Project Cranium's story
IoT Horizon are an Internet of Things (IoT) specialist based in the North West. We are placed to deliver IoT solutions for commercial and industrial businesses by helping companies break down technology barriers to improve existing operations, reduce energy consumption and explore new lines of revenue.
To meet climate change targets by 2050 every building will need to hit the Net Zero energy-use reduction goal. The built environment already contributes around 40% of the World's Energy Usage (World Building Council). Through real-time monitoring and automation of air quality, electricity, heating and lighting it is possible to make buildings smarter, greener, and more cost-efficient.
IoT Horizon's smart building platform - Cranium - with deployed sensors has the power to give businesses vital metrics to make more informed decisions on the people and buildings. This data can identify where improvements need to be made to meet Net Zero targets. For example, monitoring room occupancy and CO2 levels can tell you whether somebody is present in the room. If it is empty, the heating and lighting can atuomatically switch off to save energy.
At IoT Horizon we have a solution to track and regulate environments to reduce energy consumption whilst maintaining a healthy indoor environment for occupants. There is a growing awareness that the quality of the air we breathe has a significant impact on health, wellbeing and productivity. We are estimated to spend 90% of our time indoors with air quality that is 5 times more polluted than outdoor air. Benefits of smart buildings include:
1. Reduced Energy Consumption - 30% of energy is wasted in commercial buildings. Technology can automate building systems to make smarter decisions.
2. Reduced Operating Costs - 30-40% of desk space is wasted. Identifying patterns in a business can help to reduce building overheads.
3. Increase Productivity – Employees can take up to 25% longer to complete a task if the environment is too hot. By just controlling CO2 levels, studies have recorded a 12% productivity improvement.
Our favourite saying at IoT Horizon is "you don't know, what you don't measure". It is important to get the baseline data so you can make more informed decisions on your building. We are currently undertaking studies in Lancashire on how our environmental sensors can help schools to make better decisions on their students, staff and building…watch this space!
Useful learnings from Project Cranium
Research has shown that 30% of IoT projects fail in the proof-of-concept stage due to the bottom-line benefits being unclear against the implementation costs. Others fail because execution timescales elongate, and businesses are reluctant to write off the sums already invested. Finally, for those who have previously tried unsuccessfully, there is a natural reticence to try again, even though the benefits look favourable.
To help encourage and accelerate the successful adoption of IoT and showcase the business benefits - IoT Horizon developed a four-stage process to "MPWR" our clients. Our process learns from and builds on the previous experience and knowledge, allowing rapid ideation through execution and onto rollout and adoption. The four-stage process provides natural breakpoints where our clients can assess progress, costs and benefits and decide whether to continue or not. These breakpoints help ringfence the businesses exposure to make sure it is in their best interests to continue. In fact, those customers we have MPWR'd have said the breakpoints and ability to retain control was the key reason for proceeding with our process.
If you're evaluating IoT and Smart Building technologies, we suggest you start with the business case. Is the idea or project commercially viable? What is the business benefit e.g. cost savings , productivity improvements or a reduction in carbon? Next - make sure you have advocates within the business who can demonstrate the benefits of the technology.
At IoT Horizon we give building owners and facilities managers the metrics to make more informed decisions on their people and buildings. The data can help to reduce energy consumption whilst maintaining a healthy indoor environment for occupants. For example, IoT Horizon worked with one local council to measure 200 storage heaters. By analysing the data, we were able to save the council £10,000 per year.
IoT is a very collaborative industry with professionals across the private sector, catapults and academics. If you need support from IoT Horizon please do reach out. If we're not the right fit, we're happy to point you in the right direction.
Project Cranium's metrics
At IoT Horizon we give building owners and facilities managers the metrics to make more informed decisions on their people and buildings. The data can help to reduce energy consumption whilst maintaining a healthy indoor environment for occupants. For example, IoT Horizon worked with one local council to measure 200 storage heaters. By analysing the data, we were able to save the council £10,000 per year.
