Analysis of smart building solutions for optimizing the energy performance in a new commercial building

Contemporary commercial building’s demonstrate performance from a sustainability and environmental perspective. Usually, an appropriate energy performance is achieved using efficient mechanical systems, however the operation method with smart control is significant in the overall energy consumption. The research follows a two-year design and construction process of a commercial building where the integration of smart technology was a mandatory requirement by the owner, alongside with the prerequisites of the LEED® green building certification. The goal was to design, build and optimize the performance of the new Innovation Campus commercial office building complex using smart building solutions. The research was performed with energy modeling and dynamic simulation until completion of the building, where the design and investment decisions were constantly evaluated. The new optimized building’s performance demonstrated 42% of annual energy reduction and 34% of cost reduction according to the “ASHRAE 90.1 Appendix G” baseline Benchmark building.