University Campuses & Schools

A university campus is one of the most dynamic environments for a building engineer or maintenance staff to control. A campus is not only diverse in terms of its buildings and their functions, but also the times in which students, teachers, support staff, and visitors frequent these buildings. A campus can be comprised of classrooms, offices, libraries, dining halls, recreation centers, residential dormitories and apartments, athletic facilities, retail spaces, hospitals, and so much more. Here’s the real challenge: these buildings undergo constant fluctuations in the number of occupants. While many commercial buildings have relatively static windows of operation, universities must meet the needs of all its occupants on their schedules. Considering this reality, the challenge of keeping these buildings safe and comfortable can be as complex as it is expensive. That is, unless you have a building automation controls company acting in your best interest.

Why Computrols?

Computrols designs, manufactures and services intelligent building automation systems (BAS) specifically for our customers. While all controls companies claim to act in the best interest of their clients, the reality is that these companies largely deploy canned, generic solutions for buildings with anything but canned, generic issues. Since each university is unique, Computrols tailors its solutions to each building individually.

According to data from Natural Resources Canada and U.S. Energy Information Administration, lighting and space heating account for 59% of energy costs in U.S. colleges and universities. If you’ve ever stepped foot on a university campus, this should come as no surprise. Classrooms are often brightly illuminated and heated or cooled beyond what we would deem as sufficient in our own homes. If you have ever sat through a college lecture, I am sure you have sat in a room that was either 10 degrees too hot or too cold. These rooms are often heated and cooled for hours on end, regardless of the amount of students present – or if there’s even a class in session! Computrols understands the energy that’s squandered on university campuses, so we develop products that work with your building and facilities staff to solve these issues.

Integration

In our experience, most college campuses have a hodgepodge of building automation controls that were chosen based on the type of facility and the operator’s preference at the time it was built. This generally results in individual buildings or clusters of buildings being siloed outside of the campus’ primary building automation system. With Computrols’ unique hardware solutions, college campuses can easily integrate these isolated facilities, even if they are operating legacy, proprietary systems. With the LX’s two independent RS-485 ports, each of Computrols’ controllers is capable of communicating multiple open and/or proprietary protocols through a single controller.

Not only does Computrols manufacture products that work for our customers, but we are proud to say that all of our HVAC, access, lighting, and fire protection controllers are manufactured in the United States of America. This is not just a great sentimental advantage that we offer over the competition, but a true embodiment of putting what you know into action. Many members of Computrols leadership team studied in and have worked alongside our local universities, so the people designing and manufacturing our products intimately understand the local university environments. This enables us to build products with the facilities staff in mind.

When we mention that our products are built with university personnel in mind, we aren’t just concerned with the initial installation. In fact, Computrols prefers to work alongside the campus engineering and facilities staff to ensure that they can autonomously operate their facility as needed in perpetuity. We provide all the necessary software and training during the initial installation, so when a sequence of operation adjustment or preventative maintenance task arises down the line, the campus staff can easily operate our Computrols Building Automation Software (CBAS) to satisfy that need. In case that’s not simple enough, we offer all of our customers free 24/7 tech support.

Lifetime Warranty

While manufacturing in the United States may not be the most economical method, we believe the benefits far outweigh the costs. Our products carry a lifetime warranty because they are meticulously crafted and tested in our manufacturing facility just outside of New Orleans, LA. That means we are able to provide our university customers with products that are not built to fail, but built to last. Since a university’s budget is dependent on public or private funding, allocating funds for replacement building automation controllers is not always that simple. Budgets change from year to year, but our lifetime-warrantied controllers remain the same. If one of our control boards fails under normal working conditions, we repair or replace it no questions asked. We stand by our products just as much as we stand by our customers.

Reduced Life Cycle Costs

Computrols aims to make budgeting simpler by offering our lifetime-warranty controllers. Beyond the obvious life-cycle cost savings associated with never replacing control boards, the intuitive nature of our software enables universities to self-manage their building automation systems. While many of our competitors will limit your ability to operate the BAS in order to sell you a maintenance contract, Computrols offers maintenance agreements as a point of preference rather than a necessity. We give you all the tools to operate your facility autonomously upon the initial installation.

University Campuses & Schools Case Studies

Arkansas State University
2105 Aggie Rd.
Jonesboro, AR 72401
HVAC Controls Retrofit