Feeling smarter about smart buildings

Our buildings are getting smarter, but that doesn’t mean we are. Smart buildings can help building operators gather and analyze data in real-time to manage energy use, reduce carbon emissions, and create a more sustainable building environment. But first they need to understand how it all works.

Slipstream recently led a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a semester-long smart-building curriculum for college students. The project partners included Texas A&M, the National Institute of Building Sciences, and the Society of Building Science Educators.

Thanks to courses like these, the new generation of building professionals will enter the workforce familiar with the complexities of smart building technologies. So what about current building professionals?

New free training video series

To expand the impact of the college course, the team adapted the content into 16 training videos available for free online. While building professionals are the target audience—viewers can even earn continuing education credits from the series—all the videos are available to anyone curious to learn more about these technologies and how they apply to the real world.

“Smart buildings” covers a lot of technical areas, but there are few available resources—especially free ones—to help building professionals learn about them in a guided, approachable way.

 “The smart building video series is Slipstream’s effort to bridge that gap,” says Slipstream Director of Innovation Joe Zhou, who presents several videos in the series. Over the course of the 16 videos, viewers encounter high-level primers on buildings systems, material on sensors and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, an in-depth look at smart building controls, and reviews of real-world applications.  

The knowledge gap is worth bridging if only to accelerate the adoption of smart buildings. Zhou notes the many benefits of smart buildings: they improve occupant comfort; make buildings operate more efficiently and save energy; reduce carbon emissions; bring additional revenue through utility incentives; and make buildings into healthier environments. “Industry trends of decarbonization, electrification, healthy buildings, and green buildings all call for the need of smart building solutions,” says Zhou.

As someone who has worked in the building controls industry for over 30 years, Zhou sees the opportunity in the present moment. “The building controls industry is behind other industries in terms of adoption advanced technologies,” says Zhou. Not every solution is cost-effective, and many building controls systems have their own hardware and data formats—a large barrier to standardizing any technologies.  

However, recent advancements in cloud computing and automations have allowed building operators to design integrated, cloud-based control platforms that can run complex, optimization algorithms at the building level, rather than the system level. “I am very excited at all the possible smart building capabilities come with these new technology advancements in the IT world,” says Zhou.

Scott Schuetter, a principal engineer at Slipstream who lent his own expertise to the curriculum, offers another, more practical reason to enable more smart buildings: because they represent the future of sustainable and efficient building management. Schuetter currently leads a project at Slipstream for the DOE’s Connected Communities initiative, which aims to develop a scalable business model to install grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEB) technologies by proving their effectiveness in publicly owned buildings throughout Madison, Wisconsin.

Along with enhancing energy efficiency and making better use of renewables, smart buildings can adapt to changing conditions in real-time, providing flexibility and resilience against energy grid fluctuations.

“Adopting smart building technologies,” Schuetter says, “is essential to achieve our climate goals and create a more sustainable built environment.”

Where can I find the series?

Visit our page on the project to learn more about the series, including a full overview of the 16 sessions.

The course can be found at the Whole Building Design Guide website.