NEWTON, Mass. — Aircuity and Siemens Industry Inc. announced that the state of Alaska has chosen to combine Aircuity’s OptiNet® system with Siemens’ APOGEE® Building Automation System/Laboratory Control System to improve energy efficiency in its new Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory. The combination of the two systems is expected to enhance indoor environmental quality, safety, and comfort in the laboratory, while reducing energy consumption.
The new Alaska State Crime Detection Laboratory, run by the Department of Public Safety, will be located in Anchorage and is sized to accommodate future growth and expansion. Moving from an 18,000-square-foot lab designed for a staff of 23 to an 83,500-square-foot lab designed for 67 lab technicians will enable the state to invest in new equipment and technologies that could improve both the speed and accuracy of processing evidence. Increasing the size of the lab enables the state to receive more evidence from crime scenes and to store the evidence for future scientific analysis. The more quantitative and qualitative the evidence, the better chance law enforcement has of solving cases, which could lead to quicker convictions for criminals and help prevent false convictions.
“Aircuity’s OptiNet system will play a key role in maintaining the integrity of the environment within the lab,” said Dan Diehl, vice president of global sales for Aircuity. “Leveraging demand control ventilation technology, our solution will be able to provide the state of Alaska with significant energy savings while allowing an inside look into the quality of the air within the lab space at all times.”
By continuously collecting an array of building environmental data for real-time monitoring, technicians will be able to access intelligence provided by the system to manage the labs at an optimal level. The information gathered by OptiNet will be integrated into the Siemens APOGEE Building Management and Laboratory Control System to adjust the ventilation rates based on the current demands of the lab.
Siemens’ expertise in energy management, building automation, and laboratory control systems will bring a total building controls approach. Continuous monitoring of the indoor environment will help provide assurance that evidence and experiments are preserved and maintained in a safe and controlled environment. Achieving the safe reduction or variation of air change rates in the Alaska State Crime Detection Laboratory is expected to significantly reduce energy consumption and the carbon footprint.
For more information on Aircuity, visit www.aircuity.com. For more information on Siemens, visit www.usa.siemens.com/Industry.
Publication date: 12/19/2011
