Project Profile: Klaussner Home Furnishings

Founded in 1963, Klaussner Home Furnishings specializes in furniture for the entire home, constantly innovating to meet the needs of its customers. The company manufactures 70 percent of its products domestically in the States through five manufacturing campuses in North Carolina. Asheboro is home to Klaussner’s corporate headquarters.

As a leading home furnishings provider, Klaussner recognizes its responsibility to the environment by reducing waste, using recycled and eco-friendly materials where possible, recycling leather and fabric scraps, leftover foam, and packaging materials.

During a retrofit project in 2020, Reliable Controls Authorized Dealer Building Automation Services implemented a building automation system for Klaussner that extended the company’s commitment to sustainability by automating facility operations across nine warehouses in three locations.

Building Automation Services linked the nine facilities together through a BACnet/IP wide area network, which facility operators can access and control using a MACH-ProWebCom controller. The three-in-one design of the MACH-ProWebCom combines a BTL Listed BACnet Building Controller, a BACnet Operator Workstation, and a powerful web server in a single package no larger than a typical building controller, saving facility managers the expense of client workstation software, software license renewals, and cloud services fees.

Four MACH-ProCom controllers in separate warehouse buildings act as network hosts for MACH-ProZone controllers, each of which controls a packaged rooftop unit, split system, or vertical warehouse air-handling unit. Ideal for small to mid-size rooftop units, heat-pump applications, and small mechanical room control, the MACH-ProZone supports up to eight SMART-Sensor devices. In this project, Building Automation Services installed 103 SMART-Sensor EPD devices, five of which have onboard humidity sensors. A complement to any room, the SMART-Sensor EPD delivers a modern networked-sensor solution that allows facility operators to connect with up to 10 configurable parameters related to space.

Building Automation Services met the challenge of the large footprint of this retrofit by carefully designing the MS/TP network to stay within wire-length limit for BACnet communication. Many of the air-handling units were in locations that required lift access, and tight floor spaces and active assembly lines meant Building Automation Services was in close contact with plant managers to ensure minimal disruption to Klaussner’s day-to-day operations.

With the previous control system, nearly all building equipment ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even during unoccupied times. With the use of scheduling and other control strategies, the new Reliable Controls system means Klaussner’s warehouses are significantly more energy efficient.