Title: Review of current data exchange practices
Description: Retailers who participate in the U.S. Department of Energy Commercial Building Energy Alliances (CBEA) identified the need to enhance communication standards. The means are available to collect a massive amount of buildings operational data, but CBEA members have difficulty transforming the data into usable information and energy-saving actions. We reviewed and analyzed communication standards in terms of a specific capability: their ability to be sufficiently enhanced to provide descriptive data that assist building operations decisions. To this end, we provide specific examples that further define the metadata objects, elements, and attributes for control and monitoring points. We demonstrate that communication standards can be used to provide the necessary descriptive information for building control and monitoring points--also known as input/output points--that would enable algorithms to transform raw data into actionable information and insights. The goal is to standardize the depiction and base structure of the metadata in various communication standards. The project successfully established an understanding of the current state of a specific capability of communications standards in the industry. It also identified key barriers to a long-term vision of more efficient practices, as well as next steps for researchers and commercial building owners.
Subjects: Buildings, Energy conservation, Research, Metadata, Standards, Data mining