Helvar Senses
Environmental Sensing
BENEFITS FOR DESIGNERS, CONSULTANTS & SPECIFIERS
Specifying Helvar Senses helps buildings comply with the latest sustainability regulations, giving user peace of mind that their spaces are prepared for whatever the future has in store.
Meet sustainable design principles by introducing advanced environmental sensing into building blueprints from inception.
Helvar Senses contributes to healthier indoor environments by positively influencing occupant comfort, health and productivity, supporting a truly people-centric design approach.
Further increase a building’s long-term value by designing a space that contributes to the wellbeing of occupants and differentiates from the competition - attracting more tenants and in turn, justifying higher rental costs and asset value.
HELVAR SENSES™ empowers clients to unlock the full potential of their buildings, allowing high performance, sustainable buildings with the best occupant experience. By measuring a wide range of environmental conditions and providing valuable reports and recommendations, Helvar Senses allows buildings to continuously improve and adapt throughout their lifetime. 2 Helvar | Helvar Senses Overview
For projects pursuing building standards such as LEED, BREEAM or WELL, Helvar Senses offers invaluable data and monitoring capabilities, which can help spaces to achieve the highest certification targets.
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BENEFITS FOR ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY MANAGERS
Continuous Sensing for Energy Optimisation
Data-Driven Decision Making
Buildings should use no more energy than is absolutely necessary. The concept of Sense, Learn, Optimise focuses on continuous improvement, supporting maximum energy efficiency, without sacrificing the needs of the people using a space. With continuous sensing, there’s also a vast potential to save wasted energy during the operational phase of a building, known as the ‘Performance Gap’*.
Helvar Senses provides a wealth of vital data about how buildings are used, which once refined and visualised via Helvar Insights, can help to guide strategic decisions in building operations and investments. By leveraging tangible data, spaces can be intelligently optimised without negatively impacting indoor conditions for space users.
Tenant Satisfaction and Wellbeing
Supporting CSRD Compliance with Tangible Data
Providing a comfortable, supportive environment enhances tenant satisfaction and loyalty, subsequently reducing turnover rates. Prioritising the wellbeing of individuals within the building demonstrates a commitment to caring for occupants, fostering a positive, healthier work environment.
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting requirements are fast approaching. Helvar Senses, in conjunction with Helvar Insights, plays a pivotal role in this scenario, offering a robust foundation of real-life sensor data which is then refined and used to positively impact energy savings. This is particularly valuable, as for some businesses, physical spaces are one of the few assets where ongoing optimisation and reporting can be effectively executed.
Enhanced Competitiveness and Future-Proofing
Conserving Resources through Advanced Sensor Technology Environmental Sensors measure multiple conditions, reducing the overall number of devices needed, leading to less resource consumption and waste.
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BENEFITS FOR OWNERS, OCCUPIERS & FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
* Royal Institute of British Architects, 2019
Implementing advanced environmental sensing solutions positions a property as more competitive in the real estate market. Forwardthinking, technologically advanced buildings draw in more prospective tenants and investors - particularly those seeking smarter, sustainable properties. Investing in smart building solutions not only enhances the immediate value of a property, but also helps to future-proof the space with technological foundations that adapt to evolving challenges.
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HOW DOES HELVAR SENSES WORK? In modern buildings, lighting control sensors typically play a ubiquitous role. However, their potential exceeds simple lighting management. At Helvar, we believe these sensors hold the key to understanding a building’s environment and space utilisation. By leveraging environmental sensing alongside lighting control, we unlock a new era of possibilities for both commercial and public sector spaces.
What can Helvar Senses measure today? Measuring diverse elements—temperature, humidity, CO2, VOCs, air pressure, noise, occupancy, and of course, light—is crucial in modern spaces such as offices, healthcare, education, and industrial spaces. These elements collectively can determine air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, visual comfort and ventilation effectiveness and form the foundation of an environment that directly impacts the wellbeing, productivity, and safety of occupants.
LIGHT
OCCUPANCY
TEMPERATURE
HUMIDITY
Light is essential for life and enhances wellbeing, productivity and safety; it’s vital to make sure your spaces have enough!
Speculate no more— understand exactly how your spaces are being used over time and optimise them accordingly.
CO2
VOCs
SOUND
AIR PRESSURE
Vital for understanding the Air Quality in a space. Too much can decrease mental capacity and cause and headaches. 6 Helvar drowsiness | Helvar Senses Overview
Protect your air quality from Volatile Organic Compounds, which can emerge from everyday objects and lead to adverse health effects.
Use sound data to better understand your spaces and create special zones for concentration, collaboration and rest.
Get optimal air flow through your building by maintaining the right pressure. Fresh air in, stale air out.
Apart from keeping people happy with Too humid or too dry conditions can the optimal temperature, data can make a big difference on comfort be used to identify HVAC problems or levels. Get the right balance for the issues with building insulation. perfect climate in your spaces.
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APPLICATIONS FOR HELVAR SENSES Environmental sensing is fast becoming an essential requirement for a variety of different buildings, offering real-time data and intelligent insights for stakeholders across both commercial and public sector spaces.
Commercial Office Spaces and Public Buildings Commercial office buildings often have high and varying occupancy levels. Monitoring CO2 and VOC levels helps ensure good indoor air quality, enhancing occupant health, comfort, and productivity. Adaptive lighting systems optimise energy usage by adjusting illumination levels based on natural light and occupancy, reducing electricity costs. Presence detection can automate lighting, heating, and cooling, ensuring energy is only used when areas are occupied, whilst occupancy data shows which spaces are most used. Precise control of temperature and humidity is essential for maintaining occupant comfort, productivity and wellbeing from day to day, season to season, whilst a more comfortable workplace is linked to decreased absenteeism.
Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities Good indoor air quality is crucial for the health and wellbeing of patients, visitors, and healthcare staff. Elevated CO2 levels can suggest inadequate ventilation, which may lead to the accumulation of other airborne contaminants and viruses such as COVID-19, contributing to poor indoor air quality, leading to discomfort and potential health issues. Dynamic lighting supports patient and staff comfort, energy and cost savings, with studies linking dynamic lighting to shorter recovery times. Presence detection helps conserve energy in unoccupied areas, whilst occupancy data can show whether people flow and space utilisation is effective. Accurate temperature and humidity control is essential for patient comfort, recovery, and infection control. 8 Helvar | Helvar Senses Overview
Industrial Facilities, Warehouses and Laboratories Monitoring air quality can be crucial to ensuring spaces are safe and healthy to work in. Save energy, enhance efficiencies, reduce costs, and ensure optimal lighting levels at all times for a safe and secure workspace. Presence detection can help automate lighting and HVAC based on occupancy, optimising energy usage and enhancing safety. Maintaining precise temperature and humidity levels is crucial in spaces that may store chemicals, batteries, or perishable products to prevent degradation, maintain stability and keep goods at their best. Monitoring air pressure is essential for monitoring and maintaining optimal ventilation conditions, ensuring the wellbeing of workers in the space.
Schools, Libraries and Universities Classrooms, lecture rooms and auditoriums can suffer quickly from poor air quality in terms of CO2 levels due to the amount of people they can hold. Poor air quality can negatively affect learning and productivity. Ensuring appropriate light levels throughout the day is key, both for supporting the optimal user experience and for reducing energy usage and running costs. Presence detection can assist with energy management for lighting and HVAC, and insights can be provided to educational institutes to better understand occupancy, helping to plan for future facility needs. Both temperature and humidity significantly influence comfort and overall well-being. Monitoring these factors is crucial not only for achieving energy savings that contribute to sustainability goals, but also leads to increased attendance and reduced sick days by providing a more comfortable learning environment.
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UNDERSTANDING THE SENSORS
HOW IS THE SENSOR DATA VISUALISED?
3901 Environmental Sensor
The Helvar Senses platform gathers data on environmental conditions across a building via the 3901 Environmental Sensors (and wirelessly connected Aranet4 Extension Sensors). Wellbeing Insights is the visualisation and interface to Helvar Senses.
The 3901 sensor is a combined lighting control and environmental sensor. It is capable of measuring a broad range of indoor environmental conditions. Inbuilt Sensors 1. PIR 2. Light 3. Temperature 4. Relative Humidity 5. eCO2 (equivalent Carbon Dioxide) 6. tVOC (total Volatile Organic Compounds) 7. Noise • • • •
Ceiling mounted Lighting Control and Environmental Sensor DALI-2 and Bluetooth Mesh Protocol Support Compatible with Helvar Imagine and Helvar ActiveAhead Solutions Extension Sensor Connectivity
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DALI Powered Max 60mA Presence detection area: 6x8m coverage at 2.5m height Dimensions: 66mm diameter, 62mm depth Status and identification LED indicators Degree of protection: IP30
Wellbeing Insights allows the user to view real time and historical environmental data. By using occupancy data in parallel with environmental data, users can determine if space and system configurations are optimised to match actual usage, or whether energy is being waste as a result. These Insights and information can be used to optimise the HVAC system in order to improve air quality or make energy savings.
Aranet4 PRO Extension Sensor This complimentary sensor has a wireless connection to the 3901 Sensor, and offers flexibility in terms of free-placement, extra senses, whilst calibration and custom placement results in improved accuracy. Inbuilt Sensors 1. CO2 (NDIR) 2. Temperature 3. Atmospheric Pressure 4. Relative Humidity 5. Remaining Battery life %
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Wireless, battery-powered Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon Sensor Compatible with Helvar Imagine and Helvar ActiveAhead Solutions Connectivity to 3901 Environmental Sensor via Helvar App
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1 Extension Sensor per 3901 Environmental Sensor E-Ink display to show sensor measurements Status indicator (traffic light colour coding) with option for audible air quality alerts AA battery powered, battery life typically 4 years Dimensions: 70mm x 70mm x 24mm Degree of protection: IP20
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HELVAR SENSES SYSTEM OVERVIEW Helvar Senses is designed to work with both our wired lighting control solution, Helvar Imagine, and our wireless lighting control solution, Helvar ActiveAhead.
Targeted release date 2024 H2
API
Targeted release date 2024 H1
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Notes
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Ready to unlock your building’s potential? Whether you have an upcoming project or you just want to learn more, our team of experts is here to help. Get in touch at helvar.com/chat
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We’re based in Finland, Sweden and the UK - but we work with Partners all over the world. NORWAY Vanpee AS Hvamsvingen 9, 2013 Skjetten, Norway +47 64 83 82 80
See what’s new at helvar.com 16 Helvar | Helvar Senses Overview
FINLAND HELVAR OY AB, Keilaranta 5 FI-02150 Espoo +358 9 5654 1
SWEDEN Helvar AB Åsögatan 155 SE-11632 Stockholm +46 8 545 239 70
UNITED KINGDOM Helvar Ltd Hawley Mill, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7SY +44 1322 617 200
FINLAND HELVAR OY AB Yrittäjäntie 2303600 Karkkila +358 9 56541
Helvar Senses Overview (v.1.0 / 11.2023)
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At Helvar, we believe spaces should constantly adapt to keep you at your happiest, brightest, and most comfortable - while using as little energy as possible. With Helvar Senses, buildings can embark their lifelong journey of learning and growth.