A STUDY OF THE ENERGY COCKPIT 2.0 PROJECT- USING VISUAL ANALYTICS TO ENHANCE SDE4 BUILDING

Abstract

The Energy Cockpit 2.0 Project is designed to enhance the building performance of the SDE4 building by creating an energy dashboard to inform users the energy performance and indoor air quality of the rooms within the building. The development of the dashboard is expected to educate users to increase their attention on building performance information. Users’ energy-wasting behaviours are expected to be influenced, and thus the energy efficiency of the SDE4 building can be enhanced.

From the literature review conducted, a research gap was identified. Most of the existing building energy information systems in the market are all designed to best serve facility managers and building industry field personnel. The building occupants and the general public have no access to building performance data, and thus they are not concerned about the performance of the buildings that they are staying in. However, the energy performance and indoor air quality of the building have huge impacts on occupants’ health and the environment. There is a need to raise the general public’s concern about the building performance information. The market gap identified proved that the development of the Energy Cockpit 2.0 Project is necessary and with high market potential.

This paper is designed to investigate on user’s experiences and the product effectiveness of the dashboard. The hypothesis to test for this research paper is “The development of the Energy Cockpit 2.0 dashboard will increase SDE4 occupants’ concerns on building performance and will influence their energy consumption habits.”

The research was separated into two parts, the first part is quantitative research which aimed to collect users’ feedback for the existing metrics, graphics, and interface design of the dashboard. The second part is qualitative research which aimed to test the effectiveness of the dashboard and to collect users suggestion for improvement.

The results of quantitative research show that the overall design of the dashboard had positive market responses, and the metrics and graphics used are accepted by the majority of the population. The qualitative research results show that the placement of the dashboard in SDE4 building is capable to increase most users’ attention on building energy efficiency and indoor air quality. But the effects on users’ behaviours greatly depends on the characteristics of people. The dashboard tends to have more impacts on the people who are willing to be more environmentally friendly by sacrificing their personal comforts and enjoyment. Feedback and suggestions for improvement from potential users were collected, and the recommendation was provided at the end of this paper. However, the research conducted in this paper has a limitation, the coverage and sample size are not big enough, which may lead to a biased or incorrect conclusion.

The research conducted in this paper provided evidence to prove that the hypothesis is correct and established as fact: The development of the Energy Cockpit 2.0 dashboard will truly increase SDE4 occupants' concern on building performance and influence their energy consumption habits to some extent. This paper provides valuable information to benefit the Energy Cockpit 2.0 Project. Users and the general public can be educated and reap benefits from this energy dashboard.