Award Abstract # 1230751
SEP Collaborative: A Unified Framework for Sustainability in Buildings through Human Mediation

NSF Org: CNS
Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM
Initial Amendment Date: September 8, 2012
Latest Amendment Date: August 4, 2013
Award Number: 1230751
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: David Corman
CNS
 Division Of Computer and Network Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: September 15, 2012
End Date: August 31, 2017 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $1,230,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,230,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2012 = $1,115,000.00
FY 2013 = $115,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Suman Banerjee (Principal Investigator)
    suman@cs.wisc.edu
  • Giri Venkataramanan (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Carol Menassa (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Nancy Wong (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Wisconsin-Madison
21 N PARK ST STE 6301
MADISON
WI  US  53715-1218
(608)262-3822
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: University of Wisconsin-Madison
21 North Park Street Suite 6401
Madison
WI  US  53715-1218
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): LCLSJAGTNZQ7
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Special Projects - CNS,
Sustainable Energy Pathways
Primary Program Source: 01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1714, 8026
Program Element Code(s): 171400, 802600
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

The NSF Sustainable Energy pathways (SEP) Program, under the umbrella of the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative, will support the research program of Prof. Suman Banerjee and co-workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Prof. Sandipan Mishra and co-workers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The project takes a holistic approach to develop a framework for unified control of commercial and institutional buildings that reduces overall energy consumption through human mediation. The framework consists of multiple components: sensor networks deployed in buildings that will monitor and measure various parameters, e.g., energy, lighting, temperature, humidity, etc. that lead to efficient models; software components that allow human occupants to interact and provide feedback; and actuation outcomes that allow control of building components, such as heating, cooling, airflow and lighting sub-systems and optimize these controls jointly. The novel aspect of this effort is that it combines the following elements in the feedback control of building energy systems: (i) Forecasting of external variables such as energy pricing, energy demand, and weather, as can be determined from the smart grid or the web; (ii) Predicting internal variables such as occupancy, user comfort preferences, and state variables as obtained from predictive dynamic models; (iii) Extracting and then exploiting pattern repetition (daily, weekly, and yearly cycles in temperature, occupancy, usage etc.) in a computationally efficient fashion, an (iv) Incorporating human and psychological factors in the model, by obtaining and processing human-in-the-loop feedback effectively. Through the design of the right human-machine interfaces, creating appropriate incentives for human participation, effective feedback collection, and integrated processing of sensory measurements (obtained from an in-building sensing network) and human inputs, the project aims at providing a by-demand comfort level that is mediated by end-users through their personal communication "apps". This approach differs significantly from the current research and practices of modeling, controlling and optimizing building energy sub-systems in isolation, and providing by-default comfort level everywhere in the building independent of occupancy level and demand level.

The project explores techniques that can provide major savings in energy consumption in commercial and institutional buildings leading towards a more sustainable design. The educational component of the project includes a laboratory-based curriculum which includes a cross-disciplinary capstone course, "Smart Energy Laboratory", suitable enhancements to existing courses, and co-development of new campus-wide sustainability certificate programs. Further, multiple campus dormitories and institutional buildings are being incorporated as "living laboratories," thus educating their occupants about green consumption practices. Other aspects of the project provide interactions with local high schools as well as related industry.

A significant fraction of energy consumption in the modern world is within buildings. This project is focused on the development of an intelligent control system to manage energy consumption of buildings by actively incorporating human mediation in this process. The unique aspect of this project includes mechanisms by which multiple tenants of a commercial building can participate in the energy management process and allow the various control and actuation functions to efficiently meet their collective needs. The goal is to develop a blueprint for a more sustainable design of buildings. In addition to the significant impact on energy efficiency and sufficiency of next-generation buildings, the techniques being developed here also have transformative impact on sustainability research and sustainable technologies as a whole.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Azar, E. and Menassa, C. "A Framework to Evaluate Energy Saving Potential from Occupancy Interventions in Typical US Commercial Buildings." Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. , v.NA , 2013 , p.TBD
Saswati Sarkar, M. H. R. Khouzani, Koushik Kar "Optimal Routing and Scheduling in Multihop Wireless Renewable Energy Networks" IEEE Trans. Automatic Control , v.58 , 2013 , p.1792-1798
Zhang, S. and Phillips, N. and Balikian, R. and Venkataramanan, G. and Morales, A. "Many Hands Together Make a Home" Progressive Planning , v.198 , 2013 , p.36-39

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The project aims to achieve the ideal of a sustainable building through a holistic approach and addresses multiple dimensions of building controls: heating and cooling, air flow, energy storage and use, lighting controls, etc., especially focusing on multi-tenant (commercial) buildings, by exploring different methods of human mediation to accommodate diverse “third party” occupants with potentially conflicting comfort and consumption goals. 

The project was conducted by a cross-disciplinary team of PIs across two institutions (UW and RPI), with expertise ranging from electrical power and alternative energy systems, airflow/HVAC operation and controls, wireless communications, sensor networking, network modeling and optimization feedback and predictive control, human/consumer behavior surveying and modeling, and occupant energy use characterization.

The project developed a number of practical technologies that provide end-users easy way to reduce energy footprint of buildings. Examples include (i) a distributed sensing and actuation platform that measures temperature, humidity, and other sensor parameters in a home, and based on human input, optimizes the settings of vents and heating elements in the home to reduce energy consumption while maintaining human comfort; (ii) a water management system for homes which tracks water and salt consumption (used to reduce water hardness) in the homes and provides methods by which consumption can be carefully managed and reduced; and (iii) a mobile app that increases human consciousness of their carbon footprint broadly.

Through these and other examples the project provides a generalizable framework for management of various resources consumed by humans inside buildings, often through explicit and meaningful engagement of the human occupants.

 


Last Modified: 04/09/2018
Modified by: Suman Banerjee

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