Pet health and welfare aided by hi-tech building controls.

Pets supplies retailer is enjoying significant energy savings across its entire retail network while ensuring that ideal animal welfare conditions are maintained at all times.

Pets at Home has installed energy efficiency control systems for the air conditioning (AC) in all its 450 stores. Each system was designed by energy management consultants Ignite Energy of Wantage (GB), using a standard template based on Intesis gateway from HMS Networks and installed by integration solutions provider Consyst.

AC's from different manufacturers combined in one Pets at Home branches use air conditioning equipment from different manufacturers, such as Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, and others. Consyst has used Intesis gateways to retrieve real-time information from the AC units and control operation, regardless of manufacturer.

Consyst Director, Lior Golani, explains: “The Intesis gateway is powered by the AC unit, allowing straightforward installation. By reading predefined information from the gateways, the integrator can easily duplicate the configuration across different units and sites, which saves a lot of time in commissioning.”

This simplicity enabled Consyst to install each system quickly and efficiently. Indeed the whole branch network was upgraded in less than 18 months, minimizing disruption to Pets at Home’s normal operations.

Ensuring animal welfare conditions Once operating, the gateway constantly transmits crucial information like operating status and error codes to a central controller. A very important factor was that each store’s system includes multiple temperature sensors and controls which ensures that strict pet welfare conditions can be maintained at all times.

“Monitoring and controlling each store’s temperature has significantly reduced energy consumption and, very importantly, ensures optimal welfare conditions for the pets,” says Lior.

Pets at Home now has an estate of energy-efficient stores and Ignite and Consyst continue to work with them to develop further initiatives and to ensure that energy is managed effectively at every level.

Intelligent gateways The Intesis gateways solutions from HMS enable existing devices and equipment from virtually all manufacturers to be connected no matter what protocol or network technology is used. This means all elements of even the most complex building automation project can be integrated into a single unified system.

It can communicate using open standards or proprietary protocols and includes a range of both protocol translators and AC interfaces. The result is simple design, installation and commissioning coupled with robust and reliable operation.

Intesis is scaleable from the simplest domestic requirements to large projects in the commercial, retail, healthcare and education sectors.

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