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Introduction
Dr. Adam Rysanek is Assistant Professor of Environmental Systems at The University of British Columbia, where he directs the Building Decisions Research Group (BDRG).
The BDRG (previously the ETA Lab) comprises engineers, designers, and building scientists working together. We seek to establish new connections within the aligned fields of building energy systems, building performance simulation, IEQ, statistics and uncertainty analysis, robust decision-making, and machine learning.
Publications
Publications (57)
In recent work, a Hierarchical Bayesian model was developed to predict occupants' thermal comfort as a function of thermal indoor environmental conditions and indoor CO 2 concentrations. The model was trained on two large IEQ field datasets consisting of physical and subjective measurements of IEQ collected from over 900 workstations in 14 building...
Background: Cities consume a disproportionate amount of energy for internal temperature regulation. Being able to reduce cities’ cooling load on hot summer days can decrease energy consumption while improving occupants’ thermal comfort. The urban canopy is an effective shading agent, adding cooling benefits to existing buildings and streets while p...
Current codes are making buildings more reliant on air-conditioning at the expense of natural ventilation and other cooling solutions. Adam Rysanek (University of British Columbia) explains why this should be countered. Revolutionising codes in a manner that widens the responsibility of architects and engineers to deliver IEQ is urgently needed in...
In the pursuit of mitigating the performance gap between model-predicted thermal comfort and measurements of perceived thermal comfort, recent studies have investigated the multi-domain nature of thermal comfort and IEQ. This paper presents an update to a recent work that applied Bayesian logistic regression to examine possible independent correlat...
In recent years, emerging studies have examined the multi-domain nature of thermal comfort and IEQ with the goal of reducing the gap between predictions of thermal comfort models and real perceptions of thermal comfort. In a recent work, we applied Bayesian inference methods to correlate and quantify the relationship between perceived thermal comfo...
This paper updates the findings of a prior work that found evidence to suggest that predictions of thermal comfort can be improved by adding measurements of indoor CO2 concentrations. This work first updates these findings by adding 150 new samples of IEQ measurements collected from occupants of office spaces at the University of British Columbia i...
This paper updates the findings of a prior work that found evidence to suggest that predictions of thermal comfort can be improved by adding measurements of indoor CO2 concentrations. This work first updates these findings by adding 150 new samples of IEQ measurements collected from occupants of office spaces at the University of British Columbia i...
Cooling a sample of a material until condensation is observed is a standard technique for accurately measuring the dewpoint and associated relative humidity in a volume. When conducting an experiment with a membrane-assisted radiant cooling panel, we found that membrane surface temperatures were difficult to measure directly. Instead, the onset of...
In a prior work, we applied Bayesian logistic regression to investigate possible quantifiable correlations between occupants' perceived thermal comfort, thermal indoor conditions, and non-thermal metrics of indoor environmental quality (IEQ). This study updates the findings of the prior work by adding IEQ data collected from a recent field study ca...
Jaali is an Urdu word for traditional latticed screens, also known as mashrabiyas, widely used in most building typologies in hot climate zones, particularly in South Asia, Middle East, and parts of Europe. The objective of this study was to use a simplified version of a Jaali and demonstrate the application of evolutionary computing process for op...
This paper presents an update to a recent work that examined the correlations between non-thermal indoor environmental conditions such as indoor air quality and noise levels, on perceived thermal comfort of occupants in open-plan offices. The prior work made use of the COPE dataset, a field study of about 800 offices conducted by the National Resea...
This paper presents an update to a recent work that examined the correlations between non-thermal indoor environmental conditions such as indoor air quality and noise levels, on perceived thermal comfort of occupants in open-plan offices. The prior work made use of the COPE dataset, a field study of about 800 offices conducted by the National Resea...
The reduction in energy and emissions from the building sector can come from improved standards for new construction and retrofits to existing buildings. The retrofit viability for single-detached homes in Vancouver, Canada, is examined in terms of the key drivers and barriers involving economic and social forces. Local experts considered the likel...
The judgment of thermal comfort is a cognitive process influenced by physical, psychological and other factors. Prior studies have suggested that occupants who are generally satisfied with many non-thermal conditions of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) are also more likely to be satisfied with thermal conditions as well. This paper applies Bayesi...
