Research viewpoints by IRC: a system for improving building operations

The authors start with the premise that buildings do not perform as well in practice as anticipated at the design stage. Among the reasons for this are\ub7 improper equipment selection and installation,\ub7 lack of rigorous commissioning and proper maintenance, and\ub7 poor feedback on operational performance, including energy performance.And few tools are available to the on-site engineer to address these problems, the source of excess energy use and higher operations and maintenance costs. A related problem is that existing Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCSs) used to monitor building performance are becoming more and more complex and therefore difficult for some operators to understand. Besides, EMCSs have not only limited data collection, archival and visualization capabilities but also few techniques to extract relevant information from data. For that matter, most EMCSs do not include energy monitoring in their scope at all; thus, operators have neither feedback on the performance of key energy-consuming equipment nor diagnostic tools. That leaves them typically only with monthly utility bills to track how much energy is used. Obviously some automated diagnostics capability is needed to inform an operator when a problem or deviation from normal operation has occurred.Les auteurs se fondent sur la pr\ue9misse que la performance des b\ue2timents n?est pas aussi satisfaisante dans la pratique que ce qui est pr\ue9vu \ue0 l?\ue9tape de la conception. Parmi les raisons de cette divergence, notons la s\ue9lection et l?installation inad\ue9quates des \ue9quipements, les lacunes quant \ue0 la rigueur et \ue0 l?ad\ue9quation de la mise en service et de l?entretien, et l?insuffisance des r\ue9troactions fournies quant \ue0 la performance d?usage des b\ue2timents, y compris la performance \ue9conerg\ue9tique. En outre, il existe peu d?outils qui permettent \ue0 l?ing\ue9nieur sur place de faire face \ue0 ces questions, ainsi qu?\ue0 l?identification des sources de consommation d?\ue9nergie excessive et de co\ufbts d?exploitation et d?entretien plus \ue9lev\ue9s. Dans un ordre d?id\ue9es semblable, les m\ue9canismes de contr\uf4le de gestion de l?\ue9nergie (MCGE) existants qui sont utilis\ue9s aux fins de la surveillance de la performance des b\ue2timents gagnent en complexit\ue9, ce qui les rend peu conviviaux du point de vue de certains responsables d?exploitation. Par ailleurs, les MCGE non seulement ne procurent que des capacit\ue9s limit\ue9es en mati\ue8re de collecte de donn\ue9es, d?archivage et de repr\ue9sentation visuelle, mais ils offrent peu de techniques d?extraction de renseignements pertinents de ces bases de donn\ue9es. \uc0 cet \ue9gard, le champ d?action de la plupart des MCGE n?englobe pas le contr\uf4le de la consommation de l?\ue9nergie; ainsi, les responsables d?exploitation ne disposent ni de r\ue9troactions quant \ue0 la performance des \ue9quipements \ue9nergivores cl\ue9s ni d?outils de diagnostic. Ils en sont g\ue9n\ue9ralement r\ue9duits \ue0 consulter les factures mensuelles de chauffage/climatisation pour pouvoir suivre les tendances de la consommation d?\ue9nergie. Il appara\ueet donc nettement qu?il existe un besoin en mati\ue8re de capacit\ue9s de diagnostics automatis\ue9s visant \ue0 informer les responsables d?exploitation de l?apparition d?un probl\ue8me ou d?un \ue9cart quelconques par rapport \ue0 l?exploitation normale.NRC publication: N