105 research outputs found
An intelligent hot-desking model harnessing the power of occupancy sensing
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to harness occupancy sensing in a commercial hot-desking environment. Hot-desking is a method of office resource management designed to reduce the real estate costs of professional practices. However, the shortcoming is often in the suitability and appropriateness of allocated work environments. The Internet of Things could produce new data sets in the office at a resolution, speed and validity of which that they could be factored into desk-allocation, distributing seats based on appropriate noise levels, stay length, equipment requirements, previous presence and proximity to others working on the same project, among many others.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilises primary data from a commercial office environment in Central London (numerical building system data and semi-structured interviews) to feed a discrete events simulator. To test the hypothesis, the authors look at the potential for intelligent hot-desking to use âwork typeâ data to improve the distribution of individuals in the office, increasing productivity through the creation of positive âwork type environmentsâ â where those working on specific tasks perform better when grouped with others doing the same task. The simulation runs for a typical work day, and the authors compare the intelligent hot-desking arrangement to a base case.
Findings
The study shows that sensor data can be used for desk allocation in a hot-desking environment utilising activity-based working, with results that outweigh the costs of occupancy detection. The authors are not only able to optimise desk utilisation based on quality occupancy data but also demonstrate how overall productivity increases as individuals are allocated desks of their preference as much as possible among other enabling optimisations that can be applied. Moreover, the authors explore how an increase in occupancy data collection in the private sector could have key advantages for the business as an organization and the city as a whole.
Research limitations/implications
The research explores only one possible incarnation of intelligent hot-desking, and the authors presume that all data have already been collected, and while not insurmountable, they do not discuss the technical or cultural difficulties to this end. Furthermore, final examination of the productivity benefit â because of the difficulty in defining and measuring the concept â is exploratory rather than definitive. This research suggests that not only human-centric smart building research should be prioritised over energy or space-based themes but also large-scale private sector collection of occupancy data may be imminent, and its potential should be examined.
Practical implications
Findings strongly suggest that the hot-desking may cost more in lost productivity than it gains in reduced rental costs and as such many commercial offices should revaluate the transition, particularly with a view to facilitate intelligent hot-desking. Companies should begin to think strategically about the wider benefits of collecting occupancy data across their real estate portfolio, rather than reviewing use cases in silos. Finally, cities should consider scenarios of widespread collection of occupancy data in the private sector, examining the value these data have to city systems such as transport, and how the city might procure it for these ends.
Social implications
This paper raises positive and negative social concerns. The value in occupancy data suggested herein, bringing with it the implication it should be collected en mass, has a noted concern that this brings privacy concerns. As such, policy and regulation should heed that current standards should be reviewed to ensure they are sufficient to protect those in offices from being unfairly discriminated, spied or exploited through occupancy data. However, the improved use of occupancy data improving workplaces could indeed make them more enjoyable places to work, and have the potential to become a staple in companyâs corporate social responsibility policies.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need for better understanding the specific uses of occupancy data in the smart building mantra. Several sources suggest the current research focus on energy and rental costs is misguided when the holistic cost of an office is considered, and concepts related to staff â although less understood â may have an order of magnitude bigger impact. This research supports this hypothesis through the example of intelligent hot-desking. The value of this paper lies in redirecting industry and research towards the considering occupancy data in smart building uses cases including â but not limited toâ intelligent hot-desking.
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Smart workplaces: a system proposal for stress management
Over the past last decades of contemporary society, workplaces
have become the primary source of many health issues, leading
to mental problems such as stress, depression, and anxiety.
Among the others, environmental aspects have shown to be the
causes of stress, illness, and lack of productivity. With the arrival
of new technologies, especially in the smart workplaces field,
most studies have focused on investigating the building energy
efficiency models and human thermal comfort. However, little has
been applied to occupantsâ stress recognition and well-being
overall. Due to this fact, this present study aims to propose a
stress management solution for an interactive design system that
allows the adapting of comfortable environmental conditions
according to the user preferences by measuring in real-time the
environmental and biological characteristics, thereby helping to
prevent stress, as well as to enable users to cope stress when
being stressed. The secondary objective will focus on evaluating
one part of the system: the mobile application. The proposed
system uses several usability methods to identify usersâ needs,
behavior, and expectations from the user-centered design
approach. Applied methods, such as User Research, Card
Sorting, and Expert Review, allowed us to evaluate the design
system according to Heuristics Analysis, resulting in improved
usability of interfaces and experience. The study presents the
research results, the design interface, and usability tests.
