Blaming all comfort complaints on HVAC can lead to wrong actions, a broken automation framework and ever more complaining and energy waste. A better approach is to open your inquiry to more of what's happening across the whole building, using analytics to reveal anomalies and correlations among a wider array of time-series data streams. “Round up the usual suspects,” [...]

Most folks don’t realize just how easy (and lucrative) energy efficiency improvements in an existing building may be, even for buildings that have undergone audits or retrofits in the past. Our clients are often surprised to find that an energy audit or retro-commissioning program with special focus on actually picking these low hanging fruit, can easily uncover 10-15% or [...]

It’s a situation we come across all the time: 1) Altura is brought in to provide retro-commissioning (RCx) or an audit for a building/portfolio, 2) we uncover a host of energy efficiency measures – some low cost/no cost, some requiring moderate to large capital expenditures, 3) we tackle the low hanging fruit (low cost/no cost measures), 4) we find [...]

As the founders of a firm focused on energy and environmental performance, we are constantly examining different aspects of our industry, working to understand what drives change, and striving towards better long-term building performance.  Among the topics we’ve discussed recently are: the role of technology, the importance of people (occupants and operators) in buildings, and how the design & [...]

At a recent visit to the expo at a commercial real estate conference, I noticed what seems to be a growing trend: an amazing number of firms, big and small, promoting an ever-growing number of energy management-related software programs.  And while there are certainly many variations, the pitch always seems to be about the same: let us connect to [...]