Public buildings, such as government offices, schools, hospitals, stadiums, and affordable housing, are characterized by their public service, high energy consumption, and complex management. Traditional “use first, pay later” or centralized fiscal settlement models often lead to significant resource waste, high operating costs, and unequal cost sharing, among other pain points. The introduction of prepayment system has revolutionized energy resource management and space utilization in these buildings.
Why Do Public Buildings Need Prepayment System?
Unlike the commercial sector, where the systems are designed to lock in customers, public buildings implement prepayment systems primarily to achieve three core goals:
Energy conservation and consumption reduction, building green buildings: By leveraging the “use, pay” economic model, energy (water, electricity, and gas) waste can be curbed at the source, supporting the national dual-carbon policy.
Improving management efficiency and reducing operating costs: Automating meter reading, billing, and collection eliminates manual errors and “personal favors,” significantly reducing the workload and collection costs for management.
Achieving fairness and transparency, optimizing resource allocation: Energy consumption and cost sharing are digitized and visualized, allowing users to fully understand their consumption behavior, fostering a sense of conservation, and providing accurate data support for management decisions.
Core Application Scenarios and Specific Case Studies
University Student Dormitories – Water and Electricity Prepayment Management
Pain Points:
University dormitories are a major energy-consuming sector. Traditionally, water and electricity bills are subsidized by the university or later shared by dormitory residents. This leads to a lack of student awareness of conservation, leading to widespread “lights on” and “water running.” The university’s financial burden is heavy, and manual meter reading and collection are extremely tedious.
Prepayment System Applications and Results:
Smart Hardware Transformation: Prepaid energy meters and water meters are installed in each dormitory and connected to the backend management system.
Online Top-Up, Contactless Payment: Students can top up their dormitory accounts online through the campus app or mini-program. The system automatically deducts electricity and water usage based on the rate.
Alerts and Automatic Control: When the account balance falls below a set value, the system automatically sends a notification to the student’s mobile phone. When the balance reaches zero, the system automatically shuts off electricity and water (a basic power guarantee can be set to avoid a complete outage). Recharging the balance immediately restores the system.
Data-driven energy conservation: School logistics departments can accurately monitor energy consumption data for each building and floor, identify abnormal electricity usage (such as the use of illegal high-power appliances), and conduct energy efficiency analysis.
Success: After implementation at numerous domestic universities, water and electricity consumption in student dormitories has generally been reported to have decreased by 20%-30%, significantly enhancing students’ awareness of conservation and significantly freeing up logistics management personnel.
The application of prepayment system in public buildings is fundamentally a revolution in management. By leveraging an IoT-based intelligent hardware and software platform, it transforms the previously vague and extensive management of public resources into one that is precise, transparent, and efficient. This not only brings direct economic and energy-saving benefits, but also cultivates energy-saving habits among the public, promotes the development of smart cities and green buildings, and has enormous social benefits. With the widespread adoption of IoT technology, prepaid payment management will become a standard feature of future public building operations and management.
