Skewering the silos: using Brick to enable portable analytics, modeling and controls in buildings
Nearly all large commercial buildings have heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting systems, safety and other systems controlled by a computer—a dedicated server with a building energy management system (BMS). However, these BMSs are proprietary with each building’s assets (that is, fans, valves, pumps, and their setpoints) named and coded uniquely by the BMS vendor or engineer; building analytics and control algorithms are written specific to the assets and the building. Thus, any control updates or analytics to improve building performance—especially critical to reduce greenhouse emissions or improve load flexibility—are labor intensive and costly. The Brick schema was developed so the same analysis or control algorithms can work on a variety of buildings if each is digitally represented in a Brick data model. The goal of this project was to further the development of Brick to extend it beyond an academic project with demonstrated success in a small field study, to a practical choice for industrial and commercial stakeholders seeking to realize value from building data. To do this, we executed four objectives: (1) expand the Brick schema including its modeling capabilities and vocabulary, (2) develop tools for integrating Brick with existing digital technologies and representations in buildings, (3) develop an open-source analytics platform to facilitate use of Brick in delivering data value, and (4) demonstrate Brick-driven analytics and controls in real settings.