Story at a glance:
- Delta Controls offers streamlined building automation systems that work across industries.
- Solutions like the O3 recognize when a room is unoccupied, saving energy.
- A new solution, Red5, can integrate with even more systems than before.
For more than 35 years Delta Controls has been delivering innovative solutions to better the Building Automation Systems (BAS) industry. The company has grown a distribution network of more than 300 partners across 80 countries since its inception—allowing a broad and global reach to offer intelligent, imaginative building solutions across various markets. “At our core is a mission of continuous improvement and a commitment to discover and apply new technologies,” says Allan Lanzador, director of marketing at Delta Controls.
Vancouver serves as Delta Controls’ headquarters—the home base for its innovations in both hardware and software, leading the industry with top building automation systems that follow a simple yet powerful motto of “Do it Right.” The company provides a suite of products across vertical markets, including education, health care, hospitality and commercial offices. They are a pioneer in designing energy efficient HVAC products and providing innovative and safe solutions for enhanced occupant comfort and well-being.
Delta Controls is the first to achieve BTL (BACnet Testing Laboratories) Certification for BACnet Secure Connect. Image courtesy of Delta Controls
“It’s about creating that touchless environment, especially in light of the recent global pandemic we’ve experienced that has created a fear mindset around the things we make daily physical contact with,” Lanzador says. He says touchless environments will generally remain at the top of mind for most industries and people.
Solutions like the Delta Controls’ O3 Edge standalone multisensor uses sensor fusion technology to deliver the most accurate view of an interior space available on the market. By bringing access controls into the same HVAC system that controls your lights, far more advanced automation becomes possible and enables it to deliver a feature-rich environment for the end user.
Recognition of the O3 Sense and the O3 Edge by ASHRAE in 2020 for the Innovation Award in Building Automation is an achievement the company highlights as a significant milestone.
Optimal Indoor Climate and Comfort
O3. Photo courtesy of Delta Controls
The O3 Edge can improve a room’s temperature and humidity in real time based on accurate calculations and feedback to its control system. “Using a combination of sensors and machine learning technology, the O3 Edge is able to sense immediate temperature changes in an office space while at the same time handle temperature spikes from a person walking by with their hot coffee” says Gamal Mustapha, director of product management at Delta Controls.
Users can efficiently use the O3’s onboard occupancy sensor to optimize the HVAC system when the area is unoccupied resulting in substantial, long-term energy savings. This was exemplified in a recent South Florida church sanctuary project that saw a 15% reduction in kWh usage thanks to integration of the O3. Additionally, the O3’s enabling of accurately measured sound levels throughout the entire building allowed staff to focus sound equipment upgrades exclusively to areas without sound distribution. Initially, the facility was upgrading far more equipment than required.
Improved Occupant Safety
Installing O3. Photo courtesy of Delta Controls
With the O3, the manual toggle of light switches off or on and adjustments to the room’s climate become obsolete. “With advances in touchless technology, the concern occupants might have, is mitigated with products like the O3,” Lanzador says. “A lot of it is enhanced to individual control via our smartphones. The O3 is easy to install and can be configured right out of the box.
Access Control
Delta Controls offers integrated access control with a building’s lighting and HVAC systems. “When you enter a room, you give certain credentials that allow your access. That room knows who you are,” Mustapha says.
Delta Controls can set preferences for a room based on its occupants. “By bringing access controls into the same HVAC system that controls your lights, we can do a lot more advanced automation and offer a feature-rich environment for the end user.”
Red5 Series
Red5 Plus. Image courtesy of Delta Controls
Red5 is the newest product from Delta Controls and will be released this fall in all markets. Mustapha says the Red5 is built with the same reliability and resilience of Delta Controls’ earlier products but with added capabilities to support modern IoT (Internet of Things) protocols and communication standards.
“Besides being able to have full control of the HVAC system, we can now integrate with other systems in that space,” he says. Plus, it can communicate with the other cloud services people know and are accustomed to. “We can now integrate with those systems to provide occupant info, dashboards, mobile device control, and achieve a better overall occupant experience in building space.”
The Node-RED programming environment, used in Red5 and the O3 Edge, allows systems to be interoperable with one another, creating compatibility among anything operating on an IP network. “It’s a visual-based programming environment that allows you to wire together hardware devices,” Mustapha says. “It might not even be a BACnet system or building control system. It could be your blinds, or voice control using Alexa, or Google Home. ”
Cyber Security Solutions with BACnet Secure Connect
BACnet (Building Automation Control Network) Secure Connect is a protocol Delta Controls offers so buildings can communicate through encrypted notes. All devices are capable of communicating with a cloud service safely through BACnet Secure Connect, creating a secure environment for building automation systems—a remote monitoring and controlling aspect that’s paramount.
“Cyber security is an incredibly important aspect to Delta Controls. We take it very seriously,” Mustapha says. “There are several different industry protocols we adhere to—both in the way we do business and in the way our products operate.”
Delta Controls is the first to achieve BTL (BACnet Testing Laboratories) Certification for BACnet Secure Connect. The certification indicates that completing proper testing guarantees a strong product for users.
