ASHRAE Journal - February 2020 - 71

COLUMN IEQ APPLICATIONS

efﬁciency opportunities and equipment needed to
address energy use in ofﬁce spaces (Krishnanand et
al., 2018). In this building, each desk is ﬁtted with six
plug load devices, which are essentially power sockets
equipped with energy metering capabilities: smart
plugs to control and monitor energy consumption
(Figures 1 and 3). Occupants can visualize their own
energy utilization behavior and schedule when to turn
power on and off. The facility manager can also analyze
energy consumption patterns across occupants, and
encourage behavior to reduce energy consumption
without effecting their day to day work and productivity
(Ratliff et al., 2014).
Presently, buildings do not take into consideration
occupant's preference. Despite low levels of satisfaction from occupants (Frontczak et al., 2012), they often
receive the same levels of thermal conditions, air quality
and lighting. In this building, the UPSS software is able
to solicit occupant's non-weighted preference in terms
of air temperature, air movement and lighting that is
processed by the control layer (Figure 3). The control
algorithms will then tweak the system to adapt to their
needs, thus increasing the likelihood of a high level of
satisfaction while simultaneously minimizing energy
use.

satisfaction aspects of indoor environmental quality and building
design. Indoor Air. 22(2):119-31.
Krishnanand KR, Duc Chinh J, Gupta M, Panda SK, Spanos CJ.
2018. Context-aware plug-load identiﬁcation towards enhanced
energy efﬁciency in the built environment. 2018 IEEE International
Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2018
IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC /
I&CPS Europe), Palermo. 1-6.
Lipczynska, A., S. Schiavon, and L. Graham. 2018. Thermal
comfort and self-reported productivity in an ofﬁce with ceiling fans
in the tropics. Building and Environment, 135, 202-212
Ratliff LJ, Jin M, Konstantakopoulos IC, Spanos C, Sastry
SS. 2014. Social game for building energy efﬁciency: incentive
design. In Proceedings of the IEEE Annual Allerton Conference on
Communication, Control, and Computing, Monticello, IL, USA, 30
September-3 October. 1011-1018.
Schiavon S, Yang B, Donner Y, Chang VW, Nazaroff WW. 2017.
Thermal comfort, perceived air quality, and cognitive performance
when personally controlled air movement is used by tropically
acclimatized persons. Indoor Air, 27(3):690-702
Witkopf S. 2015. Tropical net zero. High Performance Buildings.
Spring. 44-54. http://www.hpbmagazine.org/attachments/
article/12186/15S-Zero-Energy-Building-BCA-Academy-Singapore.
PDF
Zou H, Jin M, Jiang H, Xie L, Spanos C. 2017. WinIPS: WiFi-based
non-intrusive indoor system with online radio map construction
and adaptation, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

Summary
A typical ofﬁce in Singapore uses 221 kWh/m2 in a year
with most of this energy attributed to cooling. The ZEB
currently has an overall energy surplus of an average of
9% per year cumulatively. The SinBerBEST technologies
that have been installed can improve energy efﬁciency
of the ZEB at both the occupant and building level. The
overall energy efﬁciency is expected to increase by at
least 20% with high levels of occupant satisfaction.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge this research
collaboration with the Building and Construction
Authority, Singapore, funded under the National
Research Foundation of Singapore.

References
Chao CYH, Hu J. 2004. Development of a dual-mode demand
control ventilation strategy for indoor air quality control and
energy saving. Building and Environment, 39, 385-397.
Frontczak M, Schiavon S, Goins J, Arens E, Zhang H, Wargocki P.
2012. Quantitative relationships between occupant satisfaction and
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ASHRAE Journal - February 2020

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