How healthy buildings save energy: Five things the private sector can learn from the public sector

Today, we spend more of our lives inside than ever - up to 90% of our time. While we can generally control what’s happening inside our homes, the indoor environment of other spaces, such as the workplace, schools, or public buildings, might seem beyond our control. 

However, some public spaces do take their indoor air quality seriously. Norway is one such example of how better indoor air is benefitting residents and building users while also reducing the cost of energy consumption. 

Norway’s population of 5.4 million people lives across 357 “kommuner,” or municipalities.  These municipalities are home to many public services and buildings, such as kindergartens and schools. They’re a shining example of how public sector buildings enjoy healthy indoor air while also reducing energy costs. Thanks to more than 10,000 Airthings for Business indoor air quality monitoring devices, more than 1.5 million people in Norwegian municipalities are breathing better whenever they visit a public building.

100 municipalities now benefiting from indoor air quality monitoring

Airthings for Business recently outfitted the 100th municipality with this solution - Eidsvoll. Home to the official Norwegian constitution, celebrated annually on May 17, Eidsvoll Municipality has taken the initiative towards greater air quality and health by installing devices from Airthings for Business. 

Tore H Rismyhr , sales manager for the public sector at Airthings for Business, comments:

“Signing Eidsvoll as our 100th municipality in Norway marks a big milestone for Airthings for Business."

"We’re proud to say that we’ve delivered our solutions to almost a third of all Norwegian municipalities and that we’re now helping to monitor indoor air quality for a significant portion of the country as a whole. We look forward to working with many more great customers nationwide."

Healthier public buildings help save energy

Kindergartens, health centers, care homes, and schools in these 100 municipalities are outfitted with Airthings for Business devices. These devices are equipped with sensors that monitor radon, CO2, and humidity, with additional virtual sensors that monitor virus risk, occupancy, and ventilation rate. Understanding these factors provides a straightforward way to judge how “healthy” the indoor environment is while detecting other airborne contaminants, which negatively impact people’s health and impair comfort and productivity.

A comfortable indoor environment with adequate ventilation is especially important for learning environments. Indoor air quality expert, Joseph Allen of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health often highlights this relationship. Optimum airflow and filtration coupled with the right temperature and humidity levels help to create a healthier, more productive environment for learning. 

Aside from creating a healthy and safe environment for building occupants,  Airthings for Business devices also help municipalities save millions of kroner (up to hundreds of thousands of USD in energy costs. 

Cutting energy costs by monitoring indoor air quality

Of the 100 municipalities that have installed the Airthings for Business solution, many have been Airthings customers for more than 4 years. They experience benefits just weeks after adopting the solution, reaping the rewards of knowing what’s happening to the air inside their buildings while optimizing their buildings’ HVAC thanks to insights available in the Airthings for Business dashboard. This solution shows metrics for the indoor environment as well as suggested actions to take for optimal conditions.

Tore Rismyhr adds:

“With national legislations that make it mandatory to document the IAQ (including radon) in public buildings, Norwegian municipalities have found using Airthings for Business' solutions a great help. 

Tore continues, "After the easy installation of our top-of-the-line sensor units, facility or building managers get a holistic view of the IAQ in their buildings, which makes their workday much more efficient. Reports for documentation are created in seconds flat, and they can work and prioritize based on what they need to do - not the old-fashioned way of letting the calendar tell them what they should do."

“All sensor units are battery operated and practically maintenance-free. With data at their fingertips, facility or building managers can also fine-tune HVAC systems to operate much more energy efficiently; ROI is generally seen within a year.”

Hamar Municipality: significant savings thanks to a better understanding of their IAQ

Hamar Municipality, in Innlandet County, installed Airthings for Business devices when they realized a better indoor air monitoring solution was required in its schools and kindergartens. Previously, the municipality followed traditional working schedules to determine how their heating and cooling systems ran. Much of it was guesswork, meaning spaces were often heated when not in use. Property managers also spent time driving around conducting manual checks. Now, with centralized information, issues are prioritized and addressed proactively rather than reactively. 

Data from Airthings for Business sensors offers insights to inform adjustments to temperature and ventilation across public buildings, thereby balancing the indoor climate and provides enough information for “fine-tuning” to take place when needed. These simple adjustments resulted in significant energy savings in the first year, as Magnar Hommerstad, Head of Energy and Technical Facilities, Hamar Municipality, explains:

“In one year, we have reduced energy use by two million kilowatt hours. With last year's electricity price, this means a saving of over five million kroner*.”

