Building Brains Deliver Fast ROI
Lee Hoffman, co-founder of Runwise, on the operating system for buildings
This reveals that building software can unlock savings faster than new equipment, because most buildings still run boilers and HVAC with crude timers, outdoor readings, or manual tweaks instead of live indoor data. Runwise installs wireless sensors and a control unit in about a day, then uses actual room temperatures and building patterns to cut waste, reduce complaints, and give owners a payback measured in months instead of years.
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The practical difference is where intelligence sits. A boiler replacement can cost a lot and happen once every few decades. A controls retrofit changes how the existing system behaves every hour, deciding when heat or cooling should turn on based on what residents are actually experiencing.
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This is why Runwise sells as a service, not as a capital project. The company describes deals where a building pays a modest upfront fee and annual subscription that is still far below the utility savings, which makes approval easier for cash constrained owners and operators.
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The broader market is moving the same way. Legacy vendors like Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Siemens still dominate hardware, while newer players like 75F and BrainBox AI pair controls with software. In cities like New York, Local Law 97 also makes fast efficiency gains more valuable because large buildings already face emissions limits.
The next step is that the brain spreads beyond heating into cooling, leak detection, gas monitoring, and eventually grid services. Once a building has a wireless control layer in place, each added module is cheaper to deploy, and the winning platforms increasingly look less like equipment vendors and more like operating systems for old building stock.