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BizWatts: A modular socio-technical energy management system for empowering commercial building occupants to conserve energy

Author

Listed:
  • Gulbinas, R.
  • Jain, R.K.
  • Taylor, J.E.

Abstract

Commercial buildings represent a significant portion of energy consumption and environmental emissions worldwide. To help mitigate the environmental impact of building operations, building energy management systems and behavior-based campaigns designed to reduce energy consumption are becoming increasingly popular. In this paper, we describe the development of a modular socio-technical energy management system, BizWatts, which combines the two approaches by providing real-time, appliance-level power management and socially contextualized energy consumption feedback. We describe in detail the physical and virtual architecture of the system, which simultaneously engages building occupants and facility managers, as well as the main principles behind the interface design and component functionalities. A discussion about how the data collection capabilities of the system enable insightful commercial building energy efficiency studies and quantitative network analysis is also included. We conclude by commenting on the validation of the system, identifying current system limitations and introducing new research avenues that the development and deployment of BizWatts enables.

Suggested Citation

  • Gulbinas, R. & Jain, R.K. & Taylor, J.E., 2014. "BizWatts: A modular socio-technical energy management system for empowering commercial building occupants to conserve energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1076-1084.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:136:y:2014:i:c:p:1076-1084
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.07.034
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    6. Francisco, Abigail & Truong, Hanh & Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Taylor, John E. & Mohammadi, Neda, 2018. "Occupant perceptions of building information model-based energy visualizations in eco-feedback systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 220-228.
    7. Azar, Elie & Nikolopoulou, Christina & Papadopoulos, Sokratis, 2016. "Integrating and optimizing metrics of sustainable building performance using human-focused agent-based modeling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 926-937.
    8. Henze, Gregor P. & Pavlak, Gregory S. & Florita, Anthony R. & Dodier, Robert H. & Hirsch, Adam I., 2015. "An energy signal tool for decision support in building energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 51-70.
    9. Khosrowpour, Ardalan & Jain, Rishee K. & Taylor, John E. & Peschiera, Gabriel & Chen, Jiayu & Gulbinas, Rimas, 2018. "A review of occupant energy feedback research: Opportunities for methodological fusion at the intersection of experimentation, analytics, surveys and simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 304-316.
    10. Ma, Zheng & Knotzer, Armin & Billanes, Joy Dalmacio & Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard, 2020. "A literature review of energy flexibility in district heating with a survey of the stakeholders’ participation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
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    12. Most Nahida Akter & Md Apel Mahmud & Amanullah Maung Than Oo, 2017. "A Hierarchical Transactive Energy Management System for Energy Sharing in Residential Microgrids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-27, December.
    13. Casals, Miquel & Gangolells, Marta & Forcada, Núria & Macarulla, Marcel & Giretti, Alberto & Vaccarini, Massimo, 2016. "SEAM4US: An intelligent energy management system for underground stations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 150-164.
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