Development of selection evaluation and system intelligence analytic models for the intelligent building control systems

Abstract

With the availability of innumerable 'intelligent' building products and the dearth of inclusive evaluation tools, design teams are confronted with the quandary of choosing the apposite building control systems to suit the needs of a particular intelligent building project. The paucity of measures that represent the degree of system intelligence and indicate the desirable goal in intelligent building control systems design further inhibits the consumers from comparing numerous products from the viewpoint of intelligence. This thesis is organised respectively to develop models for facilitating the selection evaluation and the system intelligence analysis for the seven predominant building control systems in the intelligent building. To achieve these objectives, systematic research activities are conducted to first develop, test and refine the general conceptual models using consecutive surveys; then, to convert the developed conceptual frameworks to the practical models; and, finally, to evaluate the effectiveness of the practical models by means of expert validations. The findings of this study, on one hand, suggest that there are different sets of critical selection criteria (CSC) affecting the selection decision of the intelligent building control systems. Service life, and operating and maintenance costs are perceived as two common CSC. The survey results generally reflect that an 'intelligent' building control system does not necessarily need to be technologically advanced. Instead, it should be the one that can ensure efficiency and enhance user comfort and cost effectiveness. On the other hand, the findings of the research on system intelligence suggest that each building control system has a distinctive set of intelligence attributes and indicators. The research findings also indicate that operational benefits of the intelligent building exert a considerable degree of influence on the relative importance of intelligence indicators of the building control systems in the models. This research not only presents a systematic and structured approach to evaluate candidate building control systems against the CSC, but it also suggests a benchmark to measure the degree of intelligence of one control system candidate against another.