INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS

Introduction

Intelligent building (IB) is the future of our building industry. All new commercial buildings and
probably luxurious domestic buildings are designed with a common goal to become intelligent
buildings. However, the official definition of IB has not yet been standardised around the world.
In the USA, an IB is categorised by four basic elements, namely building structure, building
systems, building services and building management. In Europe, the emphasis is on information
technology and the genuine need of the user. In Singapore and China, it appears that the term
automation has been dominating with a great emphasis on high technology. It is our view that
a proper definition of IB should be based on users needs instead of the image of the building
itself. We have therefore developed a new method for defining and specifying IBs. The
requirements of users are categorised into eight key modules. All building systems and features
are summarised in terms of tens of elements. Selected elements are assigned to a particular key
area, i.e. module. Each type of building is then allocated certain key areas for detailed design.
Once the areas have been chosen, the elements will automatically be assigned for the consultants
to carry out detailed design works. This concept of definition has both advantages of
comprehensiveness and flexibility, hoping that it will be useful for the developments of IBs not
merely in Asia but also the whole world.

Definition

Intelligent building (IB) is the future of our building industry. All new commercial
buildings and probably luxurious domestic buildings are designed with a common goal
to become intelligent buildings.
However, the official definition of IB has not yet been standardised around the world.
In the USA, an IB is categorised by four basic elements, namely building structure,
building systems, building services and building management.
In Europe, the emphasis is on information technology and the genuine need of the user.
 In Singapore and China, it appears that the term automation has been dominating with
a great emphasis on high technology

LITERATURE REVIEW

It was mentioned by Coggan (2007) that in the early 1980s, trade magazines began running
stories on Intelligent Buildings. For instance, articles concerning mechanical systems had
been published especially issues on automation systems on how it makes buildings more energy-
efficient. Furthermore, communications industry magazines have been explained on how
advanced telecommunications systems had made buildings more efficient and therefore more
intelligent. Consequently, there had been growing pressure on owners and developers to build IB
due to extensive press coverage and suppliers advertisement. Therefore, decades from the1980s,
there have been numerous articles regarding IB focusing on the positive impacts such as higher
productivity, better office morale, flexibility in accommodating changes in the office
environment, etc (Yow, 2002). To further illustrate, there are reports on IB available from
Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), European Intelligent Buildings
Group(EIBG), Smart Home Foundation, City University of Hong Kong and etc. and
regularly published magazines. These include the CABA Quarterly publication, the Electronic
Home magazine, a Polish Technical magazine Inteligentny Budynek (Intelligent Building)
andInteligentny Dom (Intelligent House) (Himanen, 2003).
The articles often revolve on the IBs of United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom,
Germany, Singapore and others. These articles highlights about what is IB, its characteristics and
the intelligent systems incorporated in the case studies. However, not many studies have been
made on the Malaysian IB except for a book entitled, IB in South East Asia by Harrison et al
(1998). Most articles published in Malaysia are only discussing on their intelligent features. This
clearly shows that there is a lack of studies regarding IB in Malaysia. The pertinent questions of
the issue should be: What are the indications of IB practices in Malaysia? With the
documentation and understanding of the implementation of IB in Malaysia, practitioners and
researchers are then able to further improve on the development of IB in Malaysia.
Research Taxonomy of Intelligent Building Evaluation
Wong et.al . (2005) claims that , previous study have focused mainly on three research streams;
namely research in advanced and innovative technologies, research in performance evaluation
methodologies, and research in investment evaluation analysis.

Figure 1. Taxonomy of research on intelligent building

(Source: Wong et al., 2005)
Energy in Buildings
Buildings are inherently linked to their usage and surroundings and hence their indoor
environment is the result of a range of interactions affected by seasonal and daily changes in
climate and by the requirements of occupants varying in time and space.
The design of buildings in the mid-late twentieth century has sought to eliminate the effect of
outdoor daily and seasonal changes through the use of extensive heating, cooling, lighting and
ventilation equipment, resulting in spiraling energy consumption and environmental impact.

Introduction-Energy Management
Energy used in buildings accounts for almost half of the total amount of energy consumed in the
European Community today. Almost 85% of the energy used in buildings is for low temperature
applications such as space and water heating. Appropriate building designs involving clean and
efficient technologies are already available and there use may help to reduce future energy
consumption as well as to provide a better quality of life for citizens. With fossil fuels the
primary energy source, the building sector currently produces 22% of total CO2 emissions in the
EC. This is more than that produced by the industrial sector.
Intelligently designed buildings are those that involve environmentally responsive design taking
into account the surroundings and building usage and involving the selection of appropriate
building services and control systems to further enhance building operation with a view to the
reduction of energy consumption and environmental impact over its lifetime.

