KMC Controls
Gateway to Energy Efficiency and Building Automation

There are over five million buildings in the United States without any smarts in them at all, meaning they are spending upwards of 20 percent more than they need to consuming energy. “This is all because there is a lack of an affordable and easily accessible solution to achieve operational efficiency and energy optimization,” states Richard Newberry, CEO, KMC Controls. Based in New Paris, IN, KMC Controls has proudly been rolling out a solution to solve this problem: KMC Commander– an affordable, open, secure, and scalable IoT solution for system integrators and IT providers.

KMC Commander connects sensors, building systems, and devices to the cloud, making it simple to take that data and display as you wish, taking out the complexities of disparate systems and disjointed data. Using a number of common and recognized technology protocols, Commander normalizes this data using the fruits of Project Haystack, an open source tagging database. This streamlines the data and makes visualizing it simple. “KMC has acknowledged and addressed many IoT concerns, particularly when it comes to security,” says Newberry. “We use high level encryption at the device level, as well as at the cloud level. We have leveraged our relationship with Intel, also, to ensure a high level of security. Plus with the help and expertise of Dell, we are providing this on a secure gateway.” One of the best features of KMC Commander is its simple and intuitive visualization. “You see only the data you need, displayed for you using HTML5 on any device you choose, including your mobile phone,” exclaims Newberry.

As mentioned above, KMC Com¬mander addresses a myriad of problems concerning energy usage, mainly the connecting of separate systems. A user can connect their building automation, lighting, refrigeration, irrigation, tank monitoring, you name it. If there is a device that measures something and provides data, Commander can connect it and help you optimize your usage or pinpoint wasted energy.

Our goal is to make facilities more intelligent

Proudly, New¬berry says, “This is a solution that works across nearly any industry-from multi-tenant high-rises and hotels to churches and office buildings.”

KMC Commander is currently implemented in several locations across the country. One high profile application is the iconic John Hancock Tower in Chicago, IL, where they are using Commander to track energy usage across their many tenants. After deploying and connecting to electrical meters, data immediately began flowing to cloud, allowing management to observe, track and trend the consumption data in real time; something not previously available to them. They can now devise energy management and billing strategies based on data and analytics.

User experience is very important to KMC, and with any new technology comes fear of the unknown. This is how Commander really shines. Built on the open Ubuntu and housed on the Dell Edge Gateway, Commander is very accessible. KMC emphatically utilizes open source solutions to stand apart from competitors and it is investing additional capital and efforts in solutions like KMC Commander to gain further competitive advantage across its product portfolio.

Newberry envisions, “In the long run, we will create an ecosystem, where companies and developers will share applications through open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for monitoring employee productivity, operational efficiency, and other innovative IoT uses. The possibilities are virtually endless, and that is the beauty of IoT. At the end of the day, it is all about increasing operational efficiency, optimizing energy usage, and ensuring comfort and safety.”