The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a particularly cold winter, just as fuel prices are spiking and OPEC is cutting oil production. Overall, the winter of 2022 is shaping up to be an expensive heating season.

As building owners and HVAC professionals get their buildings ready for the heating season, dormant boilers are fired up and unexpected Startup problems arise all over.  HVAC professionals must be able to see when a Startup problem occurs in a building so that they can get on site and fix it quickly, then be able to move on to the next issue.  Buildings equipped with internet capable boiler management systems have an added level of convenience, thanks to all parts of their heating system operation being available and modifiable remotely.  BuildingNet® by Heat-Timer® is such a system, available as an ad-on to our Platinum Series Controls (large buildings), or included with our newest Heat-Timer Genesis® Controls (Small Buildings). 

Why is BuildingNet® a better boiler management software interface? 

To a user, the connection between a Heat-Timer® controller and the BuildingNet® web portal or mobile application is seamless.  BuildingNet’s highly reliable backend server software, running on a redundant network ensures 24/7 availability of control visibility. BuildingNet’s servers scale to support its customers reliably, even during the busiest time of the season. 

BuildingNet® also allows the creation of monitoring accounts which allow a boiler service and maintenance company to receive and respond to programmable alarms and service warnings. The non-proprietary and customizable nature of BuildingNet® allows the property manager to choose any service company or companies that are right for their needs, rather than be locked into a service contract like some other building management software solutions. 

BuildingNet® Organizes your entire Building Portfolio

BuildingNet® was designed from the ground up to scale easily and robustly from a single Heat-Timer® control to a portfolio of buildings with multiple controls and boiler rooms. BuildingNet® can be used for large property portfolios because their building addresses are organized in a clean hierarchy where data is presented by property address/control/data.

Other hierarchies exist within the BuldingNet® interface.  For instance our programmable alarm feature allows a tiered response to alarms.  With tiered alarms, a manager responsible for 5 apartment buildings in a complex will not receive every alarm from every building. The alarms will go first to the on-site technicians responsible, then to the technician’s supervisor. Only the alarms that are not answered after a set time period will be escalated to the designated manager.

Another way that BuildingNet® manages the complexity of a multi-building portfolio is its rich set of data analysis tools that allow building managers to spot trends and potential problems before they become emergencies.   The new alarm executive summary gives a daily summary of alarms, while the customizable report features in BuildingNet®, can give managers the ability to generate reports down to the sensor level, or create summary reports that show overall trends.  These reports can be configured to be emailed to their team at recurring intervals.

Different buildings need different controllers.  

The last reason that BuildingNet® works so well for a range of building sizes and types, is because Heat-Timer® offers the widest selection of boiler controllers in the industry.   Heat-Timer® has a Platinum series controller optimized for every type of boiler configuration, whether its hydronic or steam boilers, staging or modulating burners, single or multi-boiler configurations. And now with Heat-Timer® Genesis, we have the solution for the smaller buildings in your portfolio as well, all under the same BuildingNet® user interface.

For more information visit https://heat-timer.com

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