ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - 22
TECHNICAL FEATURE
Interviews with Building Operators
How Occupants Affect
Building Operators'
Decision-Making
BY ZAKIA AFROZ, PH.D., STUDENT MEMBER ASHRAE; BRODIE W. HOBSON, STUDENT MEMBER ASHRAE; H. BURAK GUNAY, PH.D., P.ENG., ASSOCIATE MEMBER ASHRAE;
WILLIAM O'BRIEN, PH.D., P.ENG., ASSOCIATE MEMBER ASHRAE; MICHAEL KANE, PH.D., MEMBER ASHRAE
Building operators and facility and energy managers of large buildings make essential
operational decisions that affect energy and comfort performance. For example, they
decide on the hours of operation of an air-handling unit, default zone temperature
settings and outdoor airflow rates, largely based on assumptions about a building's occupancy and occupant preferences. This article reports the preliminary results of a larger
effort to understand the operational decision-making process of building operations staff.
We conducted interviews with building operators,
facility, and energy managers from different organizations. Despite the fact that some previous research studies used operator interviews (such as the International
Facility Management Association pilot survey on facility performance feedback1), our focus is primarily on
understanding operators' perceptions regarding occupancy and occupant behavior. Unlike previous work,
these interviews provide insights on how operations
staff handle uncertainties related to building use and
occupant expectations, as well as how they use emerging sensing technologies and data analytics solutions
that provide insights into occupancy and occupant preferences in their decision-making process.
Questionnaire, Participant Recruitment and Interview Process
The questionnaire presented in this article was developed in discussion with expert researchers participating in the International Energy Agency's Energy in
Buildings and Communities Programme Annex 79.
The interview consisted of 22 questions, incorporating a range of topics related to energy management
and occupant comfort. The interview started with some
basic questions, for instance, interviewees' official title,
Zakia Afroz, Ph.D., is a post doctoral fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brodie W. Hobson is a research assistant in the Building Performance
Research Centre, H. Burak Gunay, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and William O'Brien, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an associate professor for the Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering program at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON, Canada. Michael Kane, Ph.D., is an assistant professor
of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston.
22
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ASHRAE Journal - November 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - November 2020
Contents
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Cover1
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - 1
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Contents
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - 3
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - 4
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ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - November 2020 - Cover4
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