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Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 37148

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Dr. Muhyiddine Jradi

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Guest Editor

Center for Energy Informatics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
Interests: sustainable energy technologies; built environment; energy in buildings; energy systems; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Buildings around the world consume about 40% of overall energy while contributing to about 36% of the CO₂ emissions. Trying to meet ambitious energy and climate objectives, the majority of the countries have prioritized the building sector, highlighting the huge potential in achieving cost-effective energy savings and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions reduction. In the recent decades, huge efforts have been made and serious steps have been taken to improve the building stock energy efficiency and reduce the overall energy consumption and the corresponding greenhouse emissions, as a major step to attain the Kyoto Protocol goals and enhance energy security. With the advancement in the automation and communication technologies, the field of smart and highly energy-efficient buildings have been targeted as a major field for theoretical and experimental investigations.

To improve the overall performance of newly built and existing buildings, a huge collaborative effort between designers, consultants, politicians, researchers, and building users is needed.

This Special Issue aims at providing a compressive collection of research studies, investigations, experiments, and applications in the field of energy-efficient and smart buildings. This includes a wide range of investigations from building design, energy model development, energy system optimization, performance improvement, and actual building operation and data collection. In this regard, contributions from research institutions as well as practitioners and industrial parties are welcomed.

Prof. Muhyiddine Jradi
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Building automation systems
Building construction
Building design
Building information modelling (BIM)
Building physics
Commissioning and control
Daylighting and lighting
Developments in simulation
Energy modelling
Energy retrofit
Energy storage in buildings
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
Human behavior
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
New software development
Performance optimization
Performance simulation
Simulation at urban scale
Simulation vs. Reality
Smart buildings
Sustainable buildings
Validation, calibration and uncertainty
Zero energy buildings (ZEB)

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2934 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Efficiency in Historic Architecture: The “Ex Institute of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy” in Palermo

by Domenico Curto, Vincenzo Franzitta, Andrea Guercio, Miriam Mantegna and Daniele Milone

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(15), 8882; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13158882 - 01 Aug 2023

Viewed by 804

Abstract

In Italy, a large part of the buildings classified as historical–artistic heritage is in a state of degradation and requires urgent interventions. Among the needs, a reduction in the high energy consumption and an improvement of the indoor comfort are mandatory. The case study of the “Ex Institute of Zoology of Palermo” shows how it is possible to achieve a reduction in energy consumption and preserve the building’s historicity through the estimation of energy loads and the subsequent processing. To quantify the energy savings of the structure, it was necessary to follow a few steps, namely an inspection of the building and an evaluation of its consumption. To elaborate a correct energy analysis, the thermal conductance was calculated by considering measurements over a period of 60 days and proceeding with the calculation of the transmittance. The resulting data are imported in the energy model developed with the TERMUS BIM software. In the case study, a potential energy saving equal to 35% of the current energy consumption can be avoided by replacing the lamps with LED ones, installing photovoltaic panels, replacing the heat pumps with a centralized system and the current fixtures with double thermal break fixtures. These interventions are implemented in compliance with the architectural peculiarities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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25 pages, 5913 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Assessment of Building Automation and Control Systems in Danish Healthcare Facilities in the COVID-19 Era

by Jeanette Maria Pedersen, Farah Jebaei and Muhyiddine Jradi

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(1), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12010427 - 03 Jan 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2091

Abstract

A well-designed and properly operated building automation and control system (BACS) is key to attaining energy-efficient operation and optimal indoor conditions. In this study, three healthcare facilities of a different type, age, and use are considered as case studies to investigate the functionalities of BACS in providing optimal air quality and thermal comfort. IBACSA, the first-of-its-kind instrument for BACS assessment and smartness evaluation, is used to evaluate the current systems and their control functionalities. The BACS assessment is reported and analyzed. Then, three packages of improvements were implemented in the three cases, focusing on (1) technical systems enhancement, (2) indoor air quality and comfort, and (3) energy efficiency. It was found that the ventilation system domain is the best performer in the three considered cases with an overall score of 52%, 89% and 91% in Case A, B, and C, respectively. On the other hand, domestic hot water domain scores are relatively low, indicating that this is an area where Danish healthcare facilities need to provide more concentration on. A key finding indicated by the assessment performed is that the three buildings score relatively very low when it comes to the impact criteria of energy flexibility and storage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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22 pages, 6999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Grid-Based Routing Model for Energy Efficient and Secure Data Transmission in WSN for Smart Building Applications

by V. Sivasankarareddy, G. Sundari, Ch. Rami Reddy, Flah Aymen and Edson C. Bortoni

