Here's what you must do to make your house future proof

Muscat: Efficiently managing energy consumption in buildings is absolutely necessary and can be a huge cost-saver for building owners in the future, an official from Finnish firm Granlund said.
He was speaking during a presentation at the signing of a Value Added Reseller agreement with Bahwan IT to enhance energy efficiency and management in buildings in Oman.
Nearly 80 per cent of cost in a building is associated with operations such as maintenance, lighting and cooling.
According to research conducted by the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman, operational cost in buildings is mainly due to cooling and maintenance.
Both of these can be controlled using smart techniques presented by Granlund, which specialises in energy management software for buildings.
Jan Pawli, Vice President at the Granlund International, said in the future, energy management will become very important for buildings to save costs. With the advent of renewable energy and climate change reforms, it will become even more necessary, he added.
“People, energy and equipment account for nearly 80 per cent of a building’s costs. This means that if you can control these costs, you will have huge savings. The scope for building energy management technology in Oman is huge,” Pawli said.
The Granlund software uses existing building management systems or other hardware installations to gather data and manage energy usage. “Imagine that cooling in a hall is left on even when there is no requirement. It is a cost that serves nothing. If we can have smart systems that turn down the cooling or lighting or send signals before a breakdown in equipment, this can be a huge cost saver for building owners,” Pawli added.
Granlund Manager is aimed primarily at older buildings that lack functional Building Management Systems.
The software collects data from various hardware devices, such as sensors, which must be separately installed by owners, to improve energy efficiency in buildings, help save costs and energy, and allow control over building asset data and other related activities.