APERIO: LOW COST FAÇADE MANAGEMENT IN NATURALLY VENTILATED BUILDINGS
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering & the Environment
Abstract
Even if opening a window has a limited impact on the environmental conditions in an office, it is often a desirable feature as users are typically more tolerant as they feel they have been able to take action to improve their space. The ability of a user to interact with a façade does not, however, come without risk to the energy performance of a building. In a domestic setting, a householder is directly responsible for the energy bills and would therefore not consciously leave a window open overnight in the winter. In an office environment however, there is no financial driver for the user to operate the façade in the same energy efficient manner. Whilst there may be a strong driver to open a window in an office (stuffiness, high temperature), the driver to close the window (energy awareness) may be very weak unless there is an additional driver such as external noise, rain or a security risk. This poses a real challenge to the facilities manager, 'happy productive users' prefer control of the façade, which is what well designed non-domestic building environments should provide, but providing this control introduces significant energy performance risk.
This study proposes to develop and test a low cost, non-invasive technique to assess the impact of poor facade control on energy performance and enable facilities managers to address this issue. We are looking to use external cameras to diagnose the status of a facade in terms of window opening, blind and internal lighting usage and to engage the Facilities Manager, security staff and building users to change the facade state. This approach can help address issues of (1) winter heating losses, (2) summer overheating and (3) poor internal lighting operation. Whilst security guards may provide an effective solution to the problem of energy waste, successful users' behavioural change in managing windows and blinds is very important in non-domestic buildings where there are no guards or where guards cannot intervene due to their narrow remit.
All interventions will be developed through a user-centred design approach. Workshops will be conducted at the start of the project, to make sure that the interventions fit both with the technical constraints and with the organisational culture of the buildings where they will be deployed. In particular we will focus on (1) the trade-offs between preserving privacy and sharing information and (2) on the balance between group-level and individual feedback. As far as point (1) is concerned, a privacy-preserving intervention would allow us to send email messages to individuals who left their windows open, in the hope that this will not be done in the future. In contrast, broadcasting to everyone on a given floor in which windows are currently open and need closing would allow users to take action here and now. This second approach may be considered more constructive (rather than reprimand), it would require everyone to know which windows were left open, and by inference who might have left them so. Regarding point (2), our aim is to test whether the effect of individual feedback (e.g. individual emails saying "you left your window open last weekend") can be reinforced by framing it in the context of the general performance of people occupying the same building (e.g. through a public display or an email that is sent to everyone).
Designing interfaces and systems which provide and maintain user engagement is the other key theme of this study. Decay in user engagement is a challenge for any behaviour change intervention and often not fully addressed in studies. Here we anticipate strong and sustained engagement with the facilities manager and security staff who are the primary path to energy savings in the building. Engagement with users of buildings such as offices is far more challenging where developed interfaces have to add value to the individual to ensure their sustained use beyond the initial 'novelty / honeymoon' period.
This study proposes to develop and test a low cost, non-invasive technique to assess the impact of poor facade control on energy performance and enable facilities managers to address this issue. We are looking to use external cameras to diagnose the status of a facade in terms of window opening, blind and internal lighting usage and to engage the Facilities Manager, security staff and building users to change the facade state. This approach can help address issues of (1) winter heating losses, (2) summer overheating and (3) poor internal lighting operation. Whilst security guards may provide an effective solution to the problem of energy waste, successful users' behavioural change in managing windows and blinds is very important in non-domestic buildings where there are no guards or where guards cannot intervene due to their narrow remit.
All interventions will be developed through a user-centred design approach. Workshops will be conducted at the start of the project, to make sure that the interventions fit both with the technical constraints and with the organisational culture of the buildings where they will be deployed. In particular we will focus on (1) the trade-offs between preserving privacy and sharing information and (2) on the balance between group-level and individual feedback. As far as point (1) is concerned, a privacy-preserving intervention would allow us to send email messages to individuals who left their windows open, in the hope that this will not be done in the future. In contrast, broadcasting to everyone on a given floor in which windows are currently open and need closing would allow users to take action here and now. This second approach may be considered more constructive (rather than reprimand), it would require everyone to know which windows were left open, and by inference who might have left them so. Regarding point (2), our aim is to test whether the effect of individual feedback (e.g. individual emails saying "you left your window open last weekend") can be reinforced by framing it in the context of the general performance of people occupying the same building (e.g. through a public display or an email that is sent to everyone).
