Current state and future challenges in building management: Practitioner interviews and a literature review

Abuimara, Tareq; Hobson, Brodie W.; Gunay, H. Burak; O’Brien, William; Kane, Michael B.

doi:10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102803

Cited by 24 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The operation of buildings is an inherently risk-averse activity given both the implications operations have on indoor environmental quality (i.e., the mental and physical health of occupants) and the contractual obligations operators and/or energy managers may have to the building owners. 91 Given the invasive nature of many of the proposed interventions, researchers must demonstrate to operations stakeholders that such actions can generate tangible energy savings and comfort improvements. One low-risk method by which this may be achieved is by the use of data-driven software tools that use real operational data to generate insights into these interdependent domains of research, such as that employed by Markus et al 92 Further research should also be dedicated to the use of building performance simulation (i.e., virtual clones/digital twins 93,94 ) as another low-risk means to evaluate the proposed workflow and quantify energy and comfort implications.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A data-driven workflow to improve energy efficient operation of commercial buildings: A review with real-world examples

Abuimara

Hobson

Gunay

et al. 2022

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

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Data-driven building operation and maintenance research such as metadata inference, fault detection and diagnosis, occupant-centric controls (OCCs), and non-invasive load monitoring have emerged (NILM) as independent domains of study. However, there are strong dependencies between these domains; for example, quality of metadata affects the usability of fault detection and diagnostics techniques. Further, faults in controls hardware and programs limit the performance of OCCs. To this end, a literature review was conducted to identify the dependencies between these domains of research. Additionally, real-world examples using operational data from three institutional buildings in Ottawa, Canada, were provided and discussed to demonstrate these dependencies. Finally, a holistic tool-agnostic workflow was introduced which suggested the implementation of operational energy efficiency measures in the following order to ensure their full potential: (1) improve metadata, (2) address faults, (3) implement OCCs, and (4) monitor enhanced key performance indicators (KPIs). The proposed workflow is intended to be comprehensive, reproducible, nonintrusive, and inexpensive to implement. Practical applications: Optimization of building operations has been emerging among energy management professionals as a relatively low-cost means to achieve energy efficiency and minimize occupants’ discomfort. To this end, this study introduces a tool-agnostic data-driven workflow to building energy management practitioners that can assist them in achieving increased energy efficiency. The proposed workflow recognizes the interdependency of the various domains of research which have historically been treated independently.

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Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A data-driven workflow to improve energy efficient operation of commercial buildings: A review with real-world examples

Abuimara

Hobson

Gunay

et al. 2022

Building Services Engineering Research and Technology

Self Cite

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“…The advantages that stand out are the three-dimensional visual presentation of the model, its ability to generate effective communication between the agents involved (e.g., technicians, users, managers, and politicians), assistance in the control of maintenance (e.g., refurbishments, repair operations, and its costs,) and its usefulness as a bridge to other technological applications [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. In parallel to the development of BIM, the digital maintenance and conservation phase has experienced significant progress [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Housing Life Cycle Management: Workflow for the Enhancement of Digital Management Based on Building Information Modelling (BIM)

2022

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The management of the life cycle of large publicly owned social housing complexes requires a large amount of human and technological resources, the optimization of which is a desirable and shared objective. This article proposes a workflow for the enhancement of these management processes based on BIM (Building Information Modelling), a methodology capable of integrating architectural information into a three-dimensional graphic model. The proposed workflow defines the basic characteristics of the BIM model oriented toward sustainable building management and its relationship with the key moments of its life cycle. It also analyzes the architectural information associated with the models and determines which parameters are optimal for their completion from the BIM models in terms of reliability, auditability, and automation. For this purpose, a case study has been developed for a multifamily residential building in Malaga (Spain), owned by the Andalusian Housing and Rehabilitation Agency AVRA, a public agency that manages a housing stock of more than 70,000 dwellings.

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“…Though data-driven approaches serve to mitigate excess energy use through various methods, it remains unclear how well their outputs translate to energy-saving insights that can be utilized in practice. Building operations professionals (i.e., building operators and facility managers) are at the forefront of achieving building energy efficiency and use existing tools such as BAS and energy management systems (EMS) to inform their decision-making processes [12]. However, data-driven approaches provide long-term insights derived through bulk data analysis which may augment their decision-making processes, potentially aiding these personnel in carrying out their duties.…”

Section: Interviews With Building Operators and Facility Managers 41 ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abuimara et al [12] proposed goals to improve current building energy management practices by conducting interviews with building facility managers and operators regarding the use and challenges of building energy management tools. The study cited data inaccessibility, a lack of essential knowledge, and a lack of visuals which could effectively deliver insight consolidated from data to a human as current challenges in the practice.…”

Section: Interviews With Building Operators and Managersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, they are not widely implemented in practice, unlike methods intended for the design phase. Its methodologies are inherently esoteric and its presumed novelty can be uncompelling in a risk-adverse environment such as building operations [12]. Thus, these powerful and proven methods to improve building energy performance remain as untapped potential.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development, Implementation, and Industry Reception of a Novel Multi-source, Data-driven Building Energy Management Toolkit

Markus¹

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Building energy performance is often negatively impacted by inefficient and uninformed operations, leading to wide disparities between predicted and actual energy use in commercial and institutional buildings. Though ample research in data-driven building operations and maintenance analytics has derived various methodologies for extracting energy-saving insights that can supplement operating practice, these approaches have traditionally remained disparate, limiting their application, and are exclusively prevalent in academia. Furthermore, operations personnel who regularly manage controls and maintenance of HVAC equipment can benefit from these novel approaches in augmenting their duties and optimizing building energy efficiency. This research explores the development of a novel multi-source, data-driven building energy management toolkit as a synthesis of established data-driven approaches in the literature comprising inverse energy modelling, anomaly detection and diagnostics, load disaggregation, and occupancy and occupant complaint analytics methods. The toolkit inputs various data types to detect hard and soft faults, optimize sequences of operation settings, and monitor energy flows, occupancy patterns, and occupant satisfaction. The toolkit's unique multi-source analytical approach was used to pinpoint operational deficiencies stemming from inappropriate zone temperature overheating thresholds and perimeter heating devices. Energy-saving insights were generated using data from four separate case study buildings to demonstrate the utility of the toolkit's web-based application platform. Finally, interviews with building operators and facility managers to their interpretations of insights from data-driven approaches were conducted; possible barriers were identified which inhibited industry professionals from effectively deriving and utilizing insights from the visualizations and KPIs.

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Current state and future challenges in building management: Practitioner interviews and a literature review

Cited by 24 publications

References 58 publications

A data-driven workflow to improve energy efficient operation of commercial buildings: A review with real-world examples

A data-driven workflow to improve energy efficient operation of commercial buildings: A review with real-world examples

Social Housing Life Cycle Management: Workflow for the Enhancement of Digital Management Based on Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Development, Implementation, and Industry Reception of a Novel Multi-source, Data-driven Building Energy Management Toolkit

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