(*equivalent to $471,000)

Magnar continues, “In the future, we will save more. We’ll be able to manage everything centrally and become even better at utilizing the energy in our buildings.”

Sunndal Municipality: Solving high radon levels while optimizing building systems

Radon is a colorless, odorless gas, and exposure to high levels over time can result in lung cancer. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. High radon levels are generally an indicator that ventilation is not working at a healthy level, and its presence can indicate other airborne contaminants are present. 

Sunndal Municipality initially installed Airthings for Business devices in connection with HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) regulations and general safety in some of their kindergartens. 

Upon installing the devices, Sunndal municipality quickly realized that radon levels were regularly above the recommended annual average of 200 Bq/m³ (becquerel per cubic meter). The insights allowed them to adjust ventilation to help bring levels within the recommended limits without purchasing additional mitigation systems. Additionally, Airthings for Business measures pollutants like VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and particulate matter over time, making it very easy to track trends and understand averages while ensuring improvement measures taken are working.

Using Space Utilization insights available in the Airthings for Business dashboard, Sunndal Municipality also adjusts its HVAC systems to pause when the buildings are unoccupied. Running the systems according to demand has saved them around 3-4 million kroner (between $280,000 - $377,000) in just 3 years. 

A simple-to-install solution that provides peace of mind

The benefits Sunndal Municipality experienced after installing Airthings for Business devices were compounded by how simple the solution was to install and use. 

Airthings for Business devices are easy to install, fully wireless, and battery-powered, meaning they can be placed anywhere, regardless of WiFi connection or power supply, without the need for cabling or professional installation support. Once connected to the Space Hub, data is available for review in the centralized dashboard in minutes. 

Moss Municipality, situated in Østfold county, is one another area benefiting from the simplicity of the solution.

Improved knowledge of indoor environments results in safer, more efficient buildings

Continuously monitoring indoor air quality can also highlight previously unknown issues to building managers. For example, Hemsedal Municipality identified air quality issues that they were previously unaware of, such as high amounts of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) due to the usage of alcohol-based cleaning products. Monitoring the indoor air also revealed that indoor temperatures were far too high. 

As Odd Magne Anderdal, Operations Manager, Hemsedal Municipality, Norway, explains:

“Some insights from the Airthings for Business devices were quite surprising. For example, we would never have known about the high amounts of VOCs or overheating in our schools and kindergartens without data from the devices. 

We have solved these issues by making simple adjustments, such as switching our cleaning products and lowering the temperatures in our kindergartens, and, as a result, we have a far healthier indoor environment for all our building occupants. We’re also on our way to meeting our target of reducing our energy consumption to 25% of what it was in 2017.” 

A more sustainable solution for monitoring radon

Before using Airthings for Business, Moss Municipality used traditional track film to monitor radon levels in their buildings. This process was time-consuming and meant building managers had to manually install track films and then wait 3 months to get average radon values. This data would then need analyzing before deciding whether to take measures to reduce radon levels 

The threshold data collected meant that if mitigation measures were needed, a new track film had to be used to see if the measures had been effective. This process was extremely time-consuming and didn’t offer the potential for continuous monitoring to track trends over time.

The entire process has improved significantly after transitioning to the Airthings for Business solution. Moss municipality now continuously monitors radon levels, reducing both time spent and the uncertainty associated with its traditional radon measurement process. 

“The use of this solution has simplified the way we handle radon risk and enables us to proactively ensure a safe indoor environment for the users of our buildings."

Steffen Aanes, Manager - Technical Department, Moss Municipal Property Company KF.

Actionable, accessible insights to support decision-making

A municipality benefiting from improved continuous IAQ monitoring is Nordre Follo. Like Moss, Nordre Follo Municipality relied on trace film to monitor radon levels in their public buildings. Installing the Airthings for Business solution has simplified the whole process. 

However, Nordre Follo has seen benefits beyond monitoring radon levels. In-depth insights accessed via the centralized Airthings for Business dashboard allow building managers to understand CO2 and temperature levels across the buildings, thus providing data to inform decision-making on how they run their HVAC systems. 

As Eirik Alexander Weum, Construction Consultant, Nordre Follo municipality, explains:

“We continuously adjust ventilation times against values that read high for radon. Understanding temperature and CO2 levels is valuable information, and it helps us decide how to adjust systems when we get complaints from building users.”

