Smart features

With Envo’s solutions installed in the building, you naturally have full control over the building’s power consumption.

Digital information boards give you the opportunity to provide your customers and the building’s tenants with the same insight.

Envos smart function digital information board helps you showcase your work with sustainability and energy monitoring.

When the various stakeholders in the building gain insight into the building’s power consumption, they can also take greater ownership of the task of keeping energy efficiency high and electricity costs down.

The digital information board can be customized with

• The company logo
• Photos of the building
• Current weather
• Overview of energy sources
• Daily statistics
• The largest energy consumers
• Overview of power consumption and production

The snow-melting function from Envo is a software-controlled smart feature that uses available sensors and automation together with the Envo Edge Gateway to make existing snow-melting systems smarter and more energy efficient.

The algorithm in the function replaces the existing control from local automation and regulates heat output based on a combination of temperature and weather trends. This keeps the ground free of snow and ice – with high energy efficiency.

The user interfaces are web-based and include trends, status, and configuration. The algorithms run locally in the Edge Gateway.

Typical areas of use are pedestrian streets, loading ramps, parking lots, entrances and exits to garage facilities, sidewalks, stairs, and so on.

If automation is already installed, it is used as a starting point and connected to the Envo Edge Gateway, which takes over control. If new automation is needed, Envo offers cost-effective and suitable components.

Simple automation handles the actual activation of the heating output. The algorithms in the Envo Edge Gateway take care of data collection, decision-making, and the advanced functions.

Usually there is no need to install additional sensors to detect precipitation, temperature, and humidity. All systems, interfaces, and protocols that are integrated with the Envo Edge Gateway and from which status can be read can be used.

If local sensors are not available, Envo offers the use of virtual sensors, typically from our Met API integration, which provides weather data from a location near the building. Alternatively, we can help select components that are cost-effective and suitable for the task, and integrate these with the Envo Edge Gateway.

The smart Max Guard function helps reduce the electricity bill in commercial buildings.

A peak load controller reduces the peak demand (average consumption over the course of an hour), meaning the periods when the total power draw is highest. This is done by reducing or shifting consumption based on when the building’s “energy thieves” (loads) use electricity, and then spreading this use out over time. The incentive for doing this is the “demand tariff” from the grid operator, which is an extra cost based on the highest peak each month.

When the Max Guard is active, the total simultaneous consumption is reduced during the periods it is active, typically by switching off slow loads or reducing dynamic loads. This shifts consumption to times when electricity costs are lower.

The power guard runs as software in the Envo Edge Gateway, which is usually also integrated with all the building’s systems and meters. This makes it possible for the smart function to take into account when cheaper energy sources should be used, such as electricity from solar panels, and to shift consumption to be as energy efficient as possible.

The smart Max Guard function can be tailored for each building to achieve the best possible effect in each individual case.