Buildings contain a treasure trove of data. Information is available from a broad variety of systems from HVAC and electrical to utility usage. Much of this information may even be visible at a BAS, but for most buildings, it is up to the building operator to turn this data into actionable knowledge. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, and as a result, we see many buildings where systems are operating less than optimally. How do we fix this problem?

The answer can be found in the new field of data analytics (also called energy information, fault detection and diagnostics, analytics, or continuous commissioning). The concept is software-based and follows these steps: