How Can We Manage The Build-Up Of Smart Building Data?

office buildings behind water

By George Adams, Director of Energy and Engineering, SPIE UK

Contrary to popular perceptions, smart or intelligent buildings have been around for a while. Originally referred to by Kevin O’Donnell in his book “Connected Real Estate”, published in 2007, he talks in detail on the concept. More recently, the globally declared Climate Emergency, which sets out targets of net zero carbon, has encouraged people to look to smart buildings as a solution. As a result, technology related to this market is anticipated to see huge growth, especially in the use of new remediating controls/data capture products. In fact, over 80 percent of new builds now include at least one aspect of smart technology such as smart security, lighting or controls, including new homes in addition to commercial builds and infrastructure.

But there are challenges with this smart technology. Now, building owners and users are experiencing data overload, confusion about choices of which technology suits their requirements, and the decisions they need to make to achieve a return on their investment (ROI) over a given period of time and within a variety of constraints.

So, how can you be sure of getting the most out of any smart building investment as well as installing a best in class solution?

Seeking The Right Source

At the start of this type of work, it is challenging to know which data sources are most appropriate to measure to guarantee an improvement in the operations of the building. This selection should be driven by key objectives established at the beginning of a project, otherwise known as the ‘discovery stage’. By performing examinations of the facility and analysing the characteristics of the building, a better understanding of the operational requirements can be achieved. Furthermore, undertaking a study and interviews with potential users or occupants to get insights into their opinions and how they use the facility is vital to generate effective solutions. In turn, this can inform the fundamental strategy for how to improve the building and its internal systems.

Collecting all this information can help isolate where enhancements or changes to the building or how it operates should be carried out. With the insight from the discovery stage it is possible to achieve a comprehensive understanding of what the most important data to collect is in order for changes to be undertaken, as well as the most appropriate means of gathering and analysing that data. Factoring in economic parameters, such as ROI, is also important. Fortunately, there are solutions available on the market that facilitate staged enhancements over time due to their affordability and ease of installation.

Data Overload

These days the choice of technology is rather overwhelming as there are myriad ways to gather information about a building, its engineering infrastructure and those who use it, that satisfy a variety of budgets. From sensors, to swiping into the building using an identity card, smart wearable devices, or a tracker on mobile phones, gathering information without being invasive has never been easier.

Once this step has been achieved, the next is to ‘clean up’ the data and ascertain which information that has been created can be prioritised into what is valuable for operations and management.

Substantiate Your Sources

Substantiating data via a second means or collecting hard data from two sources is crucial for validating any data so that sources can be cross referenced. Thinking about how to reduce energy consumption by cross referencing techniques are an integral part of this process as data from several sub meters within the building can be analysed to understand any inconsistencies. Verification is important when making investment decisions.

When budgets are tight, temporary verification is an option - it doesn’t have to be permanent. For instance, if a business needs to understand the number of people in their building at any point, they can implement supplementary monitoring systems provisionally, so they can be sure their permanent systems are giving a precise reading.

The Perception Of Privacy

The monitoring or tracking of individuals will inevitably throw up questions about technical integration and privacy and security. But these issues can again be tackled at the discovery stage when interviewing the facility’s users. Listening to employee feedback the client can make a choice about whether they are willing to have occupation data collected. That said, the confidential monitoring of occupants is another option, as is anonymising any data collected and stored. The reason being that the facilities manager doesn’t have to see personal information about every individual. Understanding the data as a whole to have a wide-ranging overview of how a building functions is more important for them.

Data from smart buildings will be vital for improving the environmental impact of the built environment going forward. Yet, currently, businesses are hesitating from using data to better the workplace because fit out is commonly heavily contractor-led rather than design/technology-led. These teams are struggling to make the right decisions simply because they don’t have the right understanding of the technology, ergonomics, neurology, and operations of the building to do so. But with the future of the built environment depending on data, the industry needs to learn - fast.