Joules: Establishing the Nexus of Human Comfort and Sustainability in Work Environments
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- After researching office spaces, specifically coworking environments where tenants move around the workspace, we found that there was a two pronged issue we needed to address: Building tenants expressed that they were often uncomfortable in their offices: their spaces were too hot or too cold, the lighting was inadequate, or they wished to have natural lighting. Many people therefore sought out ways to become more comfortable by bringing in desk fans or heated blankets or by opening windows and changing the thermostat. Building managers aimed to drive down energy costs by varying the building temperature in accordance with the outside weather conditions, but building tenants would alter their environments to adjust the indoor climate, and reduce said efficiencies. We recognized that in order to solve both issues, the building manager and tenants must work together. After identifying this problem space, we performed needfinding that focused on coworking spaces, coworking-space users, and building managers. We found that building office trends, both pre- and post- COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to move towards coworking and shared working spaces. In fact, coworking spaces are expected to be 30% of the market and shared working spaces are expected to grow to 50%. This trend will make it more likely that employees will be able to move around their offices rather than be stuck in an uncomfortable seating location. With this newfound flexibility, there is a possibility to foster movement within the office. The fact that mobility is becoming more commonplace in the office has raised the question of how we might guide users to save energy in coworking spaces without compromising their comfort? That’s where Joules comes in. Joules is a multifaceted IoT system that focuses on both providing transparency between office tenants and their workspace environment and decreasing the energy inefficiencies in how tenants operate buildings. Joules operates with two central components. The first component of Joules is physical sensor boxes that are placed around the workspace. These sensor boxes communicate real time data measurements of temperature, humidity, light, and carbon dioxide concentration wirelessly via MQTT. The second component of Joules is the coworking space booking platform, which visualizes the data from the sensor boxes in the form of a “comfort map.” The software system not only uses the data to recommend seating locations that fit a user’s preferences, but also provides these comfort maps to create the workplace environment transparency that will increase user comfort. The website houses user logins with stored preference data, a history of previous office visits/workplace environment data, and the booking system allows users to reserve a workspace in the coworking office. Joules saves energy by eliminating inefficiencies caused by individuals altering their microclimates and also by incentivizing users to reserve workspaces that are more energy efficient. The more Joules encourages users to work in these eco-zones, the more eco-zones the office building manager can make, and the more energy the office building as a whole can save. By creating a solution that fosters collaboration between users and tenants, studies show that 30% more energy can be saved as building managers and tenants adopt energy saving practices. Joules addresses both of the issues presented earlier by increasing transparency between tenants and work environments, increasing communication between tenant climate desires and the building manager, and encouraging users to make sustainable choices.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Callinan, Christine |
|---|---|
| Author | Chi, Amy |
| Author | Chung, Jinho |
| Author | Niffenegger, James |
| Author | Woodhead, Dylan |
| Author | Backmeister, Hannah |
| Author | Höfler, Jan |
| Author | Holzmeister, Sophia |
| Author | Zivkovic, Teodora |
| Advisor | Leifer, Larry |
| Advisor | Cutkosky, Mark |
| Advisor | Toye, George |
| Advisor | Milne, Andrew |
| Advisor | Alexandraki, Eleni |
| Advisor | Rostamzadeh, Sepehr |
| Advisor | Redlein, Alexander |
| Advisor | Thrainer, Lisa |
| Sponsor | Simacek |
| Sponsor | Immofinanz |
| Sponsor | SAP |
| Sponsor | ÖSW |
Subjects
| Subject | Product Design |
|---|---|
| Subject | Mechanical Engineering |
| Subject | Comfort |
| Subject | Energy Efficiency |
| Subject | Office |
| Genre | Student project report |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Callinan, Christine; Chi, Amy; Chung, Jinho; Niffenegger, James; Woodhead, Dylan; Backmeister, Hannah; Höfler, Jan; Holzmeister, Sophia; Zivkovic, Teodora. (2021). Joules: Establishing the Nexus of Human Comfort and Sustainability in Work Environments. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/jf186fx7231
Collection
ME310 Project Based Engineering Design
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksContact information
- Contact
- engreference@stanford.edu
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...