Building systems monitoring for maintenance

The setup uses Modbus I/O devices to collect data at the plant and send it to the AL300 gateway over the school’s Ethernet network, or wirelessly over LoRaWAN where no local network is available

• Optimo IoT AL300 gateway: The central device that gathers states and alarms from the monitored equipment and sends them to the Optimo IoT cloud monitoring platform. The AL300 gateway is extremely flexible and leaves room for new devices to be added later (further I/O modules, LoRaWAN wireless probes, photovoltaic inverters,  and so on)

• Peripheral modules and probes: Peripheral modules communicating over Modbus TCP/IP, fitted at the plant itself, which collect the data (states and alarms, temperatures, analogue or digital measurements, and so on) and pass it to the AL300 gateway, which acts as the concentrator. 

• Flexible connectivity: The peripheral modules talk to the AL300 gateway over Modbus TCP/IP on the Ethernet network. Where no network is available, the data can also be sent wirelessly using the long-range LoRaWAN protocol.

• Systems monitored: thanks to the peripheral modules and the AL300 gateway’s ability to integrate with other equipment, data coming from the building systems can be monitored remotely, for example:
  • IRAI fire detection and alarm panels: data can be read over Modbus, or aggregated states and alarms can be picked up through the panel’s onboard I/O or through optional expansion modules. Alarm monitoring with the AL300 gateway is for supervision only  and is not  a safety function.
  • Fire-fighting pressurisation sets: the general alarms of the fire pressurisation units can be collected, so faults or anomalies are picked up promptly
  • Lifting equipment: the peripheral I/O modules can collect states and alarms from the control panels of passenger and goods lifts
  • heating plants: the digital and analogue I/O modules can collect states and alarms from boilers, heat pumps, chillers and plant circulation pumps. The analogue I/O modules can read the working temperatures of the circuits, so every parameter of the heating plant is covered. 
  • energy monitoring: the electricity consumption of heat pumps and other electrical loads can be tracked with electricity meters, or with LoRaWAN wireless current sensors, which give you the load profile straight away with no invasive work

• Environmental parameters monitored: wireless sensors transmitting over LoRaWAN make it simple to monitor the building’s environmental parameters without invasive work, which matters especially in existing buildings:
  • monitoring of temperature and humidity in the rooms: battery-powered probes let you map room temperature and indoor humidity
  • monitoring of air quality: a probe  can track the level of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and CO2 in rooms such as classrooms or crowded assembly halls
  • Occupancy sensors. occupancy sensors let you see how the rooms are being used
  • sensors for light level: these track the illuminance in lux inside the rooms