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(22), 10517; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112210517 - 09 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1839

Abstract

Presently, due to the establishment of a sensor network, residual buildings in urban areas are being converted into smart buildings. Many sensors are deployed in various buildings to perform different functions, such as water quality monitoring and temperature monitoring. However, the major concern faced in smart building Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is energy depletion and security threats. Many researchers have attempted to solve these issues by various authors in different applications of WSNs. However, limited research has been conducted on smart buildings. Thus, the present research is focused on designing an energy-efficient and secure routing protocol for smart building WSNs. The process in the proposed framework is carried out in two stages. The first stage is the design of the optimal routing protocol based on the grid-clustering approach. In the grid-based model, a grid organizer was selected based on the sailfish optimization algorithm. Subsequently, a fuzzy expert system is used to select the relay node to reach the shortest path for data transmission. The second stage involves designing a trust model for secure data transmission using the two-fish algorithm. A simulation study of the proposed framework was conducted to evaluate its performance. Some metrics, such as the packet delivery ratio, end-end delay, and average residual energy, were calculated for the proposed model. The average residual energy for the proposed framework was 96%, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed routing design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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17 pages, 3839 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Study of Energy Savings for Various Control Strategies in the Tunnel Lighting System

by Li Qin, Antonio Peña-García, Arturo S. Leon and Jian-Cheng Yu

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6372; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146372 - 09 Jul 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2542

Abstract

Tunnel lighting is the most significant component in total energy consumption in the whole infrastructure. Hence, various lighting control strategies based on light-emitting diode (LED) technology have been investigated to conserve energy by decreasing luminaires’ operating time. In this study, four kinds of tunnel lighting control strategies and the development of their associated technologies are evaluated: no-control low-consumption lamps (LCL), time-scheduling control strategy (TSCS), daylight adaptation control strategy (DACS), and intelligent control strategy (ICS). This work investigates the relationship between initial investment and electrical costs as a function of tunnel length (L) and daily traffic volume (N) for the four control strategies. The analysis was performed using 100-day data collected in eleven Chinese tunnels. The tunnel length (L) ranged from 600 m to 3300 m and the daily traffic volume (N) ranged from 700 to 2500. The results showed that initial investment costs increase with L for all control strategies. Also, the electricity costs for the LCL, TSCS, and DACS strategies increased linearly with L, whereas the electricity cost for the ICS strategy has an exponential growth with L and N. The results showed that for a lifetime equal to or shorter than 218 days, the LCL strategy offered the best economical solution; whereas for a lifetime longer than 955 days, the ICS strategy offered the best economical solution. For a lifetime between 218 and 955 days, the most suitable strategy varies with tunnel length and traffic volume. This study’s results can guide the decision-making process during the tunnel lighting system’s design stage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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18 pages, 11235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal Characteristics and Parametric Analysis of an Improved Solar Wall

by Xi Zhao, Jiayin Zhu, Ruixin Li, Weilin Li and Bin Chen

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6325; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146325 - 08 Jul 2021

Viewed by 1316

Abstract

Solar air collectors installed on buildings can significantly reduce conventional energy consumption in winter and summer. However, some problems arise in the utilization process, such as overheating, inconvenient operation control and low energy efficiency, etc. This work is a parametric analysis focusing on the automatic control and thermal efficiency improvement of the solar wall. An improved color-changing solar wall integrated with automatic control components, such as a photoelectric fan and temperature-controlled damper, was proposed in this paper. Based on the experimental data, the average daily heat output of the color-changing solar wall is 1.08 MJ per unit floor area on clear days in winter and the average thermal efficiency is 56.8%. Meanwhile, a quantitative analysis was carried out based on monitoring experiments for evaluating the thermal characteristic of automatic control components. Furthermore, in order to improve the thermal performance of the solar wall, parametric analysis was performed by numerical simulation. Results from this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the application of solar air collectors in modern buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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16 pages, 4619 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Significance of Sky Temperature in the Assessment of the Thermal Performance of Buildings

by Aiman Albatayneh, Dariusz Alterman, Adrian Page and Behdad Moghtaderi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(22), 8057; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10228057 - 13 Nov 2020

