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With intelligent energy management and reduced operational costs, the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) is providing a better quality of life for its tenants.

In 2003, the GHA took over tenure of 80 560 homes with a promise to improve living conditions and, in time, return ownership to the residents.

With the motto 鈥淏etter homes, better lives鈥�, the non-profit organisation has vowed to improve the lot of its tenants by providing modern, energy-efficient homes. Currently, heating alone often costs up to 10% of a household鈥檚 income.

The challenge To fulfil the residential contract and offer the highest level of service, the GHA must upgrade the home automation network every 10 to 15 years. With that in mind, the association must also comply with government regulations. In particular, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT), which calls for at least 50% of energy savings in the UK to come from low income families.

To meet these goals, the GHA needed a network that could be easily upgraded and scaled to offer the latest technological advancements. It also needs an energy management solution that can track and monitor heating and hot water in individual homes.

The system must guarantee continuity of service by immediately alerting system managers of any maintenance issues and allow instant access to the controls using remote access via the web.

The solution came from TAC, which created a customised solution using four building management systems (bms) based on LON technology. Implementing a LON system allowed TAC to keep the existing building controls system, lowering installation and operational costs.

Futureproof system

An Ethernet IP backbone connects the four bms together, using 12 i.LON 100 devices from Echelon and two TAC Xenta 555 web servers. Both LonMark certified products use the LON platform, which allows products from different manufacturers to communicate. This provides a system that can be easily enhanced with new products in the future. In other words, the GHA can choose the best products from various vendors to meet the changing needs of its tenants.

鈥淧reviously, GHA was locked into proprietary systems with single-source suppliers for software and hardware,鈥� explains Paul Farrelly, systems controller for the GHA. 鈥淟ON allowed us to select products independently of the vendor.

If a particular dealer鈥檚 product did not have the functionality we needed or we considered it too expensive, we could easily choose another product, safe in the knowledge that it would seamlessly integrate with LON-based products.鈥�

Previously, GHA was locked into proprietary systems with single-source suppliers for software and hardware

Internet alarms

The i.LON 100 and TAC Xenta 555 play an integral role in the maintenance and service provided to homes and the hot water facilities. Should a tenant experience loss of service or plant inexplicably shuts down, the bms will signal an alarm over the internet, via fax, SMS or email to the on-duty manager. The issue can be dealt with quickly, sometimes even before the residents know there is a problem, reducing down-time of the supply facilities as well as ensuring the best care for residents. And because faults can be directly handled, maintenance costs are lower.

The peer-to-peer design of the LON system also reduces the cost of repairs. If a device breaks, the remainder of the network is not influenced, so the cost of upkeep is limited to the actual problem. This also guarantees that, when a fault occurs, the entire housing community is not affected.

With TAC Vista, the systems work together to log and monitor energy consumption in the service plant and up to 3500 households, shelters and offices. More than 600 TAC controllers monitor water supply and heating. Using weather data from the internet, the hvac controllers adjust the temperature in the buildings to suit outside conditions.

Similarly, the hot water supply is monitored and managed at a constant temperature to ensure continuity of service and to maintain reduced heating energy costs.

The aggregate energy expenditure information can be analysed and compared with the climate to find new methods of energy conservation. With this, the GHA can work to lower energy usage and costs for its residents even further.

The LON platform allows the GHA to cut down on its training expenditures. Because all devices communicate over the same protocol, the system integrator does not need to specialise in each section of the network: one person can be trained to maintain the entire solution from hvac to security.

No further training

Conveniently, when the network is expanded, no further training is required to implement the new device into the LON network. This is a great advantage for the GHA, which uses its own in-house building management team to install and engineer new devices and maintain the system.

The combined efforts of the GHA and the new LON-based control system have led to energy efficient homes that keep costs down. But the effort doesn鈥檛 stop there. TAC UK system integrator Gavin Holvey knows of the opportunities LON offers in terms of green buildings. 鈥淭he relationship does not end now that the system has been integrated.

The possibilities are endless with the solution being able to expand into such divisions as security, lighting, and access control,鈥� he explains.