Berlin IoT PropTech Startup digitalizing dewego and GBG Mannheim Buildings
Customer Company Size
SME
Region
- Europe
Country
- Germany
Product
- m-gate
- IoT SIM
- REST API
- Portal
Tech Stack
- LTE
- LPWAN
- NB-IoT
- LoRaWAN
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Environmental Impact Reduction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Cellular
- Networks & Connectivity - Low-Power Wide-Area Network
Applicable Industries
- Buildings
Applicable Functions
- Facility Management
Use Cases
- Building Automation & Control
- Building Energy Management
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- System Integration
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
Berlin-based PropTech startup metr aims to make the management of living space more efficient and sustainable. Using big data and AI, metr enables data-driven facility management and makes apartment buildings fit for the future. metr’s solution consists of an intelligent building management platform and the m-gate, a multifunctional IoT gateway. In addition to smart submetering, metr’s solution offers remote monitoring of heating and drinking water systems. The collected and processed data is sent to the platform, which integrates metr’s solutions as well as third party applications like elevator monitoring into a central system. From there, the data is checked for plausibility and visualized in the customers desired interface.
The Challenge
The EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requires the installation and remote reading of heat cost allocators by October 2020. Monthly consumption data must be provided to the end-user by 2022. With 60% of German buildings being more than 30 years old with outdated water and heating systems as well as siloed metering solutions, there is no visibility on utility consumption, causing inefficiency and low sustainability. metr’s m-gate is capable of cross-vendor communication with the sensors and systems on site. Common protocols are M-Bus and Wireless M-Bus, a unidirectional communication from sensors to gateway, where the meters constantly send data. metr experiences a maximum reach of 4-5 building storeys with the Wireless M-Bus technology, which requires the installation of repeaters for larger infrastructure. As the m-gate is installed in the basement, metr changed from indoor to outdoor antennas to mitigate signal loss due to the concrete walls.
The Solution
metr designed the m-gate, a multifunctional and retrofit gateway capable of communicating with all installed meters and sensors within a building. In response to the new regulations, metr’s platform integrates submetering as one of metr’s own solutions together with third party solutions into one central system. To connect the m-gate to the platform, metr conducted tests using LTE and LPWAN technologies like NB-IoT and LoRaWAN. NB-IoT proved to have limited coverage and LoRa’s duty cycles did not allow for sufficient data volume to be sent by the gateway. That is why metr decided to partner with EMnify and take full advantage of secure, reliable connectivity. The multi-network capability ensures that the m-gate is always connected to the platform even if one network in the geographical area is not available. With EMnify’s network of networks solution, metr deploys their m-gate anywhere in the DACH region. EMnify’s REST API allows metr to integrate SIM management, activation, and suspension directly into their platform.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Energy Saving & Power Monitoring System
Recently a university in Taiwan was experiencing dramatic power usage increases due to its growing number of campus buildings and students. Aiming to analyze their power consumption and increase their power efficiency across 52 buildings, the university wanted to build a power management system utilizing web-based hardware and software. With these goals in mind, they contacted Advantech to help them develop their system and provide them with the means to save energy in the years to come.
Case Study
Intelligent Building Automation System and Energy Saving Solution
One of the most difficult problems facing the world is conserving energy in buildings. However, it is not easy to have a cost-effective solution to reduce energy usage in a building. One solution for saving energy is to implement an intelligent building automation system (BAS) which can be controlled according to its schedule. In Indonesia a large university with a five floor building and 22 classrooms wanted to save the amount of energy being used.
Case Study
Powering Smart Home Automation solutions with IoT for Energy conservation
Many industry leaders that offer Smart Energy Management products & solutions face challenges including:How to build a scalable platform that can automatically scale-up to on-board ‘n’ number of Smart home devicesData security, solution availability, and reliability are the other critical factors to deal withHow to create a robust common IoT platform that handles any kind of smart devicesHow to enable data management capabilities that would help in intelligent decision-making
Case Study
Commercial Building Automation Boosts Energy Efficiency
One of the challenges to building automation is the multitude of non-interoperable communications protocols that have evolved over the years. Buildings have several islands of automation. Bridging the islands of different automation without losing the considerable investment in each specialized control network is the main focus in this solution.
Case Study
Protecting a Stadium from Hazardous Materials Using IoT2cell's Mobility Platform
There was a need for higher security at the AT&T Stadium during the NFL draft. There was a need to ensure that nuclear radiation material was not smuggled inside the stadium. Hazmat materials could often be missed in a standard checkpoint when gaining entry into a stadium.
