Ensuring buildings operate and perform optimally, preferably at the most favorable cost, is a daily concern for facility managers at companies and organizations. As an integrator of building management systems, this has been the hobbyhorse of Jansen Smart Solutions for over a quarter of a century. Since last year, the company has been part of Group Jansen.
The roots of the current Jansen Smart Solutions are grounded in the last century. “We originated from the merging of two companies,” says Jo Deceuninck, together with Dries De Groote COO at Jansen Smart Solutions. “On the one hand, you had Elektromat, a specialist distributor of components for KNX, building management, and German brands for electrical installations. On the other hand, there was Domotic Lounge, which from 1997 onwards profiled itself as the first and therefore most experienced Belgian integrator of building management systems such as EIB (the current KNX). We grew into a fully B2B-focused organization responsible for controlling electricity and HVAC provisions. Since this is accompanied by an increasingly important IT component, we naturally also invest heavily in cybersecurity.”
The EU is committed to energy efficiency measures to make its energy supply more sustainable and secure, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save on import costs and increase its competitiveness. In 2023, Parliament and the Council decided to reduce final energy consumption in the EU by at least 11.7% by 2030 compared to the 2020 forecasts. “That requires investment, but also offers opportunities,” say Jo & Dries. “With a smart approach, you have a good ROI.”
Control is Central
Jansen Smart Solutions operates as an independent integrator of all these techniques in buildings. “We ensure that these systems communicate with each other in a uniform manner, allowing us to effectively manage and control the energy and maintenance aspects of the most diverse buildings. In contrast to many of our colleagues, who start from monitoring, our focus is on controlling the techniques: we control all major consumers, map all data, and can propose optimizations based on this. This allows our customers to schedule maintenance in a timely manner and anticipate potential calamities effectively.”
The company does not install anything itself. “We mainly focus on the engineering and programming of our smartware, which we have integrated by experienced contractors,” Jo chimes in. “Within that engineering aspect, the focus has recently been increasingly on micro-grids: we look at which (renewable) energy sources our customers have available and use them in the most favorable way depending on the current price and capacity tariff. In this way we want to ensure an optimal balance between solar panels, batteries for charging/discharging, charging stations and other power consumers. We usually get quite complex projects on our plate, but that’s when we can showcase our added value even better.”
Multi-site and Retrofit
This is perhaps best reflected in assignments for large companies that are active at various sites. The 25-member team enjoys working on this. “We are also growing with customers across national borders who have buildings in the Netherlands and Northern France, among other places. This starts with meetings with all stakeholders, in which we find out who the users are, how they work today and what the pain points are. We then focus on workshops in which strategy, digitization, decarbonization and user-friendliness are the focus. In it, we propose choices such as type of retrofit, CO2 impact, energy and maintenance savings, so that the customer makes informed decisions about which investments he can make.”
The emphasis is strongly on uniformity, so that the company or organization in question has a good overall picture and can realize optimizations from there. “Retail chains in particular can then also benchmark: by mapping the energy and HVAC data of all their branches, they see which locations score best and how that is, in order to roll out these good practices across all their entities.”
Go to the Jansen Smart Solutions Website