Background
Retail buildings in the Middle East face dual challenges: maintaining high comfort levels in harsh climates, and reducing energy waste to meet sustainability mandates. This mall in Bahrain, one of the largest in the country, sought a retrofit solution to digitize building operations without replacing its legacy BMS.
Sensgreen’s modular, AI-powered platform was selected for its ability to provide real-time visibility, actionable insights, and protocol-agnostic integration. It’s all powered by edge computing to minimize latency and improve system resilience.
Challenges
Fragmented Systems
The existing building relied on isolated systems for HVAC control, and monitoring purposes.
Legacy Infrastructure
The mall’s BMS used BACnet, limiting modern integration options.
Cloud Limitations
Due to strict latency and uptime requirements, reliance on cloud-only services was not feasible.
Zone-Based Complexity
The mall required individual IAQ profiles for more than 30 distinct spaces.
Solution
At the core of the solution is the Seeed Studio reComputer R1000, used as the local brain of the building. Sensgreen’s platform was deployed as a Docker container directly on the R1000, which acts as the main integration and analytics hub.
Architecture Overview:
Sensor Layer:
- Wireless LoRaWAN devices for indoor air quality (CO₂, PM2.5, VOC, humidity)
Gateway & Network Layer:
- Private LoRaWAN network within the mall
- R1000 handles LoRaWAN packet forwarding and device management
Computation Layer (R1000):
- Runs Sensgreen’s containerized AI analytics engine
- Aggregates, filters, and analyzes real-time data
- Sends commands or alerts to connected systems
Integration Layer:
- Connects to the mall’s BACnet-based BMS to automate HVAC control
- Operates without cloud dependency for latency-critical actions
Results
Fully Local
100% local processing enabled with Docker deployment on R1000
Comprehensive Coverage
30+ monitored zones across the mall
Smart HVAC Control
Air quality data now directly drives HVAC adjustments via BACnet
Mold Risk Mitigated
Significant reduction in potential mold risk in underground spaces
Real-Time Visibility
Staff can view real-time environmental data in a centralized dashboard
Scalable Architecture
Modular design allows expansion to new zones and device types easily