Every large scale commercial property owner/manager is painfully aware of the "Goldilocks Dilemma"-the complexities of maintaining their building environment so as to avoid being too hot; too cold; and instead always being just right.
Unfortunately, unlike a small cabin in the woods, large scale buildings are not only complex, their large scale thermal mass means once their range of temperature levels either up or down are exceeded it takes a considerable time and effort to bring them back to desired norms.
Worse, thermal mass combined with the urgency to achieve correction as quickly as possible often results in a repetitive "bounce effect" as over-correction activities repeat in multiple cycles until things settle down. This problem can even be compounded by automated systems that lack human judgment and the context of external factors such as anticipated weather extremes and unusual environmental impact items such as renovation, glazing replacement, etc.
As in all things, the best solution is prevention; rather than cure or if complete prevention is impossible-the most likely scenario-at least early detection to minimize the spiraling impact of exception reaction based building environment management.
Because human beings have a considerable capacity to acclimate to slow temperature changes; until recently, anomalous temperature trends often went undetected for days and even weeks. Of course, by that time, what could have been a minor correction now required considerable corrective action-with all the inherent problems listed previously plus strains on resident relationships; equipment stress, wasted energy; and impacts on labor and morale.
The good news is the bad old days are over-at least of those adopting the new Internet technologies. Now, 24/7/365 building environment monitoring is both practical and inexpensive and can be done from anywhere there is an Internet connection. No need to "call someone up" or even visit the property-monitoring is as easy from a vacation half a world away as from within the building itself.
Even better, automatic "alerts" can be set to send a text message whenever norms are exceeded-and that message can be sent simultaneously to multiple persons; literally keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring a cross-team coordinated effort without the expense, delays, and bureaucracy of formal reports.
These proven systems have already been installed in numerous locations in the New York area by The Cotocon Group and, now that our beta testing phase has passed muster, we are confident they are secure, practical and ready for the general market. Equally important, our initial trials show they largely pay for themselves in short order. For more information regarding this proven innovative energy and comfort breakthrough, give me a call.

Jimmy Carchietta is the founder & CEO of The Cotocon Group, Hicksville, N.Y. Tags: