87. How Artificial Intelligence Is Improving the Energy Efficiency of Buildings

How Artificial Intelligence Is Improving the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. A lot of energy is consumed by buildings. In fact, the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit energy efficiency advocacy group, says buildings account for about 40% of all U.S. energy consumption and a similar proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. Some estimates suggest about 45% of the energy used in commercial buildings is consumed by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, of which, as much as 30% is often wasted. Most power companies these days have energy efficiency programs that help customers identify waste and implement energy-saving measures, but there are also non-utility providers working on solutions. Montreal, Canada–based BrainBox AI is one of them. It’s using artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings. “We’ve developed an autonomous artificial intelligence technology that applies to commercial buildings in order to render their heating and cooling needs, which is typically the single largest consumer of energy in a building, and to make those much more efficient and certainly much more flexible to outside demands and occupant demands,” Sam Ramadori, president of BrainBox AI, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. The company’s autonomous AI HVAC technology studies how a building operates and analyses the external factors affecting it. It identifies potential improvement opportunities and then acts to optimize the building’s system. It requires no human intervention and reacts to changes in the built environment immediately to maintain the highest tenant comfort and energy efficiency at all times. “What’s exciting is you don’t have to picture a room full of dozens of engineers managing and monitoring these buildings. It’s truly the AI optimizing the building in real time without human intervention,” Ramadori said. Surprisingly, the BrainBox technology does not require any changes to be made to most buildings’ HVAC systems. It simply connects to what’s already inst