While occupancy sensors work well for lighting and can help facilities save energy and money, they are not so great for HVAC control. Here are a few reasons why Events2HVAC is a better choice:
With Events2HVAC's pre-start feature, rooms will be comfortable when students, meeting participants, or wedding parties first arrive. With occupancy sensors, making the room comfortable may take 20 minutes or longer after the room is occupied. First impressions are important!
Occupancy sensors will generally run HVAC another 20 minutes or so after everyone leaves. If someone comes back for a jacket left behind, you can add another 20 minutes of runtime. And what if a student sits down to study in a 300-seat auditorium between classes? Do you really want to heat the whole auditorium for one student? Events2HVAC returns HVAC to unoccupied settings promptly according to schedule, maximizing energy savings.
With Events2HVAC there can be different temperature setpoints for setup and teardown times for larger events (concerts, conferences, trade shows, etc.). You can’t do that with occupancy sensors.
Occupancy sensors cannot control security (electronic door locks) – and you wouldn’t want them to! Events2HVAC can send commands to compatible security systems and systems that are BACnet/IP compatible so that rooms are only accessible at scheduled times.
With Events2HVAC you can receive a report each morning showing all the events scheduled for the day and the commands that will be sent to HVAC, lighting, and security equipment. You will also receive an automatic email message immediately if a command does not execute for any reason (power outage, equipment failure, etc.). Occupancy sensors can’t produce reports or send out alerts.
While occupancy sensors are certainly better than nothing for energy efficiency, Events2HVAC offers facility managers a lot more flexibility and control over HVAC, lighting and security systems. In comparing the two, you are not really comparing apples to apples, so to speak. Events2HVAC will save you more money and give you better control.