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5276

Abstract

Energy-efficient building design needs an accurate way to estimate temperature inside the building which facilitates the calculation of heating and cooling energy requirements in order to achieve appropriate thermal comfort for occupants. Sky temperature is an important factor for any building assessment tool which needs to be precisely determined for accurate estimation of the energy requirement. Many building simulation tools have been used to calculate building thermal performance such as Autodesk Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, which can be used to calculate building internal air temperature but requires sky temperature as a key input factor for the simulation. Real data obtained from real-sized house modules located at University of Newcastle, Australia (southern hemisphere), were used to find the impact of different sky temperatures on the building’s thermal performance using CFD simulation. Various sky temperatures were considered to determine the accurate response which aligns with a real trend of buildings’ internal air temperature. It was found that the internal air temperature in a building keeps either rising or decreasing if higher or lower sky temperature is chosen. This significantly decreases the accuracy of the simulation. It was found that using the right sky temperature values for each module, Cavity Brick Module (CB) Insulated Cavity Brick Module (InsCB), Insulated Brick Veneer Module (InsBV) and Insulated Reverse Brick Veneer Module (InsRBV), will result in 6.5%, 7.1%, 6.2% and 6.4% error correspondingly compared with the real data. These errors mainly refer to the simulation error. On the other hand using higher sky temperatures by +10 °C will significantly increase the simulation error to 16.5%, 17.5%, 17.1% and 16.8% and lower sky temperature by +10 °C will also increase the error to 19.3%, 22.6%, 21.9% and 19.1% for CB, InsCB, InsBV and InsRBV modules, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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17 pages, 3877 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Dynamic Energy Modelling as an Alternative Approach for Reducing Performance Gaps in Retrofitted Schools in Denmark

by Muhyiddine Jradi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(21), 7862; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10217862 - 06 Nov 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2656

Abstract

When considering that over 80% of buildings in Denmark were built before the 1980′s, a holistic energy retrofitting of the existing building stock is a major milestone to attain the energy and environmental targets of the country. In this work, a case study of three public schools is considered for post-retrofit process evaluation. The three schools were heavily retrofitted by September 2018 with energy conservation and improvement measures that were implemented targeting both the building envelope and various energy systems. A technical evaluation of the energy retrofit process in the schools was carried out, when considering one year of operation after the completion of the retrofitting work. Actual data from the heating and electricity meters in the schools were collected and compared with the pre-retrofit design numbers which rely majorly on static tabulated numbers for savings evaluation. It was shown that the retrofit design numbers largely overestimate the attained savings, where the average performance gap between the expected and real numbers for the three schools is around 61% and 136% for annual heating and electricity savings, respectively. On the other hand, an alternative approach was proposed where calibrated dynamic energy performance models, which were developed for the three schools in EnergyPlus, were used to simulate the impact of implementing the retrofit measures. It was shown that implementing this approach could predict much better the impacts of the retrofit process with an average gap of around 17% for heating savings and 21% for electricity savings. Based on the post-retrofit process evaluation in the three schools, it was concluded that using dynamic model simulations has the potential of lowering the performance gap between the promised and real savings when compared to static tabulated approaches, although the savings are still generally over-estimated in both approaches. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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12 pages, 11217 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal Performance Visualization Using Object−Oriented Physical and Building Information Modeling

by WoonSeong Jeong, Wei Yan and Chang Joon Lee

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(17), 5888; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10175888 - 25 Aug 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2057

