CARD Webinar: How Smart Do Intelligent Buildings Need to Be?

Thursday, July 20, 2023 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
(UTC-05:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

Host
Lindsay Anderson

Agenda
Intelligent Buildings have enhanced operation, monitoring, and control, and promise greater energy efficiency, business productivity, and building security and safety. However, increased complexity and energy overhead — resulting from the supporting networking, sensors, and controls — is an overlooked consequence of connected devices and systems. Such overhead adds cost, energy load, and operations and maintenance (O&M) complexity. Instead of an “all of the above” approach to building intelligence, this project investigated how the intelligent technologies need to be optimized with respect to the specific needs and uses of the occupants of the space and the staff who are responsible for operating and maintain the space. Intelligent building systems offer benefits in energy savings, productivity, and health and safety but can yield increased costs, baseload power consumption, and O&M. Through analysis and modeling, the energy costs of building intelligence are weighed against the benefits that are provided to determine both opportunities and constraints these technologies. Lab testing was also performed to investigate potential opportunities for office plug load control. A market analysis looked into the factors that may be necessary to promote wider adoption of intelligent building technologies.