Assessing the energy, thermal comfort and economic impact of Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) - Towards a reliable evaluation for new and retrofitted residential buildings

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) can significantly contribute to a healthy and comfortable indoor environment, while they also beneficially affect the energy performance of a residential building. Although they are often a cost-effective investment, the lack of reliable information on their impacts can impede their market uptake. Current energy performance assessment tools for early design stages or certification do not take into account the influence of building design features and contextual factors or are not profitable for small scale applications. The performances of BACS are expected to be sensitive to the building design features, installation characteristics, occupant behaviour and climate zone. This project aims to derive the impact of several of these factors on energy, thermal comfort and economic performances by means of dynamic building energy performance simulations and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and to propose an improved assessment method, suitable for early design applications. The focus is devoted to the creation of an underlying calculation framework, which will be tested for eight case study buildings. The acquired knowledge of the relation between contextual factors and BACS performances can support design and investment decisions, while the framework will allow further expansion to cover a broader scope.

Keywords:SUSTAINABILITY

Disciplines:Building physics, Energy in buildings and built environments, Installation techniques