According to the User Research results, temperature and noise
are the most common environmental stressors among the users
causing stress and uncomfortable conditions to work in, and the
preference for physical activities over the digital solutions for
coping with stress. Additionally, the System Usability Scale (SUS)
results identified that the systemâs usability was measured as
âexcellentâ and âacceptableâ with a final score of 88 points out of
the 100. It is expected that these conclusions can contribute to
future investigations in the smart workplaces study field and their
interaction with the people placed there.Nas Ășltimas dĂ©cadas da sociedade contemporĂąnea, o local de
trabalho tem se tornado principal fonte de muitos problemas de
saĂșde mental, como o stress, depressĂŁo e ansiedade. Os aspetos
ambientais tĂȘm se revelado como as causas de stress, doenças,
falta de produtividade, entre outros. Atualmente, com a chegada de
novas tecnologias, principalmente na ĂĄrea de locais de trabalho
inteligentes, a maioria dos estudos tem se concentrado na
investigação de modelos de eficiĂȘncia energĂ©tica de edifĂcios e
conforto térmico humano. No entanto, pouco foi aplicado ao
reconhecimento do stress dos ocupantes e ao bem-estar geral das
pessoas. Diante disso, o objetivo principal Ă© propor um sistema de
design de gestĂŁo do stress para um sistema de design interativo que
permita adaptar as condiçÔes ambientais de acordo com as
preferĂȘncias de utilizador, medindo em tempo real as caracterĂsticas
ambientais e biológicas, auxiliando assim na prevenção de stress,
bem como ajuda os utilizadores a lidar com o stress quando estĂŁo
sob o mesmo. O segundo objetivo Ă© desenhar e avaliar uma parte
do projeto â o protĂłtipo da aplicação mĂłvel atravĂ©s da realização
de testes de usabilidade. O sistema proposto resulta da abordagem
de design centrado no utilizador, utilizando diversos métodos de
usabilidade para identificar as necessidades, comportamentos e as
expectativas dos utilizadores. MĂ©todos aplicados, como Pesquisa de
UsuĂĄrio, Card Sorting e RevisĂŁo de Especialistas, permitiram avaliar
o sistema de design de acordo com a anĂĄlise heurĂstica, resultando
numa melhoria na usabilidade das interfaces e experiĂȘncia. O
estudo apresenta os resultados da pesquisa, a interface do design e
os testes de usabilidade. De acordo com os resultados de User
Research, a temperatura e o ruĂdo sĂŁo os stressores ambientais
mais comuns entre os utilizadores, causando stresse e condiçÔes
menos favorĂĄveis para trabalhar, igualmente existe uma preferĂȘncia
por atividades fĂsicas sobre as soluçÔes digitais na gestĂŁo do
stresse. Adicionalmente, os resultados de System Usability Scale
(SUS) identificaram a usabilidade do sistema de design como
âexcelenteâ e âaceitĂĄvelâ com pontuação final de 88 pontos em 100.
à esperado que essas conclusÔes possam contribuir para futuras
investigaçÔes no campo de estudo dos smart workplaces e sua
interação com os utilizadores
IoT-enabled Building Automation Systems: Challenges, Opportunities, and Case Studies in Energy Efficiency and user comfort
The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technology into building automation systems (BAS) has ushered in a new era of smart buildings, revolutionizing the way we design, manage, and inhabit built environments. This abstract provides a comprehensive exploration of IoT-enabled BAS, focusing on the challenges, opportunities, and case studies that shape their role in driving energy efficiency and enhancing user comfort. IoT-enabled BAS face numerous challenges that must be addressed to realize their full potential. These challenges include interoperability issues stemming from the diversity of IoT devices and protocols, concerns regarding data security and privacy, the scalability of IoT deployments to encompass large buildings or portfolios, the inherent complexity of IoT ecosystems, and the upfront costs associated with deployment and maintenance. Despite challenges, IoT-enabled BAS present significant opportunities for improving building performance and occupant well-being. By leveraging real-time data analytics, predictive algorithms, and automated controls, these systems can optimize energy use, personalize occupant comfort preferences, enable remote monitoring and management, facilitate predictive maintenance strategies, and contribute to sustainability goals through efficient resource utilization
Applying social practice theory to contemporary working practices in sustainable office buildings: Implications for the performance gap
The UK Government has committed to an 80% reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) against 1990 levels by 2050. Widening understandings of the environmental impact of the built environment have fuelled debates around how the environmental performance of buildings should be approached. The UK non-domestic building sector presents a significant challenge within the field of environmental performance of buildings and an imperative to improve performance has led to the emergence of green or sustainable building as a long-term solution.Sustainably designed buildings are increasingly present within the non-domestic building sector, however issues of discrepancy between environmental performance design targets, such as energy and water use, and actual âin-useâ performance have been widely reported and researched. The difference between predicted and operational building performance is termed the âperformance gapâ. Narrowing the performance gap is not limited to addressing technological, physical and economic aspects associated with design, but extends to social and psychological considerations. This research focuses on the performance gap with particular reference to building occupants and operational energy use. The dominant approaches to understanding the role of building occupants in the performance gap are situated within the disciplines of economics and psychology. Individuals are placed at the centre of analysis with a focus on changing behaviour. This research reframes the approach to understanding occupants, applying sociological theories of social practice and shifting focus from individuals to the collective actions or âpracticesâ occupants are engaged in. Thus, the focus of the research is not evaluating occupant behaviour as an approach to understand the impact of office building occupants on the performance gap, but evaluating the impact of the social practices office workers are engaged in within office buildings; the contemporary working practices. This