Top 10 Common Mistakes in Building Optimisation and How Bueno Can Help

Building optimisation is essential for property managers seeking to maximise the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of their properties. However, common mistakes can hinder the effectiveness of optimisation efforts. Below, we explore ten of the most frequent mistakes, how to avoid them, and how Bueno’s solutions can help.

Mistake 1: Thinking Building Optimisation is Just Regular Maintenance

Explanation:
Neglecting regular maintenance is a common oversight among property managers, but true building optimisation requires taking things to the next level. While deferred maintenance can lead to equipment breakdowns, increased operational costs, and reduced energy efficiency, focusing on maintenance alone is not enough. If foundational maintenance practices aren’t in place, building optimisation efforts will struggle to reach their full potential. Outdated maintenance strategies, such as scheduled on-site inspections, may fail to effectively identify or prioritise issues, leaving buildings prone to inefficiencies.

Common problems with traditional maintenance include:

• Unnecessary costs due to reactive repairs.
• Delayed repairs leading to system downtime.
• Difficulty in prioritising tasks effectively.
• Increased likelihood of building management system (BMS) misconfiguration.

TIP:
While predictive maintenance is crucial for optimising building performance, it’s essential to recognise that maintenance is just the foundation. To maximise building optimisation, you need predictive analytics that go beyond repairs and keep your building running smoothly, preventing downtimes and extending equipment life.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s platform uses predictive analytics and near real-time monitoring to keep your building in optimal condition. By proactively identifying issues before they escalate, Bueno minimises emergency repairs and ensures your equipment runs efficiently, creating a strong foundation for full-scale building optimisation. This sets the stage for more advanced strategies, enabling long-term savings, operational efficiency, and a reduced environmental footprint.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Data Integrity

Explanation:
Poor data quality can lead to inaccurate insights and ineffective optimisation strategies. Without reliable data, property managers may make the wrong decisions or miss opportunities for improvement.

TIP:
Ensure your data collection methods are robust and provide accurate, reliable information. Implement protocols for data integrity to ensure your optimisation efforts are based on high-quality insights.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno collects data every five minutes, providing near real-time insights with strong data integrity. With advanced connection protocols and regular data quality checks, Bueno’s platform ensures that property managers have reliable data for effective decision-making.

Mistake 3: Overlooking the Benefits of True Building Optimisation

Explanation:
Relying solely on FDD is a common mistake. While FDD is useful for identifying equipment faults, it does not provide the deeper insights needed for true building optimisation, which can result in even greater savings and sustainability benefits.

TIP:
Go beyond FDD by exploring building optimisation solutions that provide more comprehensive insights into energy use, system performance, and sustainability. Optimisation can increase savings from 16% (FDD) to as much as 25%.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s Building Optimisation module uses advanced AI and ML to deliver deeper insights and more significant savings. By optimising across systems, Bueno ensures maximum energy efficiency and cost reductions, while also contributing to your sustainability goals.

Mistake 4: Failure to Engage Stakeholders

Explanation:
Engaging stakeholders—tenants, contractors, and building staff—is crucial for the success of building optimisation efforts. Without proper engagement, optimisation initiatives may fail due to lack of communication, consensus, or collaboration.

TIP:
Involve all relevant stakeholders in the optimisation process. Establish clear communication channels, solicit feedback, and foster collaboration to ensure everyone is aligned with your goals.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s platform facilitates transparent communication through its comprehensive reporting and task management tools. By providing clear insights and real-time data, Bueno helps engage contractors and stakeholders, ensuring work orders are prioritised and completed efficiently.

Mistake 5: Neglecting Data Analysis

Explanation:
Data is key to understanding building performance, yet many managers do not fully leverage the data available to them. Failing to regularly analyse data leads to missed opportunities for optimisation and cost savings. Additionally, without regular analysis, potential issues like system inefficiencies or usage patterns can go unnoticed.

TIP:
Implement a robust data analytics strategy to monitor key performance metrics such as energy consumption, occupancy trends, and equipment efficiency in real-time. This will provide valuable insights for optimising building performance.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s platform enables real-time data collection and in-depth analysis across all building systems. Its customisable dashboards provide property managers with detailed visualisations of key performance metrics, helping to identify optimisation opportunities and enabling better decision-making.

