Smart building IoT deployments before and after Covid

IoT isn’t new in smart buildings and facilities management. Before COVID19, the technology was used for facilities management.

COVID19 has brought new IoT use cases and revealed its full potential in facilities management. We predict IoT installations to continue or even rise after the pandemic.

Smart building IoT Pre-COVID19

Pre-pandemic, sensors and IoT were used for energy optimization and asset management. Temperature sensing was used in smart buildings to fine-tune HVAC systems and reduce BTU usage.

Facilities managers employed sensors to monitor assets and find faults. Pre-COVID19, all modern buildings have sensors as part of Building Management Systems (BMS).

Older building owners were hesitant to install new sensors on outdated equipment for IoT applications. Some were worried about the additional CAPEX and ROI of their solutions.

COVID19 IoT Smart Buildings

After the pandemic, facility managers faced new obstacles like policies and government constraints.

Most office workers shifted to work-from-home during the epidemic, disrupting 9–5 work and workplace occupancy norms. Physical activities (like asset inspection) had to be digitalized (e.g., remote monitoring).

This led to IoT use cases including remote occupancy monitoring, automated HVAC optimization, and predictive asset maintenance. These use cases let organizations save money and comply with COVID19 rules.

They proved the ROI of IoT applications and created a new wave of adopters, including building owners and managers.

Read more about new use cases and changes to the workplace here