research provides a conceptualisation of contemporary working practices that underpin the empirical study. Contemporary working practices in three BREEAM Excellent certified office buildings are then evaluated through the lens of social practice theory and implications for energy use and the performance gap are appraised. Research findings present novel insights into contemporary working practices and their implications for energy use, which may inform future office design and improve the efficiency of current sustainably designed office buildings. Implications for reframing the analysis of occupants in the performance gap are drawn out, and important subtleties of practice are revealed which impact on design for contemporary working. Issues of unpredictability of occupancy, multiple device use, shifts in peak energy use, design for functionality, handover and commissioning, standards and norms and cultural shifts emerge from this research. The conceptualised working practices underpinning this research form a key contribution to the body of knowledge around the performance gap. This research challenges established approaches to the performance gap in respect of occupants and demonstrates that understandings of webs of interlocking practices provides deeper and broader insights into how ways of living and working may be rendered more sustainable. The research provides new knowledge on how social practice theory can be applied to understand the contemporary working practices occupants are engaged in within sustainably designed office buildings, and the implications of these practices for energy use and the performance gap
Covid-19 : Contact/Call Centre Workers in Scotland
This report analyses the responses of 510 contact centre workers in Scotland and the hazards they face from exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and the disease Covid19. Extensive evidence of serious dangers, including no or inadequate social distancing, face-to-face contact, hotdesking, problems with HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems. The report combines primary evidence with a critical review of including an extensive literature consisting of reports, academic articles, practitioner and government guidance. It concludes with an extended discussion section exploring the implications, Finally, a recommendations' chapter identifies important steps that should be taken to ensure contact workers' safety
The design of an indirect method for the human presence monitoring in the intelligent building
This article describes the design and verification of the indirect method of predicting the course of CO2 concentration (ppm) from the measured temperature variables Tindoor (degrees C) and the relative humidity rH(indoor) (%) and the temperature T-outdoor (degrees C) using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with the Bayesian Regulation Method (BRM) for monitoring the presence of people in the individual premises in the Intelligent Administrative Building (IAB) using the PI System SW Tool (PI-Plant Information enterprise information system). The CA (Correlation Analysis), the MSE (Root Mean Squared Error) and the DTW (Dynamic Time Warping) criteria were used to verify and classify the results obtained. Within the proposed method, the LMS adaptive filter algorithm was used to remove the noise of the resulting predicted course. In order to verify the method, two long-term experiments were performed, specifically from February 1 to February 28, 2015, from June 1 to June 28, 2015 and from February 8 to February 14, 2015. For the best results of the trained ANN BRM within the prediction of CO2, the correlation coefficient R for the proposed method was up to 92%. The verification of the proposed method confirmed the possibility to use the presence of people of the monitored IAB premises for monitoring. The designed indirect method of CO2 prediction has potential for reducing the investment and operating costs of the IAB in relation to the reduction of the number of implemented sensors in the IAB within the process of management of operational and technical functions in the IAB. The article also describes the design and implementation of the FEIVISUAL visualization application for mobile devices, which monitors the technological processes in the IAB. This application is optimized for Android devices and is platform independent. The application requires implementation of an application server that communicates with the data server and the application developed. The data of the application developed is obtained from the data storage of the PI System via a PI Web REST API (Application Programming Integration) client.Web of Science8art. no. 2
Surprising results from a Post Occupancy Evaluation of the way internal roller blinds impact perceptions of visual discomfort
Blinds and shutters are one of the few products in the built environment that affect perceptions of visual and thermal comfort. However, in general, internal roller blinds are more frequently installed in UK offices to improve visual comfort as opposed to thermal comfort. With the increased frequency in warmer weather events resulting from climate change it is likely that blinds will be extended more frequently to improve thermal comfort as well as reducing perceptions of glare and visual strain. When internal shading products are extended it is assumed that glare and visual strain will no longer be experienced. However, when conducting a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) into whether the position of roller blinds (either fully extended or fully open) affected perceptions of glare, a greater level of visual discomfort (specifically glare) was experienced by occupants when shading products were closed. Distributions of light around the task area play an important role in improving visual comfort when occupants are carrying out desk-based activities yet moveable shading is frequently excluded from daylight simulation assessments of visual comfort. The closure of blinds can affect the distribution of daylight within a space and thus occupants can perceive glare issues from other internal sources of light. This research suggests that the deployment of shading products should be considered in the assessment and predictions of internal lighting conditions to provide lighting designers with a more holistic view of visual comfort throughout the year. Furthermore, in POE it would be beneficial to ask occupants what they believe the glare source to be
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