Developing on the newly expanded RESET Index, ebm-papst and Envio Systems are bringing their expertise together to elevate smart building response to airborne pandemics, enabling operators to achieve high-performance indoor air quality without sacrificing energy efficiency goals.

COVID-19 has made common knowledge of indoor quality being the single most important health & safety concern for building operations. It has also made common knowledge of how quickly and dramatically indoor air quality can change over the course of hours and minutes.

“The purpose of performance monitoring is to know when and how to respond to change. By definition, a healthy building must be a responsive building,”says Stanton Wong, President of RESET. “The building industry has been slow to adapt to this reality. This collaboration will empower a scale-jump for healthy, responsive buildings, with lessons that will benefit the entire industry.”

As the world’s largest manufacturer of high-performance fans, ebm-papst is the lungs behind the air we breathe within enclosed spaces, be they buildings, cars, buses, subways, airplanes or ships.

Over the past 24 months, ebm-papst and its digital enterprise neo have been developing an IoT enabled, high-performance building fan, capable of delivering a wealth of data to advanced building systems, including rpm, vibration, noise, air speed, volume, pressure and most importantly, quality of the air flowing through the fan.

“Two years ago, we couldn’t foresee exactly how all this data would be used, but we knew it was the future,” says Brendan Dow, Sales Director of ebm-papst. “Now, with COVID-19 we know exactly how this data needs to be used. The challenge was in finding smart building systems able to make use of the additional data while deploying rapidly within buildings.”

Enter Envio Systems, an advanced smart building solution capable of being deployed across commercial real-estate in just a few hours, rapidly transforming almost any building or indoor space into a responsive one.

“Most building operators are running blind, unable to tell occupants how often indoor air is actually being changed or how clean it is. Responses are based on best guess estimates and hopeful checklists,” says Reza Alaghehband, CEO of Envio Systems. “Without data, buildings are being ventilated as much as possible, often exposing occupants to temperature, humidity and outdoor pollutant levels that compromise the immune system, all the while increasing greenhouse gas emissions. COVID-19 has taken the industry back 50 years. We’re here to move buildings into the future.”

The added data from the IoT enabled fans allows Envio to provide buildings and tenants with a level of response and control that was previously impossible. Rapidly deployed ceiling mounted filtration units can, for example, be networked to remove surges of airborne pollutants (including aerosolized viruses) in hyper-local indoor areas right as they emerge. Connected local and central air systems can be optimized to balance clean-air rates with outdoor air delivery, while reducing energy costs. Furthermore, air changes and air cleaning rates can be accurately measured and managed, as opposed to estimated and mis-managed.

“To rebuild trust with occupants, building operators need to be able to measure and communicate results - checklists aren’t enough,” adds Alaghehband. “We know from scientific research that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, but we can’t measure concentrations of the pathogen in real-time. What’s missing is the link between the scientific research and the sensor data that we collect.”

Enter RESET, an international standard for data quality used to quantify the health performance of real-estate in real-time.

“The RESET Index extracts results from laboratory research on infection risks and applies those to real-world environments, a process that’s only possible when data collected from sensors is standardized and analyzed in ways that correlate with the original laboratory studies,” says Raefer Wallis, Founder of RESET. "Each new variable factored into the Index sheds additional light on potential infection risk, improves accuracy and increases trust.”

Data from the Envio platform allows the RESET Index to factor in actual measured air cleaning rates (removing aerosolized virus particles), while cross checking results with particle counts. This allows building operators to decouple CO2 levels from estimates of aerosolized virus concentrations and bring building ventilation rates back into balance. The end goal being clean air that supports proper functioning of the immune system, delivered at low energy levels.

Measured and compiled according to the RESET Standard for data quality, the Envio data is sent to the RESET Cloud for continuous third-party analysis. Results are then sent back to Envio for optimization of control systems, client reports and occupant communication.

“We know our clients simply want to get on with business,” completes Dow. “To do that, they need solutions and a very simple index that tells them how well those solutions are working. Despite the under-lying complexity, the RESET Index does just that.”

The collaboration between RESET, ebm-papst and Envio connects the lungs and brains of a building in ways that allow for a new level of breathing, with vital statistics being assessed for health optimization on a continuous basis. The ultimate result is insights that will benefit the industry.

About ebm-papst

The ebm-papst group is the world's leading manufacturer of fans, motors, drives and data driven digital solutions. Since its foundation in 1963, ebm-papst is a technology company that continuously sets global market standards.
https://www.ebmpapst.com/

About Envio Systems, GmbH

Envio Systems was started with the goal to positively impact the world via automated solutions and focused on creating a suite based on compatibility, scalability, affordability, and intelligence. A cloud-based IoT platform for enhanced performance and operation of commercial buildings, their smart building system enables remote monitoring and control, and reveals comprehensive real-time data so owners and operators have the tools they need to make buildings better, healthier, and more efficient. Founded in 2016 in Berlin, Germany, Envio’s team is a unique group of engineers, data scientists, product managers, and more from around the world. For more information, please visit https://enviosystems.com/

About The RESET Standard

The RESET Standard is the world’s first sensor-based, performance-driven data standard and certification program for the built environment. The RESET Standard creates a structure for data quality, continuous monitoring and benchmarking. The standard harnesses the power of technology in order to assess the performance of buildings and interior spaces during their operational phase.
https://reset.build