Abstract

This study demonstrates the research and development of a visualization method called thermal performance simulation. The objective of this study is providing the results of thermal performance simulation results into building information modeling (BIM) models, displaying a series of thermal performance results, and enabling stakeholders to use the BIM tool as a common user interface in the early design stage. This method utilizes a combination of object-oriented physical modeling (OOPM) and BIM. To implement the suggested method, a specific BIM authoring tool called the application programming interface (API) was adopted, as well as an external database to maintain the thermal energy performance results from the OOPM tool. Based on this method, this study created a prototype called the thermal energy performance visualization (TEPV). The TEPV translates the information from the external database to the thermal energy performance indicator (TEPI) parameter in the BIM tool. In the TEPI, whenever BIM models are generated for building design, the thermal energy performance results are visualized by color-coding the building components in the BIM models. Visualization of thermal energy performance results enables non-engineers such as architects to explicitly inspect the simulation results. Moreover, the TEPV facilitates architects using BIM as an interface in building design to visualize building thermal energy performance, enhancing their design production at the early design stages. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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17 pages, 3020 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Application of Daylight-Based Lighting Controller on LED Luminaire

by Sulee Bunjongjit, Santipont Ananwattanaporn, Atthapol Ngaopitakkul, Chaiyan Jettanasen and Theerasak Patcharoen

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3415; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10103415 - 15 May 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2352

Abstract

This paper proposes a control circuit for Light Emitting Diode (LED) luminaire based on the amount of daylight. This system uses both natural daylight and artificial light from a luminaire to reach the desired illuminance on a working plane. The control circuit operates by receiving an illuminance value from a light sensor and comparing it with a set value in the microcontroller before limiting the light intensity of LED by sending a control Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal to the LED driver. In the experimental setup, the controller and a physical model of a working space were built in order to field test the LED daylight control circuit. Electrical characteristics such as voltage, current, and power were measured with a power meter. Illumination characteristics in terms of illuminance on a working plane were determined using a lux meter. The results from actual field tests revealed that this LED control circuit was able to reduce the power consumption of the lighting system while keeping the illuminance on the working plane at the standard value. Both simulation results and the actual experiment of the control circuit proved that it could be used to improve the energy efficiency of both newly installed and retrofitted lighting systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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Review

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45 pages, 15636 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Systematic Content Review of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things Applications in Smart Home

by Samad Sepasgozar, Reyhaneh Karimi, Leila Farahzadi, Farimah Moezzi, Sara Shirowzhan, Sanee M. Ebrahimzadeh, Felix Hui and Lu Aye

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(9), 3074; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093074 - 28 Apr 2020

Cited by 89 | Viewed by 14741

Abstract

This article reviewed the state-of-the-art applications of the Internet of things (IoT) technology applied in homes for making them smart, automated, and digitalized in many respects. The literature presented various applications, systems, or methods and reported the results of using IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and geographic information system (GIS) at homes. Because the technology has been advancing and users are experiencing IoT boom for smart built environment applications, especially smart homes and smart energy systems, it is necessary to identify the gaps, relation between current methods, and provide a coherent instruction of the whole process of designing smart homes. This article reviewed relevant papers within databases, such as Scopus, including journal papers published in between 2010 and 2019. These papers were then analyzed in terms of bibliography and content to identify more related systems, practices, and contributors. A designed systematic review method was used to identify and select the relevant papers, which were then reviewed for their content by means of coding. The presented systematic critical review focuses on systems developed and technologies used for smart homes. The main question is ”What has been learned from a decade trailing smart system developments in different fields?”. We found that there is a considerable gap in the integration of AI and IoT and the use of geospatial data in smart home development. It was also found that there is a large gap in the literature in terms of limited integrated systems for energy efficiency and aged care system development. This article would enable researchers and professionals to fully understand those gaps in IoT-based environments and suggest ways to fill the gaps while designing smart homes where users have a higher level of thermal comfort while saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions. This article also raised new challenging questions on how IoT and existing developed systems could be improved and be further developed to address other issues of energy saving, which can steer the research direction to full smart systems. This would significantly help to design fully automated assistive systems to improve quality of life and decrease energy consumption. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings: From Energy Modeling to Applications)

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