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Every winter season, facility teams face the same challenge: remembering the precise operational settings that kept their buildings running smoothly during the last cold‑weather event. Whether it’s humidity setpoints, air‑handling unit adjustments, or temporary overrides implemented to protect equipment and maintain occupant comfort, the details matter. And yet, they’re often buried in documents and logs long forgotten by the time next year’s winter storm arrives.
With Willow, teams now have a conversational way to retrieve critical winter preparedness settings. Let’s take a closer look.
For many organizations, including large healthcare systems, winter readiness is critical. HVAC systems running below optimal humidity or temperature thresholds can lead to mechanical issues, discomfort for occupants, or even infection‑control compliance risks. During cold snaps, operators frequently make manual adjustments to maintain stability. But when the season ends, those lessons may get lost, only to be rediscovered or rewritten, and under time pressure, the following year.
With Willow Copilot, instead of hunting for documentation, paging through binders, or relying on institutional memory, operators can simply ask, “What humidity level did we set last year during the freeze for AHU AC‑10‑1?” And Willow Copilot can respond with specific details, citing the exact document the team uploaded.
To illustrate how the setup works, let’s walk through it step by step. In this example, we’ll focus on a single AHU in a building. The scope can be extended to multiple AHUs and multiple buildings, however.
For teams that already have this information from previous events, this step entails saving a PDF version to later upload into Willow.
For organizations that are looking to create these, Willow Copilot can help as well. Since Willow already knows about the AHUs and the manufacturer as well as recommendations in O&M manuals, this information can be augmented with ASHRAE settings.
Consider the scope of the document. Is it specific to all AHUs or a subset in a given building? Does it extend to other systems like plumbing and water pipes? In this example, the document is called ‘Winter checklist for AHUs.pdf’.
Next, we upload the document for 104 Bedford Square, and it appears as a twin in the Knowledge Graph. The Deployment team at Willow can help with this step and associate it with a specific asset: Air Handling Unit AC‑10‑1, or if the scope extends to multiple assets, then multiple relationships are created between the document and relevant asset twins.
Once the document is attached to the asset, we can test it using conversational prompts.
Willow Copilot responds using the content from the uploaded document. The responses included citations, letting operators verify the source. As time goes by and the next winter event comes along, this means that teams can simply ask about the specific humidity settings to adjust.
This approach addresses several operational pain points. It reduces reliance on institutional memory as turnover, vacations, and shift changes can disrupt information flow. It accelerates decision‑making during cold‑weather events, which often require fast action. Being able to show documented settings, with clear references, helps teams demonstrate consistent operational practices, strengthening compliance and auditing. With Willow’s knowledge graph and Willow Copilot companion experience, facility teams have a simple and reliable way to capture, retrieve, and act on the operational learnings curated over time.