Analysis of Energy Efficiency and Comfort of the Ocean Science Education Building Using Operational Theoretical Methods

An emerging goal of modern building design is the construction of buildings that provide comfort to occupants while consuming a minimal amount of energy. Achieving comfort and consuming energy are competing factors in building operation, but with the increasing sophistication of software models, capable of simulating the thermodynamic behavior of a building and predicting energy consumption, these goals can realized. Although models are a good predictor of building performance, numerous approximations must be made during their creation which may negatively affect accuracy. One such approximation is that of zoning, which is how the volume of a building is dividing into regions where properties are assumed to be uniform. This process is often performed ad-hoc by the creator of the building model, and no definitive procedure currently exists for this process. Using the Koopman Operator, a linear, infinite dimensional operator that captures nonlinear, finite dimensional dynamics without linearization, nonlinear modes of temperature oscillation can be identified using predictions produced by a building model. From these modes, systematic approximations to the zoning can be created. An implementation of this technique is illustrated in a model of an actual building designed with both mechanical and natural conditioning.