Bridging the Physical, the Digital, and the Social

Energy consumption of buildings accounts for a large proportion of global energy usage, and building IoT technology can be a feasible solution to promote energy saving. This article presents an IoT use case in Shandong Jianzhu University Passive Building (SJU-PB) which is the first prefabricated, steel-structural passive building in China. The Passive Building Internet of Things (PB-IOT) was deployed in the SJU-PB to push both the building energy efficiency and user comfort to a higher level. With the passive building technology and the assistance of the PBIOT, SJU-PB’s indoor temperature is maintained at 18°C–24°C all year round, and the energy consumption is expected to be only 30 percent of a comparable common building. IoT technology makes it possible to integrate physical, digital and social systems into one unified socio-technical system. This article presents an example of such integration in cutting edge building energy efficiency technology, the Shandong Jianzhu University Passive Building (SJU-PB).