Meanwhile in other Sigfox news, Sigfox-parent Unabiz has sold a large-scale LoRaWAN network to a major shopping mall in the northeast of Singapore. NEX, a seven-storey shopping mall at the Serangoon bus station, located where the city-state’s Northeast and Circle metro lines cross, has commissioned Unabiz to connect its HVAC system to monitor indoor heating and ventilation, and to save on energy consumption, carbon emissions, and heating/cooling bills. It is the firm’s first (publicised) LoRaWAN deal since it joined with LoRa-owner Semtech.
NEX has about 60,000 square metres of retail space, and receives around three million shoppers per month. It has been recognised already by the Singapore government for its electronics recycling programme, green procurement policies, and smart water management system. The new HVAC-IoT system is part of its drive on ‘health and wellbeing’, in turn part of its focus on meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The new system is geared to measure indoor air quality in the mall every minute – equivalent to 1,440 data points on a daily basis.
The data is integrated into a building management system from Honeywell, which adjusts the air conditioning for comfort and also air quality and energy consumption. The NEX mall is owned by retail group Gold Ridge and asset-managed by PGIM Real Estate. Unabiz was appointed in 2021 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) as a ‘digital champion’ to contribute to Singapore’s ‘digital strategy’ vision. It has deployed smart facility management solutions at over 100 sites in Singapore using Sigfox, LoRaWAN, LTE-M, and NB-IoT.
Eugene Toh, senior manager of operations at NEX, commented: “Facility managers can now take immediate actions to improve circulation of air, such as increasing the airflow within the mall, as traffic in the mall increases during peak hours, to create a healthier and safer environment for our shoppers, tenants, and staff.”
Jonathan Tan, managing director of Unabiz in Singapore, said: “By leveraging data from our LoRaWAN sensors, building managers can implement data-driven ventilation to monitor air quality, air intake, and balance the need to maintain tenant comfort while optimising energy consumption. In the longer term, data intelligence will allow NEX to formulate ventilation strategies that balance the need of good indoor air quality and the need to be energy-efficient.”
Aw Bing Chia, sales leader for Honeywell in Southeast Asia, added: “Honeywell is pleased to collaborate with Unabiz to support efforts to help maintain tenant well-being and enhance energy efficiency. The data captured by Unabiz’s IoT sensors… allows us to proactively control and adjust the HVAC system, creating an optimal indoor environment while meeting NEX’s sustainability benchmarks.”
