ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - 23

TECHNICAL FEATURE

their relevant experience/credentials; and ended with
questions to understand their views about occupant
comfort needs and motivations toward their operational
decisions. We also sought to identify the nontechnical
challenges building operators face in improving energy
efﬁciency in their facilities.
Interview participants were selected based on their
expertise and involvement in building operations and
facility management. Seventeen interviewees from ﬁve
different organizations participated.

FIGURE 1 Operations room for around 50 buildings. This is an example of a photo
submitted by a participant.

Building Information and Operational Details
The buildings managed by the interview participants
are mostly ofﬁce, institutional and multifamily residential buildings. The participants are responsible for managing between ﬁve and 160 buildings. These buildings
are diverse in nature, typically between new and 50 years
old. The buildings are either equipped with variable air
volume systems or constant air volume systems; the older
ones are pneumatically controlled, and the newer ones
use direct digital controls. Most of the operators of old
buildings noted that they suffer from insulation problems
as a result of the deterioration of the building envelope.
Also, they noted it is not often possible to provide users
with access to certain features such as adjusting the thermostat setpoint since these features are not compatible
with the old buildings' automation systems.
However, the positive side is that many of the interview participants were found to be motivated to implement energy-efﬁciency strategies in their buildings. The
use of district energy systems to reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions and the application of geoexchange
systems and heat recovery for heating and ventilation,
respectively, are some of the examples of energy-efﬁciency strategies being used in their managed buildings.
As part of the interview, participants were encouraged
to share facility management and building operationrelated photographs as well as pictures of dashboards
that visualize buildings' operational performance.
Figure 1 shows an exemplary building operations room
for around 50 buildings. This room encompasses realtime visualization facilities of the buildings' key performance indicators; a workstation for bench testing
devices, conﬁguring controllers, sensors, actuators; and
designated desk arrangements for the building automation system (BAS) operators and an energy metering technician. The BAS operators are responsible for

providing building energy and comfort-related operational decisions based on occupant schedule, occupant
complaint logs and weather conditions.

Traditional Decision-Making Processes
The traditional building operational decision-making
process involves uncertainties associated with building energy use and occupant comfort. To understand
how building operations staff tackles these uncertainties, they were asked to give opinions on the relevant
questionnaire items. For instance, they noted their own
personal demands for comfort and how this inﬂuences
their operational decisions. A few interview participants indicated that they do not want to impose their
personal comfort expectations on occupants; rather, the
main driver of their operational decisions is to improve
occupant comfort. In contrast, most of the participants
reported having a slight bias toward their personal
experience and being self-motivated to implement
energy-efﬁciency measures without compromising
occupant comfort.
The participants reported that occupants usually
make service calls when they feel uncomfortable with
the indoor environment. Additionally, the participants
stated that occupants tend to adapt their indoor environments to improve their comfort level by changing
their clothing levels; blocking the heating system; using
electric heaters, fans and portable air conditioners; and
delamping.
Interview participants reported restricting occupant
adaptation to the indoor environment to a certain
extent. They do this by either locking the windows or
thermostats, or at least limiting the controllability of
the thermostats to a maximum of 1°C - 2°C (2°F - 4°F).
One participant cautioned that occupants often keep the
N OVEM BER 2020

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ASHRAE Journal - November 2020

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