Using the MIT Campus as a Testbed for Education and Research in Sustainability

Prof. Leon R. Glicksman

Building Technology Group

MIT

September 16, 2016

World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities

Some Early Research

A More Recent MIT Solar House

Undergraduate Research Using the MIT Campus

•UROP: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program

•Undergraduate thesis

•Design Projects for Class

MIT Building 18 at 5PM Steve Amanti

2AM

Fume Hoods in Building 18

Heat or Cool

Intake fan

Outside air

Exhaust fan Vented air

Dan Wesolowski, Elsa Olivetti

Energy Lost by 1 hood open 24/7 =Energy to heat 1 single family home in Boston

Average Sash Position

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

% Open

% o

f to

tal T

ime

Before intervention

Current

Dan Wesolowski, Elsa Olivetti

Energy Efficient Ventilation Design for New Cancer Research Facility

Johnson Ice RinkCat Thu Nguyen Huu

Marisa Simmons

Temperature gradient and emissivity with IR camera

Recommendations

• Low ε ceilings• Reduce ice rink heat gain in ice

from 165 kW to 8kW

• Reduce chiller need from 328 kW to 171 kW

Cost: $30,000

Paid off in 2 months

PhD Research Using the Campus as a Testbed

Steve Ray: Air Flow in Media Lab Atrium

Experimentally characterized full-scale buoyancy driven N.V.

Full Scale

Atrium measurements: Temperatures, flowrates, pathlines, local velocities

Taken before experiment

Full Scale

6 kW heat provided from light bulbs

Full Scale

Expected plume over heat source

Full Scale

No plume formed over heat source because of reverse flow

Full Scale

Faulty instruments

CFD validated at full scale

Full Scale

First use of full scale in-situ PIV with neutrally-buoyant bubbles for Airflow visualization

Full Scale

Unsteadiness near heaters captured in CFD

time

Full Scale

CFD predicts temperatures very close to in-situ PIV measurements

Experimentally measuredrange

Full Scale

Stephen Samouhos PhD 2010

•Automated Fault Detection

•5 Most Important Faults

(Not So) Big Data in Commercial Buildings• Data collected by control system

• Operator concerned about tenant satisfaction

key feedback

• Academic studies on fault detection and identification

• Try a simpler approach

Stephen Samouhos PhD 2010Automated Fault Detection FoundSimultaneous Heating and Cooling in air handler

Dashboards@MIT

Campus Dashboard view

Kiosk compatible

Current energy data and baselines

Clockworks Performance Management Software

Information/Scale Portfolio Building System/Equipment

Dashboards

Metrics- Costs- Energy- Comfort…

Analytics- Energy analytics- Fault Diagnostics

Tools- Project tracking- Visualization- Field and process

integration

Energy spendingConstruction spendingEnergy procurement