Sensors Capabilities

The development of intelligent building sensor capabilities over the next ten years will no doubt focus on energy management. Due to the rising cost of energy and the negative environmental impact of excess energy usage, sensors which monitor and control energy consumption will be paramount in designing an ideal intelligent building. Sensors have already been incorporated in intelligent buildings in order to create optimal environments that are desirable by the users; the magnificent thing is that some intelligent buildings adapt themselves to desirable conditions without the humans controlling them. My senior seminar focus is about dynamic building envelopes that use real time conditions to adapt the indoor environmental conditions to optimal settings through light and temperature sensors.

Here is a video of the Kiefer Technic Showroom; the south facade of the building progressively changes according to outdoor conditions in order to optimize the indoor lighting and thermal conditions of the building. 

People have accomplished tremendous things already and it is obvious that 5 to 10 years from now the building industry will greatly rely on sensors, especially as they become smaller and cheaper. The building industry will use sensors in every way possible in order to reduce energy consumption and save money. I believe that robotics and sensors will take over basic tasks that humans do not prefer to do.

Adaptive Building Initiative (ADI) is a company dedicated to designing buildings that optimize their settings in real time by the outside environmental changes, because their philosophy is that adaptation will “result in improved energy efficiency and environmental performance but, equally importantly, in enhanced comfort” (Hoberman, 2011). Their adaptive facades and building envelopes use combinations of programming and real time data from light, wind, and water sensors in order to ensure comfortable indoor conditions and ultimately lower energy costs. These building systems are very similar to the Nest thermostat that Tom and David mentioned in their blogs; the Nest thermostat has numerous sensors in order to optimize indoor conditions while saving energy.

A lot of people think that a building the Kiefer Technic Showroom or ADI buildings cost a lot of money. However, as Nathan mentioned in his blog, the Ultra Green Building is only 6% more expensive than the average comparable building and it will pay for itself with the first 10 years. The building industry will be more efficient with the help of sensors.

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAn4ldWjw2w
http://www.adaptivebuildings.com/index.html
http://www.designbuild-network.com/features/featureclimate-control-intelligent-faades/