Space Utilization Metrics for Occupant-Centric Building Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional building domain systems (BDSs) fail to capture the full potential of interoperability, functionality, and interdependence between building devices, focusing on specific domains rather than the missions and functions of spaces or places, leading to a disconnect between how occupants experience spaces and how devices are operated and controlled, with limited data usefulness for energy management and planning.
Innovation Solution
A building management system that includes data sources providing utilization data to calculate utilization attributes, retrieve utilization targets from space profiles, and generate normalized metrics to provide recommendations for optimizing space usage, integrating data from various sensors and systems to unify control across multiple domains.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional building domain systems focus on specific domains and types of devices, then device control within each domain is simplified, but the system fails to capture the full potential of interoperability and functionality between building devices, creating a disconnect between occupant experience and device operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple domain-specific systems (HVAC, lighting, security, access control) into a unified building management system that operates around spaces and places rather than individual device domains. This integration enables cross-domain interoperability while maintaining simplified control through space-centric interfaces that reflect how occupants experience and utilize building spaces.
2Device complexity
If conventional BDS collect data from sensors with substantial limits and restrictions, then data collection is manageable, but the usefulness of the collected data for energy management and planning decisions is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a universal data collection framework where sensors and data sources serve multiple functions across different spaces and domains. Data collected from sensors is normalized and stored in a centralized repository that can be accessed and analyzed for various purposes including energy management, space utilization analysis, and planning decisions, eliminating the need for domain-specific data collection systems.
3Productivity
If conventional BDS generate utilization metrics for spaces and places, then some utilization information is available, but the metrics do not capture the actual usage of spaces and places, preventing users from acquiring information needed for successful energy management and planning
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements comprehensive feedback loops that continuously monitor actual space utilization through multiple data sources including sensors, access control systems, and scheduling systems. This real-time feedback is used to calculate accurate utilization metrics that reflect actual usage patterns, which then feed back into energy management systems to optimize resource allocation and inform planning decisions based on genuine usage data rather than estimates.
Data Source
AI summary
A system that serves a space includes one or more data sources that provide utilization data describing an actual utilization of the space and circuitry configured to calculate a utilization attribute of the space based on the utilization data and retrieve, from a space profile for the space, a utilization target corresponding to the utilization attribute. The space profile is selected from a plurality of selectable space profiles defining a plurality of target utilizations. The circuitry is also configured to generate a normalized utilization metric for the space by normalizing the utilization attribute relative to the utilization target and generate a recommendation for the space based on the normalized utilization metric.