Intelligent Buildings: Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Transformation

It's clear that smart buildings are crucial for various reasons. With humans spending around 90% of their lives indoor and the fact that buildings account for about 30% of the world's energy, the focus on improving energy efficiency in buildings to tackle energy demand has become important. Making the buildings more efficient can drive decarbonization and potentially reduce global energy demand by 12% championing sustainability efforts.

With advent of automation and application of progressive technologies such as AI, IoT etc. buildings and office spaces are increasingly infused with intelligence to monitor, control and optimize its sub-systems to drive digital transformation leading to energy management and sustainability.??

Buildings are equipped with interconnected devices and systems, collectively known as Building Management Systems (BMS), which enable centralized control over key functions -EPM (Electric power monitoring) and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning). The next generation of BMS can offer tight integration bringing together disparate sub-systems, making them more adaptive to dynamic environmental conditions and address user preferences (1).

Here is an approach to unlock the potential of Smart Buildings; its the ABCs of transformation that can propel modern buildings into intelligent, connected spaces.

A – Advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence can revolutionize building operations and boost energy efficiency.

B – (Next-Generation) Building Management Systems can extend to offer predictive maintenance and seamless IoT integration between traditional silo systems.

C – Connectivity through Edge devices, Cloud and Mobility can reshape accessibility and scalability in building operations and enhance user experiences.

These ABCs for smart buildings can drive sustainability, efficiency, and user experiences to revolutionize the way we interact with our built environment.

Here are some examples to illustrate how the transformative power of smart building applications can promise to reshape the future of our built environment.

The Edge in Amsterdam, also known as 'The Computer with a Roof,' is a groundbreaking office building celebrated for its exceptional smart and sustainable features. This innovative structure boasts an intricate network of 28,000 sensors that meticulously track lighting levels, temperature, movement, humidity, and even carbon dioxide levels, enabling the building to adapt to occupants' needs. Occupants benefit from personalized experiences, including parking allocation based on license plate recognition, workspace suggestions, and environmental control through a dedicated app. The building's energy efficiency is remarkable, using solar panels (from its rooftop and leased spaces from nearby buildings), it generates 102% of its energy needs, stores rainwater for reuse, and runs a unique aquifer thermal energy storage system that circulates cold or hot water for cooling or heating. The on-site gym even harnesses energy from used exercise equipment to add to the power generation capability of the building. Furthermore, The Edge pioneers advanced lighting systems, a first of its kind 'Power-over-Ethernet' technology, leading to over 80% energy savings and enhanced operational efficiency. The Edge, even though commissioned in 2014 holds the distinction of one of the smartest and greenest office buildings globally holding testament to the importance of workspaces aligning to world’s needs and people’s preferences. (2), (3)

Here is a practical example on how AI based implementation on HVAC system can help in optimizing heating and electricity usage, resulting in reduced energy consumption, emissions, and occupant complaints. The BMS implemented centrally for 624 school buildings in Stockholm faced challenges in processing over 20,000 sensory inputs to make real time adjustments and optimize heating energy. The AI solution in collaboration with BMS integrates internal and external data sources to optimize energy usage based on past data and predicted events using supervised learning and other AI techniques. This solution executes every 15 mins and acts as a virtual building operator, making frequent adjustments based on data, in contrast to manual operations that was few times in a year before. The solution proved successful, within 5 months, with the schools benefit from 4% less heating energy, 15% lower electricity usage, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and a 23% decrease in occupant complaints. The project proved successful with a 2-year payback period (4).

Continued innovation and real-world implementation of advanced applications such as AI, IoT etc. with sustainable design holds the key and can drive performance of smart buildings. Collaborative endeavors from property developers, investors, and technology providers, will help develop the ecosystem of smart buildings towards a sustainable and intelligent future. Together, the future for smart buildings holds tremendous promise to navigate the dynamics of an ever-changing world and pilot a more resilient, efficient, and environmentally friendly built environment.

Sources:

1.?https://www.se.com/in/en/download/document/Buildings_WP500_EN/

2.?https://blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com/en/the-smartest-greenest-office-building-on-earth-the-edge-is-like-a-computer-with-a-roof/#:~:text=One%20shining%20example%20is%20The,and%20greenest%20building%20on%20Earth.

3.?https://www.se.com/ww/en/work/campaign/life-is-on/case-study/the-edge.jsp

4. https://www.se.com/ww/en/insights/electricity-4-0/digitalization/using-ai-to-optimize-systems-in-buildings.jsp