A STUDY OF IEQ PARAMETERS IN AN OFFICE BUILDING USING REAL-TIME INTERNET OF THINGS SENSORS

Abstract

In light of the rising notion of smart buildings, modern and advanced technology can be leveraged upon to transform existing properties into smart buildings and ensure they operate in a sustainable manner. One of such technologies will be via Internet of Things (IoT) smart building platforms. This encompass the use of interconnected sensors and seamless communication controls through cloud computing that captures loads of data regarding various parameters in a building simultaneously. There has been an increasing trend of applications of these IoT technologies in buildings to improve on existing building management systems. The data can be used to provide insights on energy usage based on parameters like temperature and light. Some other data that are captured can be used to evaluate the level of comfort of the occupants in the building such as humidity and noise. This suggests that these smart building solutions are able to assist organisations in achieving business benefits in terms of energy and cost savings and improving comfort level of occupants at the same time.

This paper presents the data analysis of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) parameters collected from an office building in the National University of Singapore (NUS) that aims to provide recommendations on energy optimisation in office buildings while ensuring that IEQ standards are met. The main aim of this paper is to assess and analyse the IEQ performance of the studied office building with the help of the analytics tools such as MYSQL, Tableau and Microsoft Excel. Objective measurement of the IEQ parameters was conducted with the use of IoT sensors, throughout a span of 9 weeks from 5 November 2018 to 6 January 2019. Results show that the each IEQ parameter performed differently across the weeks, days and zones in the office. Through this analysis, recommendations are proposed to optimise energy usage in the office without compromising on comfort level and budget limitations.