Overcoming barriers to energy saving in public and commercial buildings

Specifically, the following are significant barriers to achieving substantial energy savings:
1. Whilst wireless, battery-powered actuators are available for household radiators, these are too high maintenance for industrial deployments (requiring regular battery changes, for example, leading to high maintenance costs).
2. Retrofit wireless lighting controls (particularly dimming) which work with multiple lighting types are not available.
3. Wireless sensor network systems are not integrated with the Building Management Systems provided by different BMS vendors.
4. Systems lack central control at the detailed level, for example typical heating & water systems cannot be controlled at the room or zone level.
5. Wireless sensor networks are not regarded as sufficiently reliable by the building systems industry, particularly in the presence of WLANs. Practical design tools to deploy wireless sensor network motes in buildings and allow effective coexistence with building WLANs are not sufficiently automated and user-friendly for use by on-site installers.
6. Systems to analyse building sensor data and generate energy efficiency improvements require specialist input rather than presenting user-friendly choices which can be used by non-expert building administrators.

Developing solutions to these issues will remove significant barriers to achieving substantial energy savings in a range of public sector and industrial buildings.