Telephonic Control & Monitoring of Energy Consumption in School Buildings in Essex

Abstract

The object of this demonstration project was to assess the practicability and cost-effectiveness of remote control and energy monitoring of 20 schools based in or near Chelmsford in Essex, U.K. The work involved the design, installation and co-ordination of some 35 separate autonomous building controllers. These controllers — called outstations — are capable of automatic communication over the Public Telephone Network with a supervisory computer based in County Hall, Chelmsford. In essence, the outstations are responsible for all routine day-to-day environmental control of the buildings, whilst the supervisor is available to receive alarms, fuel consumption data and other logged information and to allow remote maintenance surveillance and adjustment.