Building simulation improvement energy management system

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

Development of new technologies and methodologies regarding building performance, building simulation and building energy management systems improvement is commonly found in the scientific literature. Furthermore a large group of simulation software applications has become available for a diversity of building performance assessments over the last years. Additionally a great number of modern buildings are provided with Energy Management and Control Systems which supervise and collect operating data from different energy components. However, these buildings energy management systems are generally recording operational data without being further processed and analyzed, in order to identify possible energy-saving measures. In this context the combination of both dynamic thermal simulation models and buildings energy management systems in the operational stage would allow for improved energy efficiency and significant energy savings in all types of buildings. This paper describes an assessment of the simulation model for an existing office building sited in Belgium. Although several improvement measurements were analyzed it should be noticed that the simulation run with a minimal fresh air valve aperture and increasing the CO2 control set point up to values allowed by the European standards shows a reduction of more than fifty percent of energy consumption while the comfort condition are guarantee. The results demonstrate the added value of dynamic thermal simulation models in the operational phase of a building.