Smart buildings are becoming increasingly important in the commercial real estate industry, with the smart building market expected to grow from US$80.62 billion in 2022 to US$328.62 billion in 2029. The prediction shows that making buildings “smart” is more than just a fad. Instead, smart buildings can bring operational and financial benefits to commercial property owners, as well as data that can reduce heating costs, optimize building ventilation and HVAC, manage lighting and improve the overall energy efficiency of the building.

In addition, smart buildings do not require much maintenance, reducing costs and allowing them to better optimize space, which makes tenants more comfortable and thus increases productivity.

Building smart buildings doesn’t have to be expensive

Cost is one of the biggest concerns for commercial property owners when deploying new systems in buildings. The cost of wiring to connect sensors and subsystems is a key financial consideration when installing smart systems, but it is not as expensive as owners think. That's because wireless Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology have advanced to the point where building owners can manage their buildings without cables. Data can be sent wirelessly to the cloud or building management system, eliminating the need to rewire the building.

Advantages of Wireless Mesh Network Technology

Creating smart buildings using wireless mesh technology is cost-effective, especially for existing buildings. This is because in older buildings it is difficult to connect the electrical wiring behind the walls to the smart systems in the room and connect them to new smart sensors and devices.

For buildings without wires, it can be difficult to power and get data from devices. However, wireless mesh technology solutions can bypass obstacles. The solution’s flexibility also allows builders to only need a central gateway to collect and send all sensor data to the cloud. Repeaters and additional gateways to connect various network parts are not required.

In addition, unlike its predecessors such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, wireless mesh network technology can solve issues such as power consumption, network scale and management, and data transmission reliability. The technology is designed to adapt to the new wireless world, low-power sensor networks for smart buildings and other IoT applications. Individual nodes in the network remain inactive until needed. This ensures that all nodes are energy efficient and the entire network can consume low power and run on batteries.