TR208: Workflow and Resources for Facility Operations Analysis

Commercial building facility managers buildings typically lack standard workflows and contextual data required to identify and analyze systems with potential for energy or performance improvement. This paper presents a six-step workflow for graphical analysis of performance data from large commercial facilities. The workflow was developed over three years and applied by Stanford graduate students with little previous energy or building operations background. The students identified many examples of appropriate and anomalous Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system behavior when applying the workflow on tow mid-size multi-function commercial buildings. Specifically, they plotted and interpreted energy system performance data from a Building Management System (BMS), classified individual time segments of the measured data as consistent, partially inconsistent or inconsistent with functional intent, and then reported the data and assessments with graphics and summary tables.

The motivation for this work is the lack in practice of effective methods for building operators, occupants, designers or researchers to analyze and interpret the operating significance of the vast amount of energy performance data now sensed at high temporal frequency in modern buildings. Our successful analysis cases show that relatively untrained analysts can use the workflow to make substantive conclusions about operating modes by comparing measured performance data with system functional intent. The results suggest that, when applied effectively, the new proposed process will lead to reduced energy consumption and provide organizational benefit in terms of reduced utility bills.