Q&A with Devin Feeney, TBL Building Sciences
Q: What does TBL Building Sciences do?
A: TBL utilizes smart building automation to translate real-time data into opportunities that align with operational, sustainability, and compliance objectives. Through our cloud platform, Orion™, we provide users real-time insight into asset performance and assist in generating measurable results through asset optimization.
Q: What makes TBL different than a traditional Building Management System (BMS)?
A: The main difference between our offering and a traditional BMS is that our solution, through the utilization of our TBL Node, creates an integrated IoT ecosystem within a building. This provides for a much more cost effective and scalable solution than what a traditional BMS implementation would offer, and it allows owners and operators to view property and asset level data, across their entire portfolio of buildings, in a single platform.
Q: What types of applications and sensors do you typically focus on within buildings?
A: Our team has experience targeting a variety of different applications ranging from boiler controls to indoor air quality monitoring. Our company is laser focused on helping clients find the optimal balance between energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality, so any system that directly affects either of those key themes we look to automate and monitor with Orion™.
Q: What does the lifecycle of a complete implementation look like?
A: We start by understanding your building’s infrastructure by installing the TBL Node and integrating it with virtually any new or existing system. After the TBL Node establishes a data pipeline, real-time analysis on Orion™ provides a means for growth and evolution of the building ecosystem beyond a design drawing or spreadsheet. Once specific and measurable goals are defined, Orion™ will assist you in implementing smart, performance-based control strategies in place of fixed, prescriptive control strategies. Once the new sequences are in place, Orion™ visualizes the impact of these strategies as they are implemented. This form of real-time measurement and verification (M&V) allows you to avoid unnecessary costs and realize energy savings. As our analytics engine continues to understand occupant schedules and activity, these strategies will adapt over time so that your building systems are running efficiently and effectively every minute of the day.
Q: Where does your team see the industry heading in the next 5-10 years?
A: Our team strongly believes that the industry will continue to adopt a forward-thinking approach as it relates to the utilization of technology and artificial intelligence in finding the ideal intersection of energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. As it relates to energy, it is obvious where the industry is heading in terms of carbon emissions goals and reduction targets. We believe this is a strong space to be innovating in, and we are excited to be doing it alongside our clients.
