Metode for sanntids brukerevaluering av inneklima i Smarte Bygg

Investment and maintenance costs for technical facilities in buildings have increased significantly over the past 15 years. This in order to achieve lower energy consumption, greater adaptability and an indoor climate that meets the standardized requirements. Nevertheless, it is known that complex plants often lead to higher energy consumption and lower flexibility than what is assumed, and do we really know if the user is happy with the indoor climate - even if it is within quantified parameters? Indoor climate research on perceived comfort is inconsistent, and evidence has been found that cultural and psychological factors play an important part in influencing what physical conditions we experience as acceptable. More direct and systematic information about the user's satisfaction in real-world buildings can provide a new basis for choosing the right solutions for building climatization. With new technology such as small digital sensors, smartphones and new analytical forms (Big Data, etc.), new data capture opportunities more directly targeted at the user's perception of the indoor climate are possible. The user's ability to influence his own climate can alter his expectations and demands for the indoor climate, and the physical limits for what is considered acceptable may be changed. Collected and systematized information about users subjective assessments from a number of real buildings will contribute to new knowledge of indoor climate, which can give new perspectives on indoor climate. Furthermore, this information, in real time, will allow to control and automate buildings in a new way, where the user's subjective satisfaction with the indoor climate can be used as a direct control parameter. The purpose of the project is to find knowledge and solutions for gathering key data on the building's indoor climate and the user's experience of this in a non-intrusive way, and to validate the accuracy of this information. The project achieved the following results: 1. Showed through theoretical study and inductive reasoning that continuous subjective occupant feedback (CSOF) in buildings has great potential to enable integrated / holistic design solutions and to reduce the performance gap for energy, indoor climate, maintenance costs, user satisfaction and operating costs. 2. Presented a hierarchical framework for the organization of occupant centric data (OCD) from buildings based on the relationship between collected data and the human sensory apparatus. The framework makes it possible to characterize the information content of the collected OCD data from various sources. 3. Overview and analysis of existing CSOF systems in the research literature by literature study of CSOF systems. Further design of a cheap, non-intrusive and user-friendly CSOF system that collects data on 3 levels: Indoor climate (IC) satisfaction smiley face kiosk, IC complaints and personal control of a personal heater mounted under the desk. 4. User experiences and results from experiments with the system in field tests in 5 office buildings in Norway and California. The experiments were performed as blind tests on real office users. In addition to tests of the system surveys and focus group interviews were conducted. In some buildings the indoor temperature was changed to provoke feedback. The results showed that the system was taken into use by the users and collected meaningful data. There was a big difference in how the different systems were used. The system that was connected to a heater and gave the user an immediate response was by far the most frequently used. Solutions based on smartphones were less frequently used, despite the fact that it was also connected to a heater. The publicly available smiley face kiosk was also frequently used, but users used it in very different ways. The difference between buildings was also large. This information also had a lower value, as one does not know the user identity at each feedback. 5. Validity and accuracy of CSOF data from the experiments were analyzed through comparison with data from surveys and physical measurements in the premises (temperature). The results showed that the smiley face kiosk has a significant bias compared to surveys due to the fact that those who are dissatisfied vote more often than those who are neutral or satisfied. This effect is variable between buildings. Complaints collected through the same kiosk have smaller biases and can be used for control and tuning of buildings. The solution showed that it could register dissatisfaction among users with changes in temperature that were not predicted by a classic thermal comfort model. A correlation was found at the individual level between the frequency of use of the heater and the perceived thermal indoor climate, which was reported in the survey. Users who used the heater a lot would also report that they were cold in the survey.

Hopefully, the knowledge generated in this PhD will contribute to a shift in the way we design and operate our buildings. Rather than creating complex buildings relying on physical measures to ensure satisfied occupants, we will create simpler and robust buildings that interact with and put responsibility on the occupants. At Skanska Norway, the findings from this thesis will be applied in a commercial setting for building tuning during the trial operation of a new building. They will also be used for satisfaction monitoring in buildings which use unorthodox HVAC solutions. In a longer perspective we hope to introduce non-intrusive solutions for continuous subjective occupant feedback as a supplemental method for indoor climate control in future high-performance buildings

I Byggsektoren har man ikke kommet særlig langt i å kunne høste informasjon fra brukerens interaksjon med produktet. Bygget designes etter på forhånd gitte krav som er basert på delvis utdatert og mangelfullt grunnlag. Videre legges det ikke opp til noe helhetlig system for tilbakemelding og oppfølging av brukerens opplevelse. I yrkesbygg kan brukerne kontakte driftstekniker pr telefon eller epost og melde inn klager. Tilbakemeldingene følges gjerne ikke opp på en systematisk måte. Ved design av neste bygg legges sjelden brukererfaringene fra forrige bygg til grunn. Investerings- og driftskostnadene for tekniske anlegg i bygg har økt betydelig de siste 15 årene. Dette for å oppnå lavere energiforbruk, større tilpasningsevne og et inneklima som tilfredsstiller strenge tallfestede krav. Likevel er det kjent at kompliserte anlegg ofte fører til høyere energibruk og lavere fleksibilitet enn forutsatt, og vet vi egentlig om brukeren er fornøyd med inneklimaet, selv om det er innenfor tallfestede parametere? Mer direkte og systematisert informasjon om brukerens tilfredshet vil skape et langt bedre underlag for å velge riktige løsninger for klimatisering av bygg. Med ny teknologi som små digitale sensorer, smarttelefoner og nye analyseformer (Big Data, m.m) kommer nye muligheter for datafangst som er mer direkte rettet mot brukerens oppfattelse av inneklimaet i bygg. Videre kan denne informasjonen, i sanntid, gjøre det mulig å styre og automatisere bygg på en ny måte, der brukerens fornøydhet kan brukes som styringsparameter framfor eller i tillegg til indirekte indikatorer som temperatur eller CO2 nivå. I tillegg kan kunnskapen i fremtiden benyttes til å utvikle nye enklere og rimeligere klimatiseringssystemer med tekniske løsninger som bedre svarer på brukerens behov. Hensikten med oppgaven er å finne løsninger for å samle sentrale data om byggets inneklima og brukerens opplevelse av dette for igjen å benytte dette til styring av inneklimaet.