Designing interfaces and systems which provide and maintain user engagement is the other key theme of this study. Decay in user engagement is a challenge for any behaviour change intervention and often not fully addressed in studies. Here we anticipate strong and sustained engagement with the facilities manager and security staff who are the primary path to energy savings in the building. Engagement with users of buildings such as offices is far more challenging where developed interfaces have to add value to the individual to ensure their sustained use beyond the initial 'novelty / honeymoon' period.
Planned Impact
The Aperio programme is looking to lead to management based energy savings in predominantly naturally ventilated buildings.
In this respect, we are looking to create beneficiaries at a number of levels:
1) at the government level:
- through demonstration of a new management approach, which if rolled out across the non-domestic building stock will impact on carbon targets, energy usage and national security of supply.
2) at the building user level:
- improved environmental conditions, most notably during prolonged warm periods in buildings through better use of blinds will lead to enhanced wellbeing and productivity amongst building users.
3) at the public sector and corporate level:
- delivering readily deployable solutions (we anticipate within 1-3 years of programme completion depending on progress of the Open Systems Solution programme to develop a low cost camera solution) to enable facilities managers to address the issue of facade management. This system will deliver energy savings to address rising energy costs, climate change (notably summer overheating) and deteriorating public sector finances (not possible to undertake major refurbishment).
4) at the academic level:
- new levels of understanding of the effectiveness of eco-feedbacks in non-domestic buildings will contribute to the literature in behavioural economics and psychology on peer effects and on the use of "nudges" to alter behaviour. Our findings will provide an important input to scholars, in both the social and the natural sciences, dealing with environmental sustainability, management and planning.
5) at the building services industry level:
- enabling the building services industry to see and apply new approaches to energy management beyond traditional hard wired control systems.
6) to the wider public in general:
- better performing building create the spaces in which people wish to live and work. This in turn creates productive spaces and enhanced wellbeing.
7) at the asset manager level:
The 'tail' in the current building stock portfolio of many asset managers will be significantly reduced if Aperio proves successful. The economic life of many buildings will be extended as heating and cooling loads are reduced to financially viable levels.
In this respect, we are looking to create beneficiaries at a number of levels:
1) at the government level:
- through demonstration of a new management approach, which if rolled out across the non-domestic building stock will impact on carbon targets, energy usage and national security of supply.
2) at the building user level:
- improved environmental conditions, most notably during prolonged warm periods in buildings through better use of blinds will lead to enhanced wellbeing and productivity amongst building users.
3) at the public sector and corporate level:
- delivering readily deployable solutions (we anticipate within 1-3 years of programme completion depending on progress of the Open Systems Solution programme to develop a low cost camera solution) to enable facilities managers to address the issue of facade management. This system will deliver energy savings to address rising energy costs, climate change (notably summer overheating) and deteriorating public sector finances (not possible to undertake major refurbishment).
4) at the academic level:
- new levels of understanding of the effectiveness of eco-feedbacks in non-domestic buildings will contribute to the literature in behavioural economics and psychology on peer effects and on the use of "nudges" to alter behaviour. Our findings will provide an important input to scholars, in both the social and the natural sciences, dealing with environmental sustainability, management and planning.
5) at the building services industry level:
- enabling the building services industry to see and apply new approaches to energy management beyond traditional hard wired control systems.
6) to the wider public in general:
- better performing building create the spaces in which people wish to live and work. This in turn creates productive spaces and enhanced wellbeing.
7) at the asset manager level:
The 'tail' in the current building stock portfolio of many asset managers will be significantly reduced if Aperio proves successful. The economic life of many buildings will be extended as heating and cooling loads are reduced to financially viable levels.
Publications
Alan A
(2016)
Tariff Agent Interacting with a Future Smart Energy System at Home
in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Andrés Mancheno Mariño
(2017)
Summer window opening behavior in mixed mode ventilated buildings
Bourikas L
(2016)
Camera-based window-opening estimation in a naturally ventilated office
in Building Research & Information
Costanza E
(2018)
Digital Technology and Sustainability Engaging the Paradox
Kittley-Davies J
(2019)
Evaluating the Effect of Feedback from Different Computer Vision Processing Stages
Liu C
(2019)
Rigor, Relevance and Impact
Nariswari D M
(2016)
Thermal Comfort and Productivity - What can the Chair Tell Us?
