Long-Term Evaluation of Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Energy Performance in Buildings: The Case of the KTH Live-In Lab Testbeds

Davide Rolando, Willem Mazzotti Pallard and Marco Molinari
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Davide Rolando: Energy Technology Department, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellvägen 68, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Willem Mazzotti Pallard: Energy Technology Department, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellvägen 68, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Marco Molinari: Energy Technology Department, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellvägen 68, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-34

Abstract: Digitalization offers new, unprecedented possibilities to increase the energy efficiency and improve the indoor conditions in buildings in a cost-efficient way. Smart buildings are seen by many stakeholders as the way forward. Smart buildings feature advanced monitoring and control systems that allow a better control of the buildings’ indoor spaces, but it is becoming evident that the massive amount of data produced in smart buildings is rarely used. This work presents a long-term evaluation of a smart building testbed for one year; the building features state-of-the-art monitoring capability and local energy generation (PV). The analysis shows room for improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort due to non-optimal control settings; for instance, average indoor temperatures in all winter months were above 24 °C. The analysis of electricity and domestic hot water use has shown a relevant spread in average use, with single users consuming approximately four times more than the average users. The combination of CO 2 and temperature sensor was sufficient to pinpoint the anomalous operation of windows in wintertime, which has an impact on energy use for space heating. Although the quantification of the impact of users on the overall energy performance of the building was beyond the scope of this paper, this study showcases that modern commercial monitoring systems for buildings have the potential to identify anomalies. The evidence collected in the paper suggests that this data could be used to promote energy-efficient behaviors among building occupants and shows that cost-effective actions could be carried out if data generated by the monitoring and control systems were used more extensively.

Keywords: building energy performance; indoor environmental quality; monitoring system; building system control; smart building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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