Center for the Built Environment

In this paper, we describe the design of a user interface for energy and maintenance systems in commercial buildings. The user interface is designed for use by occupants (tenants) of commercial buildings. Our hypothesis is that by allowing tenants access to information from the energy and maintenance systems and by giving them some control over these systems, energy and maintenance performance can be improved. We used interviews with potential users and existing energy and maintenance databases to guide the design. We found that the feature most important to occupants is the ability to track service requests. We included several features from the interviews that should improve occupant satisfaction with maintenance and operations and simultaneously improve operational efficiency. We show results of implementing the user interface in two government office buildings.