Engineering a Predictive Energy Consumption Model for University Properties

Abstract

To decrease buildings' thermal and electrical energy consumption at public properties two general starting points can be separated regarding the investment costs: Either to increase the performance of the buildings' thermal envelope, assets and devices by modernization and replacement which results in high invests and long amortization periods; or by influencing the already installed assets and devices as well as inhabitant behavior which leads to lower invests and amortization times. At university properties most plans for energetic modernization of envelope, assets and devices are declined due to long amortization periods, the economic pressure at public funds or monumental protection. Therefore, this work discusses an interdisciplinary approach to optimize building operations by means of automation, economics and psychology. It presents the engineering process toward a mathematical model to predict the impact of each research discipline's method and interdisciplinary combinations on the building's energy consumption. Thereby, results at Saarland University can be transferred to further university or public properties.

"OWLracle" — Predicting the impact of interdisciplinary energy efficiency methods at German universities using BCVTB

“…Tying in with the basic research concept and the engineering workflow developed in [1], we have now derived typicals of German university Building Types, Room Types and User Types. These typicals were implemented in a BCVTB-based simulation framework, where EnergyPlus was used to simulate the building, and Dymola®/Modelica® was used to implement a library of typical Room Types and User Types.…”

“…By communication with the software environment Engineering workflow of the decision tool OWLracle to obtain a corporate model to predict energy consumption and possible savings at a university property (cf. [1]) "Building Control Virtual Test Bed" (BCVTB) it is also possible to connect EnergyPlus and Dymola®/Modelica®. Both programs EnergyPlus and BCVTB are briefly described in the following part.…”

“…At 2013 IEEE European Modelling Symposium (EMS '13) in Manchester/UK an approach to engineer a predictive energy consumption model for (German) university properties was presented, [1]. It focuses on the impact of methods with low amortization periods to optimize the energy usage of university properties in operation.…”

“…The workflow to integrate the results in a model-based predictor that is transferrable to other universities is given in Fig. 1. (For further explanations about the workflow refer to [1]). Political goals of the European Union as motivation, as well as challenges and chances in the buildings sector can be found in [2], [3], [4], [5].…”