SEP Collaborative: A Unified Framework for Sustainability in Buildings through Human Mediation

NSF可持续能源途径（SEP）计划，在NSF科学，工程和教育可持续发展（SEES）倡议的保护伞下，将支持Suman Banerjee教授和威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的同事，以及Sandipan Mishra教授和Rensselaer理工学院的同事的研究计划。该项目采用整体方法，开发一个统一控制商业和机构建筑的框架，通过人为调解降低整体能耗。 该框架由多个组件组成：部署在建筑物中的传感器网络，将监测和测量各种参数，例如，能源、照明、温度、湿度等，从而产生高效的模型;软件组件，允许人类居住者进行交互并提供反馈;以及驱动结果，允许控制建筑组件，例如加热、冷却、气流和照明子系统，并联合优化这些控制。这种努力的新颖之处在于，它在建筑物能源系统的反馈控制中结合了以下元素：（i）预测外部变量，例如能源定价、能源需求和天气，如可以从智能电网或网络确定的;（ii）预测内部变量，例如占用率、用户舒适度偏好和从预测动态模型获得的状态变量;（iii）提取然后利用模式重复（温度、占用率、使用率等的每日、每周和每年周期）（iv）通过有效地获得和处理人在回路反馈，在模型中阐明人和心理因素。通过设计正确的人机界面，为人类参与创造适当的激励，有效的反馈收集，以及对感官测量（从建筑物内传感网络获得）和人类输入的综合处理，该项目旨在提供由最终用户通过其个人通信“应用程序”介导的按需舒适度。这种方法与目前的研究和实践有很大的不同，这些研究和实践是孤立地对建筑物能源子系统进行建模、控制和优化，并在建筑物中的任何地方提供独立于占用水平和需求水平的默认舒适度。该项目探讨了可以在商业和机构建筑中节省大量能源消耗的技术，从而实现更可持续的设计。该项目的教育部分包括一个以实验室为基础的课程，其中包括一个跨学科的顶点课程，“智能能源实验室”，对现有课程的适当增强，以及共同开发新的校园范围内的可持续发展证书课程。此外，多个校园宿舍和机构建筑被纳入“生活实验室”，从而教育他们的居住者关于绿色消费实践。该项目的其他方面提供了与当地高中以及相关行业的互动。现代世界能源消耗的很大一部分是在建筑物内。该项目的重点是开发一种智能控制系统，通过在这一过程中积极引入人为调解来管理建筑物的能源消耗。该项目的独特之处包括商业建筑的多个租户可以参与能源管理过程的机制，并允许各种控制和驱动功能有效地满足他们的集体需求。目标是为更可持续的建筑设计制定蓝图。除了对下一代建筑的能源效率和充足性产生重大影响外，这里开发的技术还对可持续性研究和整个可持续技术产生了变革性影响。

The NSF Sustainable Energy pathways (SEP) Program, under the umbrella of the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative, will support the research program of Prof. Suman Banerjee and co-workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Prof. Sandipan Mishra and co-workers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The project takes a holistic approach to develop a framework for unified control of commercial and institutional buildings that reduces overall energy consumption through human mediation. The framework consists of multiple components: sensor networks deployed in buildings that will monitor and measure various parameters, e.g., energy, lighting, temperature, humidity, etc. that lead to efficient models; software components that allow human occupants to interact and provide feedback; and actuation outcomes that allow control of building components, such as heating, cooling, airflow and lighting sub-systems and optimize these controls jointly. The novel aspect of this effort is that it combines the following elements in the feedback control of building energy systems: (i) Forecasting of external variables such as energy pricing, energy demand, and weather, as can be determined from the smart grid or the web; (ii) Predicting internal variables such as occupancy, user comfort preferences, and state variables as obtained from predictive dynamic models; (iii) Extracting and then exploiting pattern repetition (daily, weekly, and yearly cycles in temperature, occupancy, usage etc.) in a computationally efficient fashion, an (iv) Incorporating human and psychological factors in the model, by obtaining and processing human-in-the-loop feedback effectively. Through the design of the right human-machine interfaces, creating appropriate incentives for human participation, effective feedback collection, and integrated processing of sensory measurements (obtained from an in-building sensing network) and human inputs, the project aims at providing a by-demand comfort level that is mediated by end-users through their personal communication "apps". This approach differs significantly from the current research and practices of modeling, controlling and optimizing building energy sub-systems in isolation, and providing by-default comfort level everywhere in the building independent of occupancy level and demand level. The project explores techniques that can provide major savings in energy consumption in commercial and institutional buildings leading towards a more sustainable design. The educational component of the project includes a laboratory-based curriculum which includes a cross-disciplinary capstone course, "Smart Energy Laboratory", suitable enhancements to existing courses, and co-development of new campus-wide sustainability certificate programs. Further, multiple campus dormitories and institutional buildings are being incorporated as "living laboratories," thus educating their occupants about green consumption practices. Other aspects of the project provide interactions with local high schools as well as related industry.A significant fraction of energy consumption in the modern world is within buildings. This project is focused on the development of an intelligent control system to manage energy consumption of buildings by actively incorporating human mediation in this process. The unique aspect of this project includes mechanisms by which multiple tenants of a commercial building can participate in the energy management process and allow the various control and actuation functions to efficiently meet their collective needs. The goal is to develop a blueprint for a more sustainable design of buildings. In addition to the significant impact on energy efficiency and sufficiency of next-generation buildings, the techniques being developed here also have transformative impact on sustainability research and sustainable technologies as a whole.