Description | There is often a strong driver to open a window in a naturally ventilated office building (overheating, stuffiness etc). However, the driver to close a window (energy, noise, rain, security) is often very weak in an office building where there is no financial implication to the occupant. This can lead to poor user behavior in terms of energy, carbon and cost during the heating season in particular. The majority of office buildings in the UK have very poor environmental / energy sensor coverage. Within APERIO we have successfully demonstrated that a single digital camera mounted external to the facade of a building can automatically determine window open status. A comparison between automated window opening estimation and manual visual checking of images showed an agreement level of around ninety percent. Field trial findings: Providing contextual window opening behaviour information as an intervention in a naturally ventilated office is found to be effective in promoting energy savings with a reduction of 50% in the number of windows left open.The impact of the treatment is stronger when their behaviour is compared to that of their peers. |
Exploitation Route | The use of external cameras for facade diagnostics can be applied not only to naturally ventilated buildings but also mixed mode. Mixed mode buildings are seen as good compromise giving users control but also addressing summer overheating risk. The APERIO system will enable the performance gap of a semi-automated building to be determined and addressed. Engagement and behaviour change field trial findings: Providing contextual window opening behaviour information as an intervention in a naturally ventilated office is found to be effective in promoting energy savings with a reduction of 50% in the number of windows left open.The impact of the treatment is stronger when their behaviour is compared to that of their peers. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Energy Environment Security and Diplomacy |
URL | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2018.07.008 |
Description | APERIO technique as a tool to (i) assess energy performance of city council offices in Southampton, (ii) test nursing ward intervention strategies to reduce energy use in NHS hospitals in Hampshire and (iii) University of Southampton office buildings. The University of Southampton Estates and Facilities department have run an engagement with building users to reduce poor window behaviour. This intervention has been established and framed following the APERIO study findings. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Energy,Healthcare |
Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
Description | IEA-EBC Annex 69: Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
URL | http://www.iea-ebc.org/projects/project?AnnexID=69 |
Description | International advisor to EPFL smart living lab |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Beyond Individual Persuasion: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Interactive Visualisation and Sensing for Environmental Change |
Amount | £832,440 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/V042327/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | Platform Grants |
Amount | £1,431,420 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P010164/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 04/2022 |
Description | User Interaction with ICT |
Amount | £806,241 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N014243/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 03/2019 |
Title | digital camera based determinant of window opening status in a facade |
Description | Externally mounted digital cameras capture facade images which automatically determine the status of each window. The window status (open,closed, not-determined) and the level of opening (angle) is returned. This dataset can then be used to engage with users, inform the facilities managers etc. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Test facade summer and winter accuracy in excess of 90% against manual ground truth analysis. Subsequent field deployment of this approach across six buildings at the University of Southampton from March 2016 |
Title | Patient bed movement data sets for thesis 'Sustainability benefits of energy behaviour change in a NHS Trust' |
Description | Patient bed movement data sets gathered over a nine month period from the motion loggers located on the patients' beds in three older persons' acute care wards of the NHS community hospital participating in the research project entitled 'Sustainability benefits of energy behaviour change in a NHS Trust'. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | INFORM ENERGY / PATIENT CARE IN AN NHS TRUST |
URL | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/441612/ |
Title | Window movement data sets for thesis 'Sustainability benefits of energy behaviour change in a NHS Trust' |
Description | Patient bed movement data sets gathered over a nine month period from the motion loggers located on the patients' beds in three older persons' acute care wards of the NHS community hospital participating in the research project entitled 'Sustainability benefits of energy behaviour change in a NHS Trust'. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Assessment of energy and environment in NHS ward |
URL | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/441613/ |
Description | Open System Solutions Limited - APERIO |
Organisation | Open System Solutions Limited |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Proof of concept and scale of market for facade camera diagnostic tool - building confidence in the scale of the market for this product. |
Collaborator Contribution | Attendance of APERIO meetings, sourcing of infra red camera components through company supply chain. |
Impact | acceleration of development of camera facade system |
Start Year | 2015 |
Title | Temperature Calendar |
