Building Automation in Unna: Energy Monitoring with LoRaWAN for Commercial Properties

Building IoT in Unna? Energy monitoring and room climate optimization for your commercial property. IoT solutions Unna · Contact

Unna is growing as a business location. The InduPark, downtown offices and commercial spaces along the A1/A44 offer significant potential for energy optimization. The problem: most commercial properties lack transparent consumption tracking. The electricity bill arrives once a year - until then, savings are barely manageable.

LoRaWAN-based energy monitoring changes this fundamentally: real-time data on electricity, heat, room climate and usage patterns - retrofitted in existing buildings without construction work.

Unna as a Commercial Location

Unna is strategically located at the A1/A44 motorway interchange - the so-called "Kamener Kreuz" - and benefits from proximity to Dortmund. The key commercial areas:

• InduPark Unna: The city's largest commercial area with over 200 companies on 100 hectares. A mix of office buildings, warehouse halls and light manufacturing. Many buildings from the 1990s and 2000s - modernization-ready but not digital.
• Unna-Ost Commercial Area (Luenener Strasse): Trade businesses, automotive workshops and smaller manufacturing companies. Typical building stock from the 1980s.
• Unna Town Center (Lindenbrauerei Area): Mixed use of culture, gastronomy and offices in the former brewery complex. Listed building status makes cabling difficult - LoRaWAN is the ideal solution here.
• Koenigsborn: Former mining area, now commercial spaces with existing building stock. Property managers here often oversee 10-20 buildings simultaneously.
• District Administration and Government Buildings: The Unna district as an administrative center has numerous public buildings subject to energy audit requirements.

For all these locations: the buildings are standing, the technology is running, but nobody knows exactly where the energy is going.

Why Commercial Properties Need IoT

Energy costs for commercial properties have risen massively in recent years. At the same time, regulatory requirements are becoming stricter (Energy Efficiency Act, GEG). Many building owners and property managers simply do not know where exactly energy is being consumed.

IoT sensors provide this transparency:

• Power consumption per floor, tenant or system
• Heating and cooling energy per building section
• Room climate (temperature, humidity, CO2) for comfort and health
• Usage patterns (presence, window openings, lighting)

Typical Applications in Unna

Energy Monitoring for Multi-Tenant Buildings

Current clamps at sub-distribution panels capture consumption per rental unit or floor. In Grafana dashboards, landlords and facility managers see: who consumes how much? Where are anomalies? The data can be used for consumption-based utility billing.

Room Climate Optimization in Offices

CO2 sensors indicate when ventilation is needed. Temperature and humidity sensors detect inefficient heating/cooling behavior. Window contacts report open windows while heating is running. Via Node-RED, automatic notifications can be sent to the facility manager.

Lighting Control

Presence and light sensors detect whether rooms are occupied and how much daylight is available. The data provides the basis for demand-driven lighting control - or at least shows where lights are burning unnecessarily.

Water Consumption and Leakage

Water meter sensors and leak detectors monitor water consumption and detect leaks early. In an office building, an unnoticed leak over a weekend can cause significant damage.

The IoT Stack for Buildings

• Milesight: Indoor gateways and building sensors
• ChirpStack: LoRaWAN network in the building
• ThingsBoard: Building dashboard with floor plan view
• Grafana: Energy reports and trend analysis
• Node-RED: Automatic alerting and notifications

Hosted on German servers via merkaio Managed Hosting.

Case Study: Office Building in the InduPark

Situation: A three-story office building in InduPark Unna with 2,400 m2 usable area and 5 tenants. Built in 2001, gas heating, no central BMS. Energy costs 32,000 euros per year, allocated to tenants by floor area - leading to discontent because one tenant consumes significantly more electricity than others. Facility management by external property management company visiting once per week.

IoT Solution:

• 1x Milesight Indoor Gateway in the utility room (ground floor)
• 5x Current sensors at sub-distribution panels (one per tenant)
• 8x Room climate sensors (temperature, humidity, CO2) in common areas and critical rooms
• 4x Window contacts on the largest windows on the 2nd floor (south-facing - frequently open while heating is running)
• 1x Water meter sensor at the main connection

Results after 6 months:

• Usage-based billing: Tenant C consumed 42% of total electricity with only 25% of the floor area (server room). Utility billing was switched to consumption-based - other tenants save money, Tenant C better insulated the server room and optimized cooling.
• Heating costs reduced: Window contacts showed: on the 2nd floor, an average of 2.3 windows were permanently tilted open (including at night). Automatic SMS to tenants when windows are open + heating is on resulted in 15% heating cost reduction on the 2nd floor.
• CO2-guided ventilation: Meeting room regularly reached 2,500 ppm CO2 (recommended: below 1,000). Simple measure: timer reminder to ventilate - air quality improved, employees more satisfied.
• Water leak detected: Sudden water consumption on a Sunday - leak in ground floor toilet. Quickly repaired, larger water damage prevented.

Special Requirements in Unna

Property Managers with Large Portfolios

In the Unna district, property managers often oversee 50-100 units simultaneously. IoT sensors enable remote monitoring: heating failures, burst water pipes or extreme temperatures are reported immediately - without anyone needing to be on site. Via a central ThingsBoard dashboard, all properties can be monitored simultaneously.

Public Buildings and Energy Audits

Municipal buildings in the Unna district (schools, administration, sports halls) are subject to energy audit requirements. IoT-based energy monitoring automatically provides the data for audits - and simultaneously shows where the municipality can save.

Listed Buildings in the Town Center

Unna's town center with the Lindenbrauerei area and historic half-timbered houses poses special requirements: milling cable channels is not an option. LoRaWAN sensors are the only way to digitally monitor these buildings without interfering with the building fabric.

Next Steps

• IoT solutions in Unna - All services
• IoT solutions in Dortmund - Neighboring location
• IoT solutions in Werl - Neighboring location
• All IoT locations - Overview
• Get in touch - Free consultation