Mistake 6: Fragmented Systems

Explanation:
Many buildings operate with fragmented systems, where different subsystems (HVAC, lighting, security, etc.) function in silos. This lack of integration causes inefficiencies, complicates operations, and limits a property’s ability to optimise performance at scale.

TIP:
Adopt a whole-of-building integration approach, where all building systems are unified under a single platform. This centralises management, improves operational control, and enables more seamless optimisation.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno integrates multiple building systems—HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, and more—into one platform. This whole-of-building integration allows property managers to monitor, control, and optimise systems from a single interface, reducing costs and improving efficiency across the board.

Mistake 7: Overlooking Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Explanation:
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is often neglected, despite its critical impact on tenant health, productivity, and comfort. Poor IEQ can result in dissatisfaction and tenant complaints, as well as higher energy costs due to inefficient HVAC operations.

IEQ includes:

• Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).
• Thermal comfort.
• Lighting quality.
• Acoustic comfort.

TIP:
Monitor and optimise IEQ regularly, focusing on air quality, temperature, and humidity. Use data-driven insights to improve HVAC performance and ensure tenant well-being.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s platform provides continuous monitoring of IEQ metrics, including IAQ, temperature, and humidity. Its analytics help to ensure that buildings maintain optimal tenant comfort while minimising energy consumption. IEQ optimisation can also contribute to higher NABERS and GRESB ratings, enhancing the sustainability profile of your buildings.

Mistake 8: Lack of Clear Goals, Performance Metrics, or Long-Term Planning

Explanation:
Without clear objectives or performance metrics, property managers struggle to track the success of their optimisation efforts. Long-term planning is essential to ensure that buildings remain efficient and sustainable over time.

TIP:
Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals, and establish performance metrics that guide your optimisation strategy. Use long-term planning to allocate resources effectively and maximise ROI.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno helps property managers set and monitor SMART goals through customisable dashboards and performance tracking tools. With Bueno’s NABERS Tracker Tool, you can stay on track to meet and exceed sustainability targets, ensuring long-term success.

Mistake 9: Choosing the Wrong Analytics Platform

Explanation:
Choosing a platform that doesn’t meet your needs can limit your ability to achieve full building optimisation. Many platforms claim to offer optimisation but only provide basic fault detection (FDD) capabilities.

TIP:
Evaluate analytics platforms carefully. Assess whether they offer building optimisation beyond FDD and if they can meet your specific sustainability goals. Opt for a pilot program to evaluate the platform before a full rollout.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s platform offers an all-in-one solution for building optimisation, combining FDD, energy management, and comprehensive optimisation tools. We also offer pilot programs to help clients evaluate performance before committing to a full-scale deployment.

Mistake 10: Overlooking Energy Efficiency Opportunities

Explanation:
Many property managers overlook simple energy-saving measures or fail to explore the full potential of energy optimisation. This leads to missed opportunities for cost savings and reduced carbon emissions. Without proper energy management systems in place, identifying energy inefficiencies becomes a challenge.

Common oversights include:

• Failing to upgrade outdated lighting and HVAC systems.
• Missing opportunities to implement programmable controls.
• Over-reliance on manual energy management processes.

TIP:
Invest in energy management systems (EMS), upgrade building controls, and use IoT devices to monitor energy consumption. Energy efficiency improvements can lead to significant long-term savings and support sustainability goals.

How Bueno Can Help:
Bueno’s Energy Management System (EMS) uses advanced analytics to track energy consumption in real-time, identify inefficiencies, and provide actionable insights to optimise energy use. With Bueno, property managers can reduce utility bills and meet their sustainability targets more effectively.

So what’s next?

Building optimisation is critical for enhancing the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of properties. By avoiding common mistakes such as neglecting maintenance, overlooking energy efficiency opportunities, choosing inadequate platforms, and failing to involve stakeholders, property managers can achieve better results.

Bueno’s comprehensive platform offers the tools and insights needed to achieve long-term success, driving better operational outcomes, reducing costs, and improving sustainability.

Get in contact if you want to learn more.