Danfoss Heating: Data collection from thermostats provide energy use insights

What did we do?

Intelligent thermostats optimise energy usage

Problem

In a proof of concept project, Danfoss Heating wanted to find the best way to remotely monitor the thermostats in an apartment building. The goal was to gather data, process it into a relevant format, and store it safely in a database. Previous solutions had proven problematic for Danfoss because the data collection had been unstable, and a lot of data had been lost.

Solution

To solve Danfoss’ challenge, CIM came up with a solution which secured the necessary data from the thermostats via a Bluetooth application on an android phone. Thermostats from each apartment were connected to a phone and data was transmitted to a cloud solution and stored in a database. Challenges like how to keep the signals from overlapping, how to keep the phone on at all times, and how to ensure data consistency and prevent data loss were all solved with CIM’s software solution. All phones were reprogrammed with intuitive user interfaces so that set-up will be easy for future installations.

Result

Danfoss now has easy access to a full data set of information from a series of thermostats throughout an apartment building. The intelligent thermostats are the first step to gaining insight into the energy use in the building and will thereby help create more energy efficient heating systems in the future.