Technical Report - the key outlines

Here's a quick outline of the key aspects of my technical report:

1. Problem statement

An ideal BMS would be able to reduce HVAC consumption by adapting to the return and outdoor air temperature and improving the thermal comfort of the occupants and saving costs. However, the air conditioning systems in many current buildings are not able to adapt to the unpredictable weather and room temperature. This leads to high consumption of electricity. By implementing building management system, the return air temperature, flowrate, and humidity data can be used to modulate airflow and air temperature to attain thermal comfort and cost savings.

2 Problem solution

Through surveys, site visits and observation from the team, it is understood that the temperature of several seminar rooms falls below the typical human comfort levels during rainy days. Due to overcooling of the rooms, excessive energy was consumed.

To improve the thermal comfort of the building occupants in SIT@Dover’s campus, the team is proposing to implement a BMS after doing extensive research on the uses of the BMS and ACMV systems.

3 Benefits

The BMS would serve 3 main benefits, which are to reduce the building’s energy consumption, improve quality and productivity of the occupants.

3.1 Better Quality in Work Produced

The improved thermal comfort would raise the productivity of students, who are the main building occupants. Being in a thermally uncomfortable environment would require occupants to act and adapt to their comfort. With the increase in comfort levels, students will be able to produce better results and work quality as compared to when they are uncomfortable from being too hot or too cold. 

3.2 Reduce in Energy Consumption

Lastly, the BMS would also ensure that the room is cooled to an optimum temperature that does not utilise unnecessary energy. It makes use of various sensors and actuators to detect and control the infrastructure of the ACMV systems according to demand. This would save energy costs for the estate management as no excessive nor additional energy would be used to cool the room more than the optimal temperature to fulfil thermal comfort of the occupants. 

3.3 Enhanced Productivity

As the BMS improves on the thermal comfort by heating and cooling the air more efficiently and effectively, this leads to pleasant working conditions and better productivity from the workforce. With a timely, self-adjusting HVAC system based on the occupancy and temperature-based data, the indoor environment can provide comfort to the building occupants, leading to fewer sick days. 

4. Conclusion

Based on the research that was conducted so far, implementing the new BMS system could potentially achieve energy and cost savings in the long run as well as attaining maximum thermal comfort for the occupants who are mainly students. The system is meant to reduce energy usage to prevent the rooms from being over-cooled and under-cooled. While prioritising the thermal comfort of the users, the occupants would then be able to produce better quality and will be more efficient with their work. The new BMS system would also benefit the estate management and also building owners as they will be able to reduce the energy consumption of the building and also reduce unnecessary costs.