Sustainability is one of the main challenges experienced by the world at the moment.
Globally, countries have established aggressive objectives to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, either through the Paris Agreement or other means, with complementary targets pushed by states, provinces, or other local initiatives.
This emphasis on sustainability has also permeated the corporate sector, with companies everywhere trying to make more earth-conscious choices a top priority. 81% of the world’s top companies report on sustainability as one of their corporate goals, with 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 publishing a sustainability report in 2021. This includes their facilities and structures, production methods, and products.
Industrial sensing can significantly promote change across different pathways in each of these strategies.
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Smarter Sensing Drives Energy Efficiency
The most straightforward and essential step toward sustainability is to strive for increased energy efficiency in the existing equipment categories. This is because it does not involve any specific change to end-user behavior except educating them about its benefits.
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration
Because of its significant influence on use, HVAC is the vertical most commonly considered in this context for commercial and residential systems.
Data estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that the energy required to cool residential and commercial buildings comprised 10 percent of total electricity consumption.
Pressure and temperature sensors in an HVAC system are essential for maintaining optimum temperatures and minimizing energy usage. The system requires a heat source, like a boiler, to supply heat, and a cooling source, such as a chiller or cooling tower, to provide cooling.
Before returning to the heating or cooling source, the heated or cooled water, or any other medium, is pumped throughout the building to air handling units or terminal units (or other equipment of a similar kind), where it transfers energy with air from the ventilation system.
The conditioned air is then delivered to the room. Updated system designs, like variable air volume layouts, enable more efficient space cooling than conventional systems.
In a variable air volume design, the system keeps the air supply constant while the zone thermostats in each space adjust the airflow to maintain the desired zone temperature.
This is unlike a constant-volume system, which maintains a constant volume of airflow to the space but adjusts the air stream’s temperature in response to space temperature fluctuations.
This free eBook from Sensata Technologies discusses industrial sensing for sustainability and energy efficiency.
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