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Public buildings, measured room by room.

Schools, libraries, offices and pools spend public money on energy and must keep people healthy inside. Meters, indoor air and comfort sensors and a weather reference report to one record the energy manager, the facilities team and the head teacher can all read, behind a security gateway.

Industry

Cities

Measurements

5

Sources cited

6

1. Cities · Public buildings and energy

   Monthly bills hide the waste

   A city pays energy bills for hundreds of buildings and sees one number a month for each. Heating runs at night, a leak flows for weeks, a classroom fills with stale air. Measuring every meter and room shows where money and health are being lost.

2. What is measured

   Meters, rooms, plant and weather

   Meters on electricity, heat and water supplies read use at short intervals. Room sensors read carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity in classrooms and offices, plant is read from its controls, and a weather reference lets use be compared fairly across seasons.

   Instruments

   Energy and water meters · Room air and comfort · Plant data · Outside weather

3. The base node

   A node behind the security gateway

   An industrial gateway reads meters and controls over their buses, and the building node normalises energy for weather and occupancy, detects waste and leaks and raises indoor air alerts per room. Everything leaves the building only through the security gateway.

4. Radio and links

   The building’s own network

   Most public buildings are on the city’s fibre or fixed broadband, the path for building data. Battery room sensors report over LoRaWAN without new cabling through historic walls, and where rooms have wireless, sensors join a separate network. Each building’s path is supervised.

   Links

   Fibre · LoRaWAN · Wi-Fi

5. How it works

   From a night-time meter to a fixed timer

   A school’s heat meter keeps counting through the night. The building node compares it with the occupancy schedule, raises a waste alert to the facilities team, and a wrong timer is fixed. The next month’s use falls, and the record shows the saving.

6. From order to operation · Order

   Scope the estate and the targets

   The scope reads the building list, energy bills, existing meters and controls, renovation plans and indoor air concerns. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the meter and room plan by building, the network and security design, the integration with energy management and a price per building and per service.

   Plan a deployment

7. From order to operation · Survey

   Walk the plant rooms

   Crews walk each building with the facilities team: meters and plant rooms, representative rooms for indoor sensors, cable routes and network points. They record existing controls, their interfaces and who maintains them. They note access, opening hours and the people to call, so later visits do not disturb classes or services.

8. From order to operation · Permits

   Occupants, controls and security

   Head teachers and building managers agree to room sensors, and staff are told what is measured. Control system suppliers agree read-only access. The network design follows the industrial security standard, and every agreement is kept with the building’s record. Data stays with the city.

9. From order to operation · Build

   Build per building

   Meters, room sensors, gateways and nodes are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Each building’s configuration names its meters, rooms and plant, and every part is labelled with its building and room. Configurations are tested on the bench with each building’s meter list before installation.

   Open the Station Builder

10. From order to operation · Install

    Install out of hours

    Crews install in holidays and evenings: meters on supplies, sensors in rooms at seated height away from windows and radiators, gateways in plant rooms and the security gateway at the network edge. Every point is photographed and located. Fixings respect listed fabric.

11. From order to operation · Commission

    Check against bills and references

    Each device proves its identity behind the security gateway. Meter totals are compared with utility bills, room sensors with a reference, and alerts are tested to the facilities team and the head teacher where agreed. Each building joins the record only when its checks pass.

12. From order to operation · Operate

    Find waste and fix rooms

    The energy manager sees use normalised for weather and occupancy, waste such as night heating and leaks, and savings from each measure. Facilities teams see rooms with poor air or comfort and fix ventilation. Every action is kept on the record.

13. From order to operation · Maintain

    Keep meters and rooms true

    Meters are checked against bills monthly, room sensors calibrated on schedule and batteries changed on plan. After renovations, baselines are reset. Every change is recorded, so savings can be shown year on year. Spares are kept ready, so a failed meter or sensor is swapped quickly.

    Book field services

14. Data products

    For energy managers and head teachers

    Energy managers receive use normalised by building; facilities teams receive waste and leak alerts; head teachers and building managers receive indoor air and comfort by room; city leadership and auditors receive performance reports. Each product carries its baseline and calibration.

    See the data products

15. Evidence

    Savings you can audit

    Every reading, alert and action is signed and kept. Energy follows the management system standard’s measured baselines, indoor conditions follow the European indoor environment standard, building performance follows the European directive, and the network follows the industrial security standard. Baselines are open to review.

    Drawn against

    ISO 50001 · EN 16798-1 · Directive (EU) 2024/1275 · IEC 62443

16. What you get

    Sensing as a Service

    Observation networks designed, installed, operated and maintained for a monthly fee: weather, hydromet, air, seismic and environmental stations, with data delivered under a licence. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for agencies, utilities, municipalities, insurers, agribusiness. Scale: Global, multi-site, per-site pricing.

    Talk to sales

17. Next step

    Plan public buildings and energy with us

    Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for public buildings and energy. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.

    Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio

01The place and its hazards

Where it runs, and what can go wrong.

Operating contextCities own and run many buildings with old controls, monthly bills and little measurement. Building energy performance rules push renovation and monitoring, energy management standards ask for measured baselines, and indoor air in classrooms affects health and learning. Building controls are operational technology that must be kept secure.

