Lean and interpretable digital twins for building energy monitoring - A case study with smart thermostatic radiator valves and gas absorption heat pumps

The transition to low carbon energy systems poses challenges in terms of energy efficiency.In building refur-bishment projects,efficient technologies such as smart controls and heat pumps are increasingly being used as a substitute for conventional technologies with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and determining operational energy and cost savings,together with other benefits.Measured building performance,however,often reveals a significant gap between the predicted energy use(design stage)and actual energy use(operation stage).For this reason,lean and interpretable digital twins are needed for building energy monitoring aimed at persistence of savings and continuous performance improvement.In this research,interpretable regression models are built with data at multiple temporal resolutions(monthly,daily and hourly)and seamlessly integrated with the goal of verifying the performance improvements due to Smart thermostatic radiator valves(TRVs)and gas absorption heat pumps(GAHPs)as well as giving insights on the performance of the building as a whole.Further,as part of modelling research,time of week and temperature(TOWT)approach is reformulated and benchmarked against its original implementation.The case study chosen is Hale Court sheltered housing,located in the city of Portsmouth(UK).This building has been used for the field-testing of innovative technologies such as TRVs and GAHPs within the EU Horizon 2020 project THERMOSS.The results obtained are used to illustrate possible extensions of the use of energy signature modelling,highlighting implications for energy management and innovative building technologies development.

Energy and Buildings

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/energy-and-buildings/vol/212/suppl/C Volume 212,1 April 2020(1)Assessment of the impact of HVAC system configuration and control zoning on thermal comfort and energy efficiency in flexible office spaces,by Jasmin Anika Grtner,Francesco Massa Gray,Thomas Auer,Article 109785Abstract:In office buildings,the space layout usually needs to be repeatedly redesigned in order to meet tenants’requirements during the building’s life cycle.In this study,the effect of a flexible space layout design on thermal comfort and energy demand is investigated in a modern open-plan office space.Using dynamic thermal simulation.