Collaborative Building Energy Management and Control
EW-201336
Objective
The objective of this project is to demonstrate a collaborative energy management and control (cEMC) system that allows interactive communications among occupants, facility managers, and building control systems with advanced human machine interfaces (HMI) based on the latest visualization and social network technology. In particular, this project will demonstrate that 30-50% of a building’s annual energy load can be saved through occupancy-based building HVAC control, lighting control, and plug load control and that the cEMC can respond to load reduction commands from the facility manager and achieve 20% peak load shedding within 15 minutes. Demonstrations will be conducted at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, and IAP Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania.
Technology Description
The cEMC is a low cost software solution to improve commercial building energy efficiency and enhance occupant comfort through deep occupant-engagement. As an extension of traditional building automation systems (BASs), cEMC provides supervisory level commands to BASs and allows collaborative building control among building occupants and facility managers.
Based on their roles, occupants can configure their comfort preferences and input their occupancy schedule through a soft Thermostat; while the building operator can set thermal/lighting control limits as well as send out demand response commands via an advanced user interface called Facility Manager Dashboard provided by the cEMC platform. The cEMC controller can automatically resolve conflictive requirements among occupants and facility managers and generate energy efficient supervisory control on temperature, lighting, and ventilation settings for targeted BASs, e.g., occupancy-based comfort control and task-based lighting control. cEMC improves building energy efficiency mainly by eliminating energy waste when the space is not occupied, as well as engaging occupants more on energy conservation through lowering their energy needs. The innovative features of cEMC include: (1) advanced collaborative HMI for both occupants and facility managers with comprehensive data visualization rendering current and predicted energy consumption to promote energy responsive behaviors; (2) open platform for significant energy savings and load management through which facility managers can change control rules or arbitration logics at any time, without relying on contractors; (3) a social network-based energy management environment that helps occupants compare their energy use with their peers and that also sets reference points, encouraging compliance and competitiveness among occupants.
Benefits
The target of 30% energy savings using the cEMC is a modest goal for house/office/school Department of Defense buildings with varied occupancy patterns. In addition to the economic benefits of cEMC deployment, occupant comfort is expected to be improved and productivity is also expected to increase. Building operators dealing with fewer complaints may indicate that less work force is needed for facility management. Since this solution is software based, the cost is low compared with hardware-based occupancy detection. The cost of cEMC mainly comes from engineering effort during the commissioning phase. The return on investment is expected to be within 3-5 years. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2014)
Points of Contact
Principal Investigator
Dr. Yan Lu
Siemens Corporate Research
Phone: 609-734-3549
Fax: 609-734-6565
Document Types
- Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
- Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
- Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
- Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
- Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
- Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
- Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
- Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
- Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.