Intelligent Buildings Technology

Visual Comfort
Visual comfort is the main determinant of lighting requirements.
Good lighting provide a suitable intensity and direction of illumination on the task area,
appropriate colour rendering, the absence of discomfort and, in addition, a satisfying variety in
lighting quality and intensity from place to place and over time. Peoples lighting preferences
vary with age, gender, time and season. The activity to be performed is critically important.
Various agencies (ASHRAE, CIBSE, etc.) and text books list optimal illuminances for different
activities. These are generally based on uniform and constant levels of artificial light falling on
the working plane. Visual Comfort Illuminance levels

Indoor air Quality

During the last three decades, decreased ventilation rates for energy conservation, along with
increased use of synthetic (i.e. man-made) materials in buildings have resulted in increased
health complaints from building occupants. However, energy efficiency and good indoor air
quality in buildings need not be mutually exclusive.
In fact, in 1986 the WHO (World Health Organisation) reported that "energy-efficient but sick
buildings often cost society far more than it gains by energy savings".
The result of the reductions in ventilation rates in buildings have led to the so called "Sick
Building Syndrome" (SBS) and "Building Related Illness" (BRI).

Indoor air Quality Ventilation

There are two types of ventilation: natural and mechanical.
Natural ventilation includes the movement of outdoor air through intentional openings such as
doors and windows and through unintentional openings in the building shell scuch as cracks
which result in infiltration and exfiltration.
Mechanical or forced ventilation is intentional ventilation supplied by fans or blowers. These
fans are usually part of the buildings HVAC system which heats, cools, mixes and filters the air
being supplied to the building.
Climate
Climate responsive design in buildings takes into account the following climatic parameters
which have direct influence on indoor thermal comfort and energy consumption in buildings:
The air temperature,
The humidity,
The prevailing wind direction and speed,
The amount of solar radiation and the solar path.
Long wave radiation between other buildings and the surrounding environment and sky also
plays a major role in building performance.
Climate
The outdoor air temperature has a significant effect on building thermal losses due to conduction
through the walls and roof of the building, as well as affecting ventilation and infiltration losses
due to either desirable or undesirable air changes.
In warm climates the relative humidity plays an important role in determining thermal comfort
levels, since during warm weather the high pressure of water vapour prevents the evaporation of
perspiration from the body thereby inhibiting the body from being maintained at a comfortable
temperature. Macroclimate is a term referring to the general climatic character of a region in
terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, sunshine and cloud cover. An appreciation of
the overall characterisation of the climate of a region is a fundamental requirement for climate
responsive building design, this affecting the general design principles which should be
followed. Regional climatic factors are strongly affected by the local topography, vegetation and
the nature of the area, resulting in deviations from the regional macroclimate. The effect of such
factors results in climatic characteristics known as the mesoclimate. Heavily vegetated or
densely built-up areas have a significant impact on the climate of a specific location.
The conditions of the climatic parameters of a specific site or around a building are termed the
microclimate. Temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation around a building can be
affected by the deliberate placement of vegetation, landscaping, water and fountains, and
positioning of constructions
Intelligent Buildings Technology
Building Climate interaction

Building Envelope
The building envelope responds dynamically to the impact of the outdoor climate on the
envelope exterior and the effect of the occupancy pattern and building usage on the interior.
However, the performance of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, artificial
lighting, fenestration opening and shading can be harmonized and optimized in response to
occupancy needs and climatic conditions through a building energy management system which
allows direct control of the necessary actuators either manually or automatically.
In this manner the individual components of the building can be controlled to produce the best
possible indoor environment with minimum energy consumption.
Heat transfer
Conduction - C
Radiation - R
Convection - C

Reference: http://seminarprojects.com/Thread-intelligent-buildings#ixzz1wAmSsPhD
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GREEN BUILDINGS AND INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

An intelligent building start with an environmentally friendly design. Creating a project that is
environmentally friendly and energy efficient ties in closely with many of the intelligent
attributes.

Intelligent buildings designed for long-term sustainability and minimal environmental impact
through the selection of recycled and recyclable materials, construction, maintenance and
operations procedures.

Providing the ability to integrate building controls, optimize operations, and enterprise level
management results in a significant enhancement in energy efficiency, lowering both cost and
energy usage compared to non intelligent projects.
ECONOMY CONSIDERATION

Creating an intelligent building does require an investment in advanced technology, processes,

and solutions. An upfront investment is required to realize a significant return later on. It is
unrealistic to expert to make a project intelligent unless there is early buy in on investment.

One of the challenges is to educate owners on the benefits of an intelligent building design. This
makes the education of both owners and architects about the benefits of intelligent solutions
critical for success.

Conclusion

The intelligent building is clearly the building of the future. The goal of having an intelligent
building only starts with early planning in the design stage.

In many ways, this mirrors the design and fulfillment of green or LEED projects today, but it
uses technology to provide for a superior space. These are enormous benefits to be gained by
creating intelligent buildings.

With proper marketing such buildings will entice tenants to sign on with a much greater ease. By
supporting the tenants in as many services as possible the building owners also gain from the
profits realized from these services and tenants profit from the discounts to be had on their end as
well.

We need to continue to work as an industry to quantify these benefits, educate owners and
consultants, and to deliver a superior product to the market.