Description | The Temperature Calendar is a web-based visualization of temperature variation within a building over the course of the past week. It is designed mainly for the workplace, and it highlights deviation from organizational temperature policy, with the aim to bring staff "into the loop" of understanding and managing heating, and so reduce energy waste. The Temperature Calendar was conceived as a public display, to be installed in a shared area of a non-domestic building (e.g. an office kitchenette). |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | The Temperature Calendar was deployed for three weeks in five public libraries in the South of England. Analysis of interaction logs, questionnaires and interviews shows that staff used the system to understand heating in their buildings, and took action reflecting this new understanding, to save energy or to improve working conditions. |
URL | https://bitbucket.org/ecostanza/sdsample/overview |
Description | Conference presentation: Understanding window behaviour in a mixed-mode buildings and the impact on energy performance |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | MSc conference for students involved in energy research. 6th Masters Conference: People and Buildings London Metropolitan University. see http://nceub.org.uk/ocs/index.php/mc/MC2016 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://nceub.org.uk/ocs/index.php/mc/MC2016 |
Description | FORMAL TALK on THERMAL COMFORT entitled: Perception of thermal comfort and pain - are we assessing their dynamics right? HEIDELBERG, GERMANY |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The objective of this symposium was to bring together researchers from different fields - not communicating much so far - in order to strengthen the interdisciplinary exchange highly needed for future challenges and to discuss methodological barriers and approaches used in their fields related to the assessment of human perception. When accepting human perception as a dynamic entity influenced by a huge variety of contextual and individual factors, is it correct to assume that it can be assessed by static means such as scales? Alternatively, is the perception of scales already a dynamic process to be considered? What other methods are there to assess the dynamics of human perception? These and other questions are addressed during this symposium. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | International Energy Association - Annex79 "Occupant centric building design and operation" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A researcher (L.Bourikas) participates and he will present work that stems from this project related to occupancy behaviour prediction and remote sensing technologies in the International Energy Association - Annex79 "Occupant centric building design and operation" group.The experience of APERIO IoT solution for monitoring the window opening in buildings has allowed the development of further ideas for the passive monitoring of buildings' environment and its interpretation in the context of occupant centric needs, thermal comfort and energy performance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://annex79.iea-ebc.org/ |
Description | Panel at Centrica |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Expert panel about AI and HCI in the context of energy at an internal event at Centrica in Windsor |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | RICS CPD DAY - INVITED SPEAKER |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | RICS CPD conferences enable industry professionals to keep updated on the latest standards and practices. PAB JAMES was invited to present '5b: Towards sustainability in commercial buildings' which focusses on facades of buildings and the potential for behaviour change amongst building users. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.rics.org/uk/training-events/conferences-seminars |
Description | Re-zoning and Liveable Cities |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP9q9E_uhzI&t=19s 'What makes a place' and how we can engineer cities to deliver on our aspirations? We will discuss city disruptors and how they are accelerating change in our cities, COVID-19 being foremost amongst them. Shrinking retail, walkability, the value of greenspace Professor Patrick James is Professor of Energy and Buildings within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. His research is based on understanding energy use in the built environment whether this is at home, at work or at a broader urban scale. He is a specialist in micro-generation technologies including solar thermal, photo-voltaics, micro-wind and micro-CHP (see www.energy.soton.ac.uk). Current major research projects span Energy for Development (rural electrification in Africa), future urban environments (liveablecities) and household energy use (energy and community, intelligent agents, energy and census data).He is the Principle Investigator of APERIO, an EPSRC funded study looking into the use of cameras for facade management in non-domestic buildings. He is the Director of Programmes for postgraduate taught energy, overseeing the (i) MSc Energy and Sustainability, and (ii) MSc Sustainable Energy Technologies programmes. He is an Associate Editor of the IET Renewable Power Generation Journal and an energy based research assessor for several national funding agencies. He specialises in energy in the built environment, where he teaches modules related to (i) energy performance assessment, (ii) climate change and settlements, (iii) energy resources and (iv) bioclimatic design. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://www.wincafesci.org.uk/ |
Description | Survey and debate |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | A survey (questionnaire) was conducted on public common perception of energy waste in the workplace. Interestingly, it was found that most of the participants they do not associate the heat losses through windows left open with energy waste. Members of the APERIO team have discussed the results of the survey and the methodology used for the detection of the open windows with colleagues, building managers, organisational partners and members of the public. A leaflet/summary has been circulated to attract attention on the issue of heat waste and on the aims of the APERIO project. In some cases the leaflet had the from of "Participant information sheet". The response has been encouraging with more than 100 people including administrative staff, postgraduate students and academics agreeing to participate in the APERIO study and learn more information. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |