The purpose of this research project is to develop a web-based Visual Analytics Platform that can be used for the construction of high performance, good quality buildings. The project will focus on the challenges faced by different stakeholders, namely, Government, Energy Providers, Housing Agencies and Householders. The proposed platform will be an opportunity for all stakeholders to collaboratively explore and understand the relationships among different layers of data such as climate and environmental data, building information, demographic and behavioural information. This will help to take well-informed decisions to improve the overall indoor quality of the buildings. The project will address the global challenges linked with digital technologies, stakeholders’ collaboration, and cross-disciplinary data integration in smart homes context.
Objectives
· Develop multi-dimensional data integration framework to explore cross-disciplinary data dependencies that have direct/indirect relation with energy optimisation and Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ).
· Investigate how teamwork among various stakeholders can be enhanced by providing comprehensive Virtual Analytical Platform.
· Develop Web-based Visual Analytical Platform to cross-filter and visualise different level of information to improve indoor quality of living in the buildings. This information can be used as an input for advanced Building Information Modelling (BIM).
The Smart House Facility at University of Huddersfield will be used as test bed to provide extremely valuable datasets related to air quality (e.g., air test, air pollution), energy usage (gas and electricity), appliances data (e.g., refrigerator, TV and radiator Usage), humidity level, CO2 emission and temperature. Energy utilisation data for gas and electricity will be collected and analysed in the virtual platform for different appliances. Data will also be collected for different part of the houses to understand energy usage patterns in the house. These datasets, then, will be visually analysed in a virtual collaborative platform. This platform will help to explore the relationship among different variables to improve the overall quality of living in that space and its comfort level (e.g., thermal and visual comfort).
The realisation of UK’s target of “Net zero energy buildings by 2050” could only be possible by prioritising overall quality of living in the buildings and not just by enhancing energy efficiency. Other factors, such as thermal and visual comfort, fabric efficiency, level of insulation, building orientation, and ventilation are also important. Furthermore, exploring this information together with other attributes such as environmental as well as demographic and behavioural information could play vital role to provide more personalised, adaptive and context aware solutions. (More detail in Smart Homes Research Paper [1].)
Furthermore, it is also very important to understand different stakeholders’ requirements to develop a globally acceptable strategic solution for improving Indoor Environment Quality of smart homes. This could be achieved by providing a virtual collaborative space to explore and investigate if-else scenarios together.
The overall architecture of the platform consists of multiple layers; first layer consists of multi-dimensional datasets (data layer). These datasets will be collected from smart house building present at University of Huddersfield. The recorded datasets will then be organised into their related categories (for instance, energy utilisation data, CO2 emission data, temperature, humidity etc.,). The second layer of system architecture constitutes of services layer; this layer will utilise the recorded datasets to explore what kind of services could be provided into the platform that can help different stakeholders to improve overall quality of living in the buildings. A seamless configuration of the services will be ensured at this layer depending on the needs of the stakeholders. Third layer is the user interface that will help stakeholders to visually interact with the datasets to explore if-else scenarios. This layer will also ensure how to provide cross-filtration functionality in the user-interface to find relationships among different data variables. The last layer of the architecture will be the application layer. This layer will help stakeholders to explore the possibility to apply the knowledge in different domains.
In the quest of designing and developing this platform, this project aims to address the following research questions; what are the key interests of relevant stakeholders in designing improved quality smart buildings? How to provide a seamless integration of cross-domain datasets in one virtual platform? What should be the characteristics of visual analytic platform to explore different level of information to investigate if-else scenarios?
An initial investigation study is already in progress where datasets for pilot studies are acquired from Salford Energy House. The proposed project will provide more opportunities of collaboration in future, nationally and internationally.
The Huddersfield Smart House Research Facility is being developed as a collaborative hub for industry, academia and government organisations. It is being developed to accelerate research and development for smart products and services to be used in the building environment with an aim to bring transformational improvements in key performance indicators corresponding to 21st century houses and living conditions. For this purpose, a well instrumented two storey dwelling is being constructed that will provide facilities for a range of novel and innovative investigations to be carried out.
Smart technologies can help us in reducing carbon footprints as well as having positive energy balance through improved energy performance of homes and buildings. We can achieve greater energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and support more intelligent and flexible management of energy supply and demand. By incorporating use of smart technologies, the health and wellbeing can be significantly improved through better management of internal environments, safety and security. Smart technologies have potential to offer significant improvements in wellbeing of the occupants by allowing control through voice and mobile apps as well as using automation and artificial intelligence to support and predict our changing needs.
HSHRF aims to bring researchers, practitioners, industries and government organisations together to design, develop and implement holistic solutions to current and future societal challenges associated with building environment and its use.
Applications
Applications must be made through the University of Huddersfield Online Application portal:
https://uoh-onlineapps.hud.ac.uk/
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