Kuala Lumpur Tower Retrofit: Communicating Thermostats for 1,800 Zones
A 45-storey mixed-use commercial tower in Kuala Lumpur was struggling with occupant comfort complaints and rising chiller energy costs. The legacy pneumatic control system could not deliver consistent zone temperatures, and facility managers had no centralized visibility into setpoint performance.
Project Background
The building owner commissioned a controls retrofit across approximately 1,800 conditioned zones. Key constraints: minimize disruption to tenants, integrate with the existing BMS, and prove measurable energy savings within the first year. Existing thermostats were non-communicating and drifted over time, producing wide temperature variation between identical floors.
Our Solution
DNARENS supplied programmable communicating thermostats (BACnet MS/TP / Modbus RTU) for all 1,800 zones. Each unit provides:
- Occupancy-based scheduling and setpoint deadbands to cut after-hours conditioning
- Local LCD display with live temperature and fan status
- Centralized command and alarm via the existing BMS over BACnet
Commissioning was staged floor-by-floor, and all devices were auto-discovered on the MS/TP trunk to shorten cut-over time.
Results
- Zone temperature uniformity improved to within ±0.5 °C of setpoint
- 22% reduction in HVAC energy use year-over-year
- Tenant comfort complaints dropped by roughly two-thirds
- Facility team gained live, building-wide setpoint visibility from one dashboard
The retrofit paid back in under 18 months and became the template for the owner’s other regional properties.
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