The judgment of thermal comfort is a cognitive process influenced by physical, psychological and other factors. Prior studies have suggested that occupants who are generally satisfied with many non-thermal conditions of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) are also more likely to be satisfied with thermal conditions as well. This paper applies Bayesi...
Radiant cooling-assisted natural ventilation is an innovative technical approach that combines new radiant cooling technology with natural ventilation to increase fresh air delivery into buildings year-round with minimal energy cost and improves air quality. Currently, the standard paradigm for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) is ba...
A proliferation of energy models has been developed across disciplines to explore energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-reduction strategies in cities. Hybrid models are especially useful because they incorporate more dynamics to simulate realistic results informed by relevant high-level policy decisions and building-level factors. Spatial and...
INTRODUCTION
In 2020, working from home became an entirely new normal in response to the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a survey of more than 4,600 conducted between March 29 and April 3, 2020, 45.9% of working Canadians carried out their jobs from home during the last week of March, including about 4.7 million people (31%) who transiti...
This work presents a weighted ensemble of supervised learning models for estimating the days of the year where compliance with the Adaptive Model of thermal comfort is exceeded. The ensemble combines several gradient boosting on decision tree algorithms and Bayesian logistic regression. In a presented case study, the model is trained on three summe...
This research proposes the use of membrane-assisted radiant panels to improve the thermal comfort of naturally ventilated spaces in hot and humid climates. These radiant panels are capable of conditioning naturally ventilated spaces, which is impractical with conventional mechanical cooling systems. For conventional systems, a permeable envelope wi...
This research proposes the use of membrane-assisted radiant panels to improve the thermal comfort of naturally ventilated spaces in hot and humid climates. These radiant panels are capable of conditioning naturally ventilated spaces, which is impractical with conventional mechanical cooling systems. For conventional systems, a permeable envelope wi...
We present results of a radiant cooling system that made the hot and humid tropical climate of Singapore feel cool and comfortable. Thermal radiation exchange between occupants and surfaces in the built environment can augment thermal comfort. The lack of widespread commercial adoption of radiant-cooling technologies is due to two widely held views...
Thermal comfort standards have suggested a number of physical indices which can be calculated from either building simulations or in situ physical monitoring to assess the long-term thermal comfort of a space. However, the prohibitively high cost of sensor technologies has limited the applications of these physical indices, and their usefulness has...
In this paper, we present results from a world-first radiant cooling pavilion, demonstrating a method of cooling people without cooling the air. Instead, surfaces are chilled and thermal radiation is used to keep people cool. A thermally-transparent membrane is used to prevent unwanted air cooling and condensation, a required precursor to deploying...
In this paper, we present results from a world-first radiant cooling pavilion, demonstrating a method of cooling people without cooling the air. Instead, surfaces are chilled and thermal radiation is used to keep people cool. A thermally-transparent membrane is used to prevent unwanted air cooling and condensation, a required precursor to deploying...
Building occupants are continuously exposed to multiple indoor environmental stimuli, including thermal, visual, acoustic, and air quality related factors. Moreover, personal and contextual aspects can be regarded as additional domains influencing occupants’ perception and behaviour. The scientific literature in this area typically deals with these...
For thermal comfort research, globe thermometers have become the de facto tool for mean radiant temperature, tr, measurement. They provide a quick means to survey the radiant environment in a space with nearly a century of trials to reassure researchers. However, as more complexity is introduced to built environments, we must reassess the accuracy...
Air conditioning demand is projected to increase rapidly over the next 50 years, particularly in already hot and humid climates. Radiant cooling can be an energy efficient strategy to mitigate comfort energy demand with high air temperatures, thereby reducing both sensible and latent loads in spaces. We have built an outdoor radiant cooling pavilio...
The judgment of thermal comfort is a cognitive process which is influenced by physical, psychological and other factors. Prior studies have shown that occupants, who are generally satisfied with many non-thermal conditions of indoor environmental quality, are more likely to be satisfied with thermal conditions as well. This paper presents a novel a...
For thermal comfort research, globe thermometers have become the de facto tool for mean radiant temperature, tr, measure- ment. They provide a quick means to survey the radiant environment in a space with nearly a century of trials to reassure researchers. However, as more complexity is introduced to built environments, particularly with radiant he...
This paper introduces a new filetype that has the potential to improve data analytics in the building sector. The aim of the paper is to explore the general logic and hierarchy of the file type, explore the mechanism in which it would transmit data, and define initial user groups and the process by which they would use the file and server system. T...
In this study, we enhance the understanding and design of a radiant cooling technology for outdoor comfort in tropical climates, originally proposed by R.N. Morse in 1963, in this journal. We investigate a type of radiant cooling methodology whereby the cold temperature source is physically separated from the outdoor environment by an insulated enc...
The dependence of countries in hot-humid climates on airconditioning has been the backdrop of several research studies on energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort. A majority of non-residential buildings in the tropics operate 'high-lift' and 'all-air' systems i.e. water-cooled chiller plants that supply low-temperature chilled water to termina...
The satisfaction of occupants with an indoor environment supplied by a conventional central VAV air-conditioning system was compared to a novel system represented by decentralized ventilation units and a network of passive chilled beams. In parallel with occupant survey measurement of indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters was conducted with the devel...
Heating, ventilation, and airconditioning (HVAC) are among the major energy demand in the buildings sector globally. Improving the energy efficiency of such systems is a critical objective for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning towards renewable sources of energy supply. The interest of this paper is to explore means to increase...
This article addresses an opportunity to improve Low Exergy air-conditioning system efficiencies in the tropics by incorporating ‘low-lift’ chillers. This paper builds on the 3for2 Project in Singapore, the region's lowest energy consuming office. Using calibrated energy models, laboratory measurements of the low-lift chiller and preliminary on-sit...
Building information modelling (BIM) has carved a growing niche in the construction industry for the support of new building projects. The same cannot be said for existing buildings, where the prevalence of uncertain data, and unclear information, has been difficult to reconcile with the unambiguous nature of BIM parameterization. An opportunity to...
Occupancy in buildings is one of the key factors influencing air-conditioning energy use. Occupant presence and absence are stochastic. However, static operation schedules are widely used by facility departments for air-conditioning systems in commercial buildings. As a result, such systems cannot adapt to actual energy demand for offices that are...
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is a type of service that consumes energy and usually results in greenhouse gas emissions. Likewise, HVAC is a critical service that provides comfortable, healthy and productive indoor environments for building occupants. As growing energy consumption of HVAC systems and demands of indoor thermal co...
A building energy simulation relies on accurate parameterisation of occupant-related internal loads to simulate a realistic energy balance within a building. The internal loads are inextricably linked to occupant behaviour, both directly through the contribution of occupant heat output to thermal energy balance and indirectly via the interactions b...
As the world adapts to dual trends of climate change and urbanization, tall office buildings in hot and humid climate zones near the equator are among the prime candidates for a significant change in design approach. Though many individualized improvements to operating systems, envelopes and material selections have been introduced in recent years,...
This paper presents an optimisation model and cost-benefit analysis framework for the quantification of the economic, climate change, and air quality impacts of the installation of a distributed energy resource system in the area surrounding Paddington train station in London, England. A mixed integer linear programming model, called the Distribute...
In large commercial buildings facing high cooling loads, conventional heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are typically based on the use of one, or few, large-capacity air handling units (AHUs) to supply conditioned air throughout a centrally-managed air distribution network. The alternative concept of ‘decentralized’ HVAC typ...
In this paper, we present what was learned in the research & design process of a decentralized ventilation system with chilled ceilings for a commercial office in Singapore. We make two key observations from the knowledge gathered. First, we observe, in quantitative terms, that present-day radiant cooling panel products may not provide sufficient s...
This paper provides a detailed technical description of DEmand LOad REconStructor (DELORES), a new, open-source modelling tool for stochastic simulation of occupant services demand in buildings. By services, one means usually: illumination, sustenance (by way of food preparation), communication (by way of information technology services), and therm...
In a prior study, the authors showed that decomposing holistic, blackbox building energy models into discrete components can increase the computational efficiency of large-scale retrofit analysis. This paper presents an extension of that methodology to include an economic cost-benefit model. The entire framework now comprises an integrated modellin...
This paper explores a technique for generating marginal abatement cost curves for individual buildings. It makes use of sequential optimisation and exhaustive search of building refurbishment options based on a custom building energy model developed previously by the authors.
This paper presents the development of a new building physics and energy supply systems simulation platform. It has been adapted from both existing commercial models and empirical works, but designed to provide expedient exhaustive simulation of all salient types of energy- and carbon-reducing retrofit options. These options may include any combina...