Hazards

• Energy waste hidden in monthly bills
• Poor indoor air in crowded classrooms
• Overheating and cold rooms
• Water leaks found late
• Building controls exposed to cyber attack

02What must be measured

What, where, how often, and under which rules.

Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.

03The observation stack

From one base unit to a network.

The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.

1. 01

   Base unit

   A building point: meters and indoor sensors on an industrial gateway read by an edge node behind a security gateway.

   Build a station →
2. 02

   Site

   A building: every meter, room and plant item on its own network, linked to the city over fibre.

   Plan a site →
3. 03

   Fleet

   Every building of the estate run as one fleet, with one energy record.

   Managed offers →
4. 04

   Network

   Cities, schools and energy agencies exchange energy and indoor data through open standards.

   The open protocol →

• 01Energy and power-quality meter
• 02Air quality monitor
• 03Flow meter
• 04Compact weather station
• 05OT gateway (OPC UA, Modbus)
• 06Edge node (Wedge)
• 07Zero-trust gateway
• 08Fibre terminal

Radio and links

Fibre

Most public buildings are on the city’s fibre or fixed broadband, the path for the building’s data.

Radio and links

LoRaWAN

Battery room sensors report without new cabling through historic walls.

Radio and links

Wi-Fi

Where rooms already have wireless, sensors join a separate network for building data.

Edge computeThe building node normalises energy for weather and occupancy, detects waste such as heating at night or leaks, raises indoor air alerts per room and keeps every control action read-only unless the facilities team allows otherwise.

PowerMeters and gateways run on building power; room sensors on batteries for years.

04How it works

From the instrument to the product.

One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.

05From order to operation

Every step, from the first call to a running site.

The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.

1. 01 Order

   Scope the estate and the targets

   The scope reads the building list, energy bills, existing meters and controls, renovation plans and indoor air concerns. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the meter and room plan by building, the network and security design, the integration with energy management and a price per building and per service. 12

2. 02 Survey

   Walk the plant rooms

   Crews walk each building with the facilities team: meters and plant rooms, representative rooms for indoor sensors, cable routes and network points. They record existing controls, their interfaces and who maintains them. They note access, opening hours and the people to call, so later visits do not disturb classes or services.

3. 03 Permits

   Occupants, controls and security

   Head teachers and building managers agree to room sensors, and staff are told what is measured. Control system suppliers agree read-only access. The network design follows the industrial security standard, and every agreement is kept with the building’s record. Data stays with the city. 6

4. 04 Build

   Build per building

   Meters, room sensors, gateways and nodes are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Each building’s configuration names its meters, rooms and plant, and every part is labelled with its building and room. Configurations are tested on the bench with each building’s meter list before installation.

5. 05 Install

   Install out of hours

   Crews install in holidays and evenings: meters on supplies, sensors in rooms at seated height away from windows and radiators, gateways in plant rooms and the security gateway at the network edge. Every point is photographed and located. Fixings respect listed fabric.

6. 06 Commission

   Check against bills and references

   Each device proves its identity behind the security gateway. Meter totals are compared with utility bills, room sensors with a reference, and alerts are tested to the facilities team and the head teacher where agreed. Each building joins the record only when its checks pass.

7. 07 Operate

   Find waste and fix rooms

   The energy manager sees use normalised for weather and occupancy, waste such as night heating and leaks, and savings from each measure. Facilities teams see rooms with poor air or comfort and fix ventilation. Every action is kept on the record. 3

8. 08 Maintain

   Keep meters and rooms true

   Meters are checked against bills monthly, room sensors calibrated on schedule and batteries changed on plan. After renovations, baselines are reset. Every change is recorded, so savings can be shown year on year. Spares are kept ready, so a failed meter or sensor is swapped quickly.

06Data products and integration

What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.

Data products

• Energy use normalised by buildingEnergy managers
• Waste and leak alertsFacilities teams
• Indoor air and comfort by roomHead teachers and building managers
• Energy performance reportsCity leadership and auditors

Integration

• Energy managementMeter data and baselines feed the city’s energy management system.
• Building controlsControls are read over Modbus or OPC UA through the security gateway, read-only by default.
• ReportingIndicators are exported for building performance and city reporting.

Exchanged through OPC UA, Modbus, IEC 62443.

07Questions buyers ask

Before you scope it.

Will it change our controls?

Not by default. It reads them; any control action is a choice of the facilities team.

Is it safe to connect controls?

Every connection crosses a security gateway built to the industrial control security standard.

Can teachers see classroom air?

Yes, where the school agrees.

How are savings shown?

Use is normalised for weather and occupancy against a measured baseline.

08Resources

The sources behind this page.

Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.

1. 1ISO 50001: Energy management systemsInternational Organization for Standardization
2. 2Directive (EU) 2024/1275 on the energy performance of buildingsEuropean Union · 2024
3. 3EN 16798-1: Energy performance of buildings, indoor environmental input parametersEuropean Committee for Standardization
4. 4Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8)World Meteorological Organization
5. 5ISO 37120: Sustainable cities and communities, indicators for city services and quality of lifeInternational Organization for Standardization
6. 6IEC 62443: Security for industrial automation and control systemsInternational Electrotechnical Commission

09Related

Use cases and solutions.

10Cities: specialized fields

Other fields of this industry.

Bring us the site.

Plan a deployment, configure a station, model it in the Studio or talk to sales. The form names who receives your details.