Status (updated 10/16/09): Ongoing
Funding sources: CBE Industry Consortium, Research Grants
Project Objective
The goal of this work is to identify the optimal methods for displaying building performance information, in order to influence commercial building occupants and managers to reduce resource use.
Significance to Industry
New data acquisition technologies and information visualization methods provide great opportunities to monitor and display building performance data. Together they provide the building industry with the potential to give feedback to commercial building occupants, managers, and other parties, and to encourage energy-saving behaviors.
A great deal of research has been conducted to evaluate the potential for energy conservation using information feedback to influence occupant behavior in residential buildings. Results of these studies show that immediate energy feedback can result in savings of 5-15%. However little research has been conducted on such feedback in commercial buildings, which present a greater challenge due to their greater complexity and diversity of users.
Research Approach
In spring of 2009, we conducted a preliminary literature review to assess the potential for occupant feedback to reduce energy use in buildings. We also began reviewing commercially available building visualization products to understand capabilities and constraints of these resources.
For the current phase of work, we will characterize subgroups of building stakeholders in order to investigate optimal ways to influence occupants to reduce energy and water consumption. We will use a combination of surveys, interviews, and contextual inquiry (studying users’ work practices and information needs in their own workplace.)
The last phase of this project will involve the development and testing of prototypical building information displays. These prototypes may include interface features currently available on building software products. In addition, we will develop new types of information displays with the potential for informing and impacting the behavior of occupants and other building stakeholders.
We will evaluate these prototypes through usability tests, for which CBE can draw upon a number of test techniques, including task-based interviews, think-aloud usability tests. CBE will analyze the results to identify which interface elements are most effective, and with which sub-groups of building stakeholders. The results of these test will be reported in detail in a final report to CBE Industry Partners and California Energy Commission's PIER Program. In addition CBE will submit the work for journal publication.
Publications and Reports
Lehrer, D., 2009. Research Scoping Report: Visualizing Information in Commercial Buildings, Interim Report to the California Energy Commission (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER), September.
Lehrer, D., 2009. Visualizing building information: using information feedback to educate and influence building managers and occupants," Centerline Magazine, January.
