Building Performance Analysis

9Building Operation, Control and Management

While the previous chapter explored the implementation of building performance theory in the design stage, this chapter focuses on building operation and management. Ultimately, even if a building is designed well and constructed according to plan, how good it performs in practice and under actual use conditions still depends on the interaction between the building, the occupants and a broad range of external factors. Part of this interaction is based on automated responses by the building, often governed by a central building management system (BMS). However, systems may also age and malfunction, and control settings may drift or become inappropriate over time; it therefore is useful to monitor building performance, detect anomalies, explore what causes them and intervene to bring building performance back to the intended levels. Traditionally, this was mostly handled in‐house by the owner or local estates department; a new trend is to outsource some of these tasks under (energy) performance contracts.

Building management and control covers a wide range of systems and human activities, which ensure that a building does what it is supposed to be doing. To achieve this, buildings are equipped with a range of sensors that capture the building state and behaviour, control algorithms that evaluate this status and behaviour in order to decide on actions that need to be taken, and actuators that help to enact these control actions. The ...