterns. The dynamic adaptation to reflect actual use times saved the location further energy cost.
3- The location featured roof windows, getting daylight for significant periods on any given day. Adjusting other lighting to reflect the natural daylight use, BEAD changed the real-time scheduling to the lighting system, saving a further 8% of energy costs.
The TOTAL energy cost savings for this customer at this location was more than 20%, effective immediately. These savings were achieved by real-time energy consumption monitoring, energy consumption analysis according to occupancy changes and analyzing the building’s day-cycle.
Soner Hacihaliloglu, CEO of BEAD Technologies
We are now at the second machine age and the impact of it on climate change is huge. We want to create a real positive impact on people’s lives by developing sustainable and innovative new technologies for saving energy and operating buildings more intelligently. Sustainability is not a one-time job or reporting issue. It is an ongoing process which must be connected with the real day-cycle of buildings.
Smart saving through automatization and integration
For years now, BEAD has been helping customers integrate systems not designed to work together and sometimes deliberately made incompatible by manufacturers. Its mission is to enable remote access to, and control over conventional operations of buildings. BEAD offers building energy analysis, human interaction, and human flow analysis services and develops custom building automation systems to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and cut utility costs by up to 30%.
It provides not only sensor data storage and basic guideline, but the entire IoT value chain. Its virtual energy management approach is easy, scalable, affordable, and most importantly, works with the equipment and systems customers already have.
Co-founders of BEAD – technologists at heart
The team of co-founders have vast and complementary experience from various sectors, including carbon markets, major energy corporates, IoT, and energy management, marketing, communication, renewables, and smart grids – and are all hardcore technologists at heart.
Soner Hacihaliloglu is CEO of IO2 and BEAD Technologies. He was voted one of the top 10 disruptive innovators at Cleantech in 2017.
Hayrettin Erturk is CTO of IO2 and BEAD technologies. He has been developing software, IoT and machine learning solutions for major corporates such as Bosch, Turkcell, BBVA, and TUI.
Holger Herbst is CRO of IO2. He will serve as head of renewable projects and emerging markets.
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