amBX SmartCore

Lighting control for energy efficiency, carbon emission reduction and better building ESG performance.

Climate Change Mitigation Health, Wellbeing and Social Value Advancing Net Zero Climate Commitments Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap Solutions

Problem Addressed

Lighting is one of the biggest consumers of energy in buildings and can pose a barrier to overall building sustainability in its lack of efficiency, energy consumption and resulting carbon emissions.

Solution Overview

amBX SmartCore was originally developed as lighting control software which allowed building occupants to view lighting data, set schedules and events and improve the efficiency of their lighting whilst also improving occupant health and wellbeing through features such as circadian lighting.

Since 2015, amBX has developed the SmartCore software further. The core architecture is based on a digital twin, which allows physical spaces to be replicated in the virtual world. This dramatically speeds up commissioning time but also allows lighting energy usage data to be simulated and role-played to gain an understanding of the best energy strategy before applying it to the physical asset. It can deliver current usage values, energy, efficiency, and carbon emissions for lighting to support detailed ESG reporting.

In addition, the flexible nature of the software has been designed to integrate with a wide range of protocols, devices and systems. The open architecture allows SmartCore to integrate with any sensors or devices – data can be fed into the system, which can trigger an event, or schedules can be set. Data can also be shared with other systems such as HVAC e.g. if SmartCore detects no one is present in a specific space, it can turn off the lighting but also inform other systems so that they can also power down. The open approach allows data to be aggregated and utilised. The software can pass this data to the cloud, other systems or down towards devices.

amBX has its own range of user interfaces to allow the data to be visualised and interacted with, and also works with building management platform providers to become a small part of their wider solutions. Data insight is the first step when creating a more environmentally friendly building. Owners can understand how their building is currently operating, and then improvements can be made.

According to amBX, lighting is the second-biggest consumer of energy in a building, accounting for approximately 40% of total usage. It is important this data is included for an accurate ESG score to be generated.

Company name

amBX

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

2015

Cost Benefit

The amBX solution being utilised for lighting control can simplify connectivity and commissioning to yield project cost savings of up to 10% compared to modern smart systems. This is in addition to hardware savings gained by amBX’s hardware-agnostic approach allowing projects to choose the best or most cost-efficient hardware in the open market. The emergency tool allows for remote monitoring and management, which can pay back against manual, labour-intensive testing costs in under a year, and can save over 40% in upfront project costs when compared to other emergency monitoring solutions. The third major cost-saving amBX can offer is, when looking to integrate lighting and data with other building systems and the cloud, removing the need for additional integration hardware and on-site translations – generating 25% on average in project savings for clients on top of the lighting and emergency project cost savings. From a top-down approach, these consolidated savings mount up and, in some cases, can halve the cost of smart integrated lighting control and emergency deployment projects.

amBX is a software-only company selling licences, and offers flexible capital, SaaS or combination models (capital and support) to ensure partners are able to include the best fit of amBX’s solution into their project.

Case Study

The lighting digital twin offering is a newer part of the solution aiding with ESG reporting, and as such has no case study as yet. However, Powerhouse Brattørkaia, based in Trondheim, Norway, represents a collaboration in the development of energy-positive building experts. amBX is the software intelligence inside the Molex CoreSync solution. Molex is a long-standing partner of amBX, based in the US. They use the software to enable their smart building solution (article available at https://www.ambx.com/molex)

The Powerhouse now creates more energy than it uses, and this highly efficient building is paving the way for future builds. All data collected about light levels, lighting settings, and occupancy is fully available and used to control and analyse energy efficiency. The building has received the BREEAM Outstanding accreditation, the highest possible ranking by the world’s leading sustainability assessment method. This was awarded for environmental, social, and economic sustainability performance.