This paper presents the first results of a sequential mod-elling engine developed for the rapid, exhaustive sim-ulation of building retrofit options spanning multiple investment periods and varying economic conditions. An illustrative case study shows how the overall model can be used to generate correlations between return-on-investment, initial c...
Abstract This work is an example,of a CFD-assisteddesign and characterizationprocess for thermal energy storage vessels. A general modeling technique for future works is also proposed. The
In this study, a CFD model of the Short-Term Tank Stores used at the Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) is devised and validated under charging conditions. Several First Law and Second Law figure of merits are examined and evaluated using the model established. Results provided in this study lay the groundwork for a future examination of the vari...
Projects
Projects (4)
This study seeks to inform a well-known research challenge with respect to standard models of thermal comfort: that seminal data-informed models have not always accurately predicted true thermal comfort observations from independent field studies. Specifically, it aims to take advantage of the emerging awareness in research of the inter-dependencies between perceived thermal comfort and overall IEQ, and will evaluate an approach to quantitatively predicting perceived thermal comfort as a function of both thermal and non-thermal metrics of IEQ. The goal is to examine whether thermal comfort, as perceived by occupants in a field data set, can be attributed in a measurable and/or significant manner to one or several non-thermal parameters typically associated with indoor ‘well-being’. These parameters address indoor lighting quality, acoustic performance, and air quality. To undertake this work, the study advances a Bayesian technique for establishing empirical correlations between IEQ survey response data and measurable parameters of indoor IEQ, specifically using Bayesian logistic regression framework.
As building envelopes and mechanical and electrical equipment become more efficient, the impact of occupants on building energy increases. Meanwhile trends in teleworking, co-working, and home-sharing mean vastly different occupancy than the standard occupancy schedules. Finally, global expectations for comfort are increasing, while a variety of new technologies may or may not succeed in meeting this demand. The convergence of these trends has necessitated a new look at how occupants are incorporated into building design and operation practice throughout the building life-cycle.
The field of occupant modelling emerged over four decades ago; however, it has surged in the past decade – particularly as a result of IEA EBC Annex 66 – “Simulation and Definition of Occupant Behaviour in Buildings”. Annex 66 played an important role in formalizing experimental research methods, modeling and model validation, and occupant simulation. Given the number of unanswered questions about occupant comfort and behaviour and minimal penetration of advanced occupant modelling into practice, this follow-up Annex 79 - “Occupant-centric building design and operation”. The IEA EBC Annex 79 term is from 2018-2023. More details here: http://annex79.iea-ebc.org/
Energy Management of existing non-domestic buildings is wrought with many challenges, a number of which arguably exist due to the diversity found amongst individual buildings and amongst the humans who occupy them. Buildings are inherently unique systems making it difficult to generalize technology solutions for any individual property. Instead, to make robust investment decisions for the energy-efficient upkeep of a particular building requires some degree of tailored engineering and economic analysis. To understand why this is the case, one need only to consider the chain of questions one would likely need to address for decision-making in an arbitrary building. For instance, we might ask: what is the age of the building and the equipment currently installed in it? Does the heating system need to be replaced? If yes, is the current system a boiler, and if so, how efficiently does it perform? Would the building benefit from a new boiler or an electric heat pump? Would it benefit from replacing the heating distribution pipes? Do the cost / benefits of any of these technologies depend on government tariffs and subsidies? What is the risk faced if any available subsidies are cut in the future? How robust is either technology to the future price of natural gas and electricity? Would that risk be worth taking? Is it too expensive to even start thinking about the options and associated risks? How would a facility manager visualise the options available and possible spreads of benefits and risks for all these aspects?
This project aims to respond to these challenges. Indeed, in order to make sound decisions on future building operation and technology investment, evidence shows that one needs adequate information on a number of engineering, economics, and social science matters pertaining to each individual project. To obtain this information has so-far been viewed as a costly exercise, and has contributed to the general perception that undertaking deep cuts to building energy consumption (achieving more than 15% in energy savings per investment) is an economically risky affair. This proposal is the first to develop and recommend an altogether new approach to performing building audits, energy simulation, uncertainty analysis, data visualization, and finally investment decision-making. It will lead to a marked reduction in the cost of acquiring information for robust retrofit and facility management decisions.
