REVIEWING PUBLIC DISPLAY UNITS FOR SOLAR ENERGY INFORMATION IN BUILDINGS

Abstract

Worldwide popularity in solar energy prompted Singapore to advocate use of solar energy. The government encouraged installing photovoltaic (PV) systems as part of the effort to reduce carbon emission as well as electrical bills. However, actual implementation is often discouraged due to high initial costs and long payback years. To maintain the system, solar monitoring is crucial as it identifies faults. The gathered data could be used to educate the public on benefits of PV systems. This can be done through public displays, commonly known as Public Display Units (PDUs). This paper attempts to review the effectiveness of these PDUs. The hypothesis is that the public's understanding of presented data is hindered by the display of raw technical information. To increase the usefulness of these PDUs to the public, minimizing technical data and promoting the interactivity of the current PDUs should be done. To test this hypothesis, three local buildings equipped with PDUs, Tampines Grande 7&9, Zero-Energy Building at BCA, and German European School Singapore, will be studied. The PDUs are reviewed using two approaches: (1) Personal reviews on the three different PDUs, with background research, visits to the respective buildings and interviews with facility managers to find out the intended purposes, target groups, contents and general layout of the PDUs. (2) Gathering feedback by asking questions and formulating queries into a survey. Students with varied technical background were selected to gather their expectations of PDUs and assess the usefulness and understanding of the information shown. The paper will conclude that data-loaded PDUs for are not preferred by the public and guidelines will be provided for further improvements.