Using the Time Over Threshold feature in the Airthings for Business dashboard to analyze how often predetermined levels of CO2 or temperature are exceeded. This feature is one of the most effective ways to see what’s happening to a building’s indoor environment. These metrics, alongside other data, are easily exported and shared. Eirik continues, “I regularly use the weekly reports into thresholds. The Airthings for Business dashboard now has analytics beta, which makes this very clear.”

Retrofitting older buildings to bring them into the future

What’s interesting about all of these municipalities from Norway, is that the majority of these energy-saving and IAQ-improving measures have been made to older buildings. Installing the Airthings for Business solution has helped to retrofit buildings and make them smarter, maximizing sustainability and climate impact. 

With these examples from Norway’s public sector in mind, what can other parts of society and the economy learn? Below we explore 5 lessons that the private sector could learn from the public sector. 

5 things private sector building managers can learn from the public sector

While the public sector isn’t traditionally considered the most forward-thinking part of the economy, the examples described above prove that by embracing simple-to-use technologies, it’s possible to make big improvements to the indoor climate while reducing energy spend.

1. Monitor continuously for the best results

Monitoring indoor air quality over time is the simplest and most effective way to truly understand what’s happening with the indoor environments inside buildings. By using a solution like Airthings for Business, buildings in the private and public sectors alike can take interventions and adjustments to ensure building occupants breathe healthy, safe air. As Sunndal municipality proves, adjusting ventilation avoided more extensive, necessary mitigation actions to combat high radon levels and ensure that the air inside their kindergartens is safe for children and employees.

2. Make decisions based on data to help save costs

Data gathered in real time, over weeks or months helps optimize HVAC systems according to occupancy, leading to significant cost savings. The Airthings for Business dashboard gives insights that can be accessed any time, from anywhere, meaning it's easy to spot trends and see when certain parameters, like CO2 or temperature, regularly exceed thresholds. The dashboard also provides "real" data when discussing temperature or ventilation issues with tenants.

3. Simplify processes to save time and resource

Using a centralized, virtual dashboard that can be accessed remotely means that building or facility managers can spend time and resources on something other than site-to-site, reactive activity. Much like a large private company, a municipality can have a complex building portfolio spread over a large area. Accessing critical building information from one place speeds up decision-making and prevents data from becoming fragmented while removing the need for individuals to spend time at each location. 

4. Use continuous feedback to your advantage

As Moss, Nordre Follo, and many other municipalities using Airthings for Business prove, monitoring indoor air quality over time is crucial for making sure levels of certain contaminants, such as radon, are safe. Using features like ‘Time Over Threshold’ also allows building and facility managers to spot trends, meaning systems can be adjusted to ventilate or heat buildings only when used. One-off measurements provide much less detail and mean opportunities to make adjustments that improve IAQ or help save energy are missed.

5. Centralize decision making

The Airthings for Business dashboard provides one data source, highlighting actionable insights and trends based on both live and historic data from across building locations. With one comprehensive view, building or facility managers can accurately map sensors onto a floor plan, configure alerts, and gain insights into the performance of distinct areas within their building(s). Tasks can be prioritized according to need while avoiding time wasted addressing false alarms. The Airthings for Business solution is scalable, so devices can be added and immediately seen in the dashboard as the building portfolio grows.

Tore Rismyhr, Airthings for Business, concludes:

“It is very rewarding to work with public sector entities. They have a great culture of sharing great solutions, proven by new municipalities regularly contacting Airthings for Business based on "word of mouth" from their peers."

"We don’t doubt that the usage of Airthings for Business will continue to grow as we continue to add new features for our customers. Should new legislation come along - we’ll make sure customers can quickly and accurately document what they need.”

Big energy savings while improving comfort for building users

Norway's 100+ municipalities demonstrate that installing indoor air quality devices and continuously monitoring key IAQ indicators via a centralized location creates big wins, both for building users’ comfort and health and saving energy. By adopting a similar approach to building management, the private sector could achieve great energy savings while supporting building occupants’ health and comfort.

Does your municipality want to experience the benefits of the Airthings for Business Solution, first hand? Get in touch with Tore Rismyhr today.

Discover how Airthings for Business can help you breathe life into your buildings by creating the perfect indoor environment while reducing energy costs: airthings.com/business