Intelligence! ICE empowers the BMS to make all kinds of intelligent decisions. It gives the FM manager and building owners greater control over building functions, and it will make significant energy savings with each new release of the software.

Q2. How much does it cost to install ICE?

This depends on the building size, plant, and number of BMS points. Foran average 10,000 m2 building the average installation cost is around Euros 5,000.

Q3. What is the ROI on the installation of ICE?

Usually less than 1 year

Q4. How much can I expect to save annually from using ICE?

ICE can achieve significant energy saving of between 9% and 15% of overall energy usage and up to 30% of gas consumption.

Q5. Do I need an existing BMS in my building to avail of ICE?

Yes, for both the ASP and embedded versions of ICE an existing BMS is necessary.

Q6. Does it matter what type of BMS I currently have in my building?

Usually not! The ICE CPE can communicate with all OPEN and most proprietary protocols in the world today. If a BMS protocol exists that we currently do not support, we can usually get the protocol from the BMS manufacturer and add it to our protocol stack after testing, etc.

Q7. My BMS does not have much existing control in my building. Does this matter?

Without control you will always be limited to the amount of energy you can save, even with a BMS. Our control engineers can examine your BMS and, after a control audit lasting a few hours, can write you a report detailing what level of control may be possible with the existing BMS setup and how additional control could be implemented to allow more significant energy savings.

Q8. Does the Lightwave Technologies' CPE need to record all building variables to make ICE do its job?

Not normally. Using advanced data-mining and fuzzy-logic tools, ICE automatically determines which building environment variables are important. It is these variables that are then ultimately recorded. Control may be required on several boilers/AHUs, chillers, etc.

Q9. How secure is the communications between the ICE AI Server and ICE CPE and BMS?

As secure as you need it. We can implement fully secure SSL, VPN, etc., for both forward data feeds and backward control. The system is completely water-tight.

Q10. What happens if ICE fails?

ICE collects data from the customer's BMS and sends back control information at a maximum interval of every 5-15 minutes. If the IP-connection fails, then this heart-beat signal is not received, and an advanced fail-over strategy commences. This strategy ensures that control is given back to the BMS if the server fails or the communication path to the customer's BMS is broken. At regular intervals, the BMS and Lightwave CPE are updated with the latest control information to enable the BMS to function with the latest optimal settings.

Once the heat-beat signal is again received by the BMS, the BMS hands control back to the ICE system. The ICE CPE is also loaded with the latest control settings should the main ICE server fail.

Q11. What happens if ICE sends an erroneous set-point value to the BMS?

It is not normally possible for the ICE system to send out-of-range dead-bands and set-point controls outside the range of the existing BMS default vales because the BMS is programmed to not accept them. If the BMS receives a temperature set-point outside these default ranges it will ignore it and continue to use the most recent logical set-point.

Q12. Can I override the ICE system control?

Yes. You can easily turn on/off ICE functions, on a feature-by-feature basis using the very visual and intuitive customer web-user interface. You can operate the system in SUPERVISORY or in fully AUTOMATIC control mode.

Q13. What alarms are viewable via the Customer web-interface?

All major BMS alarms are available via the customer web-interface. You can even allocate responsible persons for these alarms, and have notifications sent via email or SMS when an alarm event occurs.

Q14. How long does it take to install the ICE Customer Premises Equipment associated with ICE?

The CPE is actually the communication sub-system of ICE that affects the communication between the customer's Building Management System and ICE. Typically, it will only take a few hours to install this equipment. The CPE is pre-configured by our support personnel off-site. It holds our communications Java applet that allows us to read BMS point values via an IP network, such as the Internet.

Q15. How do I interact with the ICE system?

The entire ICE system is controlled by the customer via a web-enabled interface. The system can operate in both supervisory mode and in automatic mode or switched to automatic mode on a feature-by-feature basis as the customer gains confidence in the system's predictions. Using the web-enabled interface the customer can print out reports (energy saved per controllable building zone, cost savings), view/change aspects of the system operation, override the system, etc.)

Q16. How long does it take to train ICE in order to start an energy demand reduction in my building?

Once operational it may take between 2-4 weeks for the ICE system to "learn" the building's thermal and operational characteristics. After the "training" period, ICE then has the ability to return optimal plant timer (boiler on/off times, etc) and set-point "suggestions" to the BMS. The system will work for both heating and cooling.

Q17. How are the energy savings calculated and, in the case of air-conditioning loads, does the system take into account changes in weather conditions?

As ICE sends real-time start/stop signals to boilers, chillers and AHU fans, we can easily calculate the time intervals such systems are switched off or on (because the required start-of-day setpoints have been reached or the required end-of-day setpoints have been maintained, during cool-down.)

The energy used for heating or cooling any building is dependent upon the ambient outside temperature. In both energy management and energy reporting it is standard practice to estimate energy savings from one month to another, or from one year to another, by comparing the actual heating and cooling degree days for the building's location. These can be obtained from your local Met Office or computed using the ambient data as logged from the building's existing BMS.

Each month the energy used for heating and/or cooling in our customers' buildings will be monitored and minimized by ICE. By correcting the monitored energy usage using the degree days factors, the actual energy savings achieved can be computed.

For example, in Ireland, one degree heating is incurred if the average ambient temperature on a particular day is 1°C less than a reference temperature of 15.5°C - below which heating would be required. Thus, if the average days temperature was 12.5°C then that day would have incurred 3 degree days of heating. Cooling degree days might have a base at 18°C, above which cooling is required. Hence if a particular day has an average temperature of 24°C then this would compute to six degree days of cooling.

In any particular month degree days are accumulated and computed by the ICE system. This allows an adjustment to be made for normal weather variations and the true savings using the ICE system to be evaluated. Each month the customer will receive a detailed breakdown showing the energy used in heating and cooling and comparison to a reference month.

The energy saved using the ICE system will be computed and adjusted using degree day data as agreed beforehand with the customer. This approach is a standard and acceptable approach and adopted by Energy Management companies and Performance Contracting companies worldwide.

Q18. What if I put new energy-hungry equipment in my building; does this affect the energy saving calculations?

The energy savings still happen when ICE is running in automatic mode irrespective on the customer's metering infrastructure capabilities to monitor new increased or decreased energy loads.

With an energy-shared revenue model, we'll need to know about this. We'll send you a weekly email showing your energy savings for that week (in kw/h or €), with an attachment for you to tell us about such events, equipment type, their energy ratings, etc., so that we can take these things into consideration. We'll be 100% honest and fair with you on these issues. However, right now, we don't operate on an energy-shared savings model.

Q19. How do I pay for ICE?

Right now the customer pays on a fixed monthly "lease" fee. We calculate our fee so that it is always less than 50% OF THE ACTUAL ENERGY SAVINGS ACHIEVED.

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FAQ's

Q1. What does ICE add to the BMS that is not there already?