Smarter solutions for future ambitions

In today's rapidly changing world, efficient energy management and reduction of our carbon footprint are more important than ever. Companies and organizations are constantly looking for innovative solutions to support their energy management, healthy living and working environments, regulatory requirements and other optimization opportunities. By leveraging Montreal Solutions' IoT solutions, they can gain real-time insights, improve their decision-making, as well as pave the way for a sustainable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective management strategy.

Montreal Solutions stands for efficient and effective monitoring of real estate. The company was founded two years ago by four parties in installation technology, climate engineering and telecom, who saw that while many building managers were walking around with numerous apps for monitoring specific system performance, there was a lack of consistency and balance between all the measurement data. "Based on the idea of sustainability, health and cost savings and in anticipation of all the regulations that are coming, we were keen to fill this gap," says Jurgen Vreugdenhil, General Manager at Montreal Solutions. "Both for private property owners and for business, educational institutions, government organizations and transportation companies. After all, everyone wants the best possible environment, at the lowest possible cost and with the least possible environmental impact."

Aurora Dashboard

If you want to save energy, it is best to turn off all installations in your building, Vreugdenhil jokes. "On the other hand, anyone who also wants to benefit from optimal living and working comfort, a pleasant temperature, the right air quality and a good balance between energy generation and consumption, has to look for balance. Montreal Solutions helps with this. The basis of our solution is a device that can be mounted at a central point in the building and to which both existing and new sensors can be easily connected. Both wireless and wired. All measurement data collected by this device is then clearly visualized in our own Aurora Dashboard. From here, intelligent decisions can be made, ensuring that comfort remains high and costs low. And that combined with a minimal footprint."

Energy Management

Montreal Solutions has summarized companies' ambitions to monitor their building ownership in the core themes of Energy Management (cost savings and sustainability), Healthy Living and Working (air quality and climate) and Regulation (government requirements). Vreugdenhil is happy to further explain the various themes and their connection. "Four years ago no one knew what a kW/h cost, but now we are working on this every day," he says. "Simply because energy is becoming increasingly scarce. Both in generation and transportation. As a result, good energy management is becoming increasingly important." Montreal Solutions' IoT experts support this by first performing a baseline measurement. "Then, together with the customer, we look at where energy flows can be optimized."

In practice, Vreugdenhil sees many companies where there is a huge consumption spike in the morning around 8 a.m., for example, because everyone connects their electric car at that time. "The energy contract is often based on this peak consumption. The addition of smart charging technology offers a simple and quick solution here. By regulating where and at what speed electric cars are charged most efficiently, peak consumption and contract energy costs decrease significantly. A sustainable quick win, which also applies to better tuning of heating and air conditioning systems. For example, an improved and possibly intelligent clock setting can already prevent both systems from working against each other, again saving a lot of energy."

Healthy living and working

In addition to energy management, quality is also high on the agenda of companies and organizations. Both with regard to climate and living and working comfort. Here, too, Montreal Solutions can take comprehensive measurements. "What we see a lot is that CO2 levels in offices, meeting rooms and classrooms with variable occupancy fluctuate greatly throughout the day," Vreugdenhil said. "This can lead to dry eyes, headaches and loss of concentration at certain times of the day. Good monitoring helps control ventilation at the right times. This keeps indoor air quality up to par, while simultaneously controlling energy consumption."  

Regulation

A third theme is regulation. The government is introducing more and more legislation and regulations, such as the compulsory energy label C (and perhaps later even energy label A) for offices, the EPBD (Energy Performance of Building Directive) III and IV and the GACS (Building Automation and Control System), which will also be enforced more and more strictly. Besides careful monitoring, the reporting of trends in measured values and energy consumption is necessary for this, knows Vreugdenhil, who here also cites the difference between theoretical and measured values. "Our IoT experts are increasingly measuring the energy label of customers, where we see that values can fluctuate greatly with the change of seasons. This, too, requires refinement of installations, for which insight is an important first step. The EBS (Energy Registration and Monitoring System) reporting, which will become mandatory starting next year, can help with this."

Experimental monitoring 

Montreal Solutions values innovation and knowledge sharing. For this reason, the Rotterdam-based IoT expert actively cooperates with a number of colleges, linking issues about energy transition and system integration from practice to education. As an example, Vreugdenhil mentions a project involving a wind turbine on the RDM site in Rotterdam, which is equipped with numerous sensors to provide clear insight into, for example, rotational speed, wind speed, energy generation and the effect of salt water on the turbine. All measurement data is accessed by and displayed in the Aurora Dashboard, based on which the students of the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences can broaden and deepen their basic knowledge. "Together with the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the impact of renovation on air quality in social housing is similarly visualized," he says. "A nice example of experimental monitoring is also the monitoring of the food chain of cows at the Floating Farm in the harbor on the border between Rotterdam and Schiedam. Our measurement data here is enriched with the Floating Farm's own measurement data, with the aim of combating food waste, reducing transport and improving food quality. We like to use the knowledge we gain here to take Energy Management, Healthy Living and Working and Regulation to the very highest level."