James J.U. Lee, M.Eng. 2014
Supervisor: Dr. Rodrigo Mora
This report presents a practical, integrated approach for the measurement and verification of the energy performance of buildings using a BCVTB simulation-based building software environment, coupled with real-time building sensor data via a shared sensor database. The approach has the potential to leverage the infrastructure and data provided by the building automation system (BAS) to support continuous measurement and verification of building performance.
This Proof of Concept project was executed in two stages:
Stage One – A lab-scale demonstration was constructed to present the full functionality of the real-time simulation platform consisting of the virtual building model and BACnet controllers.
Stage Two – The validated simulation platform was implemented in a commercial office building. Real-time HVAC, lighting, occupancy and weather data was harvested and shared, via database, with the building simulation, thereby improving both the precision and reliability of the energy simulation.
The research demonstrates the technical feasibility of this approach and also provides an assessment of the financial viability of the real-time platform in the context of whole building energy analysis and fault detection. The field implementation provides empirical details of the validated implementation approach while identifying challenges and opportunities.