Collection and utilisation of sensor data in office premises and real estate

The Efficiency, productivity and competitiveness from data project has studied the collection and utilisation of sensor data in connection with offices and catering facilities. Now we have taken forward an application that collects and processes sensor data in the Azure cloud service. The application focuses especially on the collection and analysis of CO2 data from office spaces. The raw data is stored in the InfluxDB database in time series format, which enables efficient and scalable data management. The sensor data is produced with Netatmo indoor weather stations, of which there are about 30 at the pilot site.

The retrieval and processing of sensor data for utilization rate information is carried out in a pipelinä, i.e. a kind of processing/refining line consisting of Azure functions. It utilises moving averages of sensor data to help identify long-term trends and anomalies by smoothing out random variations in time series, especially CO2 sensors, by calculating averages over a given period. Finally, room occupancy data based on variations in CO2 levels can be derived from the calculated data. Occupancy rate data can be utilised when optimising the use of facilities.

Such an application enables the production of valuable information, for example, on the air quality and occupancy rate of office spaces, which can lead to better space management and energy efficiency.