Redwood Systems today announced that it has opened its Building-Performance Lighting Platform to support the development of third-party energy efficiency and building intelligence applications. Several customers and partners have already created applications that enable them to better utilize conference rooms, display enhanced energy and occupancy information in dashboards, and save additional energy by sending signals to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems when no occupancy is detected.
“Creating an open and extensible platform for third-party development drives innovation and customer value,” said Dave Leonard, CEO and co-founder, Redwood Systems. “While this phenomenon has gained popularity in some business categories, it has yet to reach the lighting and building sector until now. Today we are providing the tools for others to create customized applications that save energy and improve the quality of the workplace.”
The Redwood Open Application Framework, which is available on the Redwood Director appliance, consists of a series of smart building APIs that provide two-way communications and systems integration between the data collected by Redwood’s high-density sensor network and external systems and applications.
Several applications focused on space utilization, energy savings and security have already been developed using Redwood’s Open Application Framework:
- Energy Savings: Energy costs associated with lighting, heating and cooling represent more than 70% of electrical consumption in typical commercial properties. To help combat these costs in its own facilities, SAP has developed an application using data from the Redwood Open Application Framework that integrates occupancy sensing with its Trane® HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system. The Redwood platform is integrated with the digital control thermostats to enable HVAC to be tied to occupancy in addition to schedules.
- Space Utilization: One of the world’s leading technology companies developed a conference room application using data provided from the Redwood sensor network and delivered via the Redwood Open Application Framework. The application provides information on actual “presence” in conference rooms, making it easy for employees to quickly find available meeting places. The data is used on a digital floor plan that displays unoccupied conference rooms in green and occupied rooms in red. This has improved employee productivity by dramatically reducing the time it takes to identify an open meeting room. The occupancy data also indicated how certain rooms were underutilized leading to the company re-designing its overall meeting room configurations for new facilities.
- Energy Dashboard: Accurate reporting is another requirement in reducing energy consumption. The Cadmus Group, a leader in consulting services in the environmental, energy, and public health sectors, has developed an application using the Redwood Open Application Framework that provides its clients with detailed building-performance dashboards. These dashboards deliver real-time, actionable information related to occupancy and energy.
- Security: The presence of sensors throughout a facility can help administrators detect wrongful entry into zones, as well as automate access for those with clearance. TZ Inc., a provider of micro-security and environmental monitoring solutions, is leveraging Redwood’s Open Application Framework to enhance its data center cabinet locking system for customers that have installed the Redwood platform. TZ developed an application that lights and unlocks cabinets to which a technician is assigned responsibility when their badge is scanned. “Developing this innovative application using Redwood’s Open Application Platform has allowed us to literally light the way to servers that need attention while ensuring only those that have clearance can access the system,” said Bharath Ram, SVP Strategic Business, TZ Inc.
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About Redwood Systems
Redwood Systems’ Building-Performance Lighting Platform facilitates lower cost, higher-performing workplaces. Redwood has developed the world’s only smart building platform that powers and controls lights and a high-density sensor grid providing both best-in-class energy savings averaging 75% and granular monitoring of space utilization, temperature and power consumption. This award-winning approach uses patented networking technology and a low-voltage DC architecture for high reliability and scalability as well as low cost installation. With a growing roster of market-leading customers and partners, Redwood is building a reputation for customer success worldwide. For more information, visit www.redwoodsystems.com.
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