Challenges in Getting Building Performance Monitoring Tools for Everyday Use: User Experiences with A New Tool. Buildings

Heikki Ihasalo, Sami Karjalainen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

There is a need for building performance monitoring because it is common that buildings do not perform as intended. A number of advanced tools for the purpose have been developed within the last tens of years. However, these tools have not been widely adopted in real use. A new tool presented here utilizes building automation data and transforms the data into a set of performance metrics, and is capable of visualizing building performance from energy, indoor conditions, and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to study the users’ perceptions of the use of tool. The research method was semi-structured interviews. Although the users were satisfied with the solution in general, it was not taken into operative use. The main challenges with the use of the solution were related to accessibility, trust, and management practices. The interviewees were struggling to manage with numerous information systems and therefore had problems in finding the solution and authenticating to it. All the interviewees did not fully trust the solution, since they did not entirely understand what the performance metrics meant or because the solution had limitations in assessing building performance. Management practices are needed to support the performance measurement philosophy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)222-243
JournalBuildings
Volume4
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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