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How low can you go? Optimal control of buildings with minimal number of sensors
Buildings are a major contributor to global energy consumption. Better building automation can help reduce the energy consumption and thus the operating cost of a building. This, however, comes at the cost of installing additional sensors and actuators. The goal of this project is to find the optimal trade-off between the two with the exciting real-world example of Empa's famous Nest building.
Keywords: energy, building automation, sensors, control, Nest
Buildings are major contributors to global energy consumption and carbon emissions. The rise of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure has made digital transformation in the building sector increasingly feasible. However, the cost-effectiveness of sensor-based systems for energy management
remains an open question. The trade-off between investing in sensor-based systems
versus the resulting cost savings during building operation will be investigated in the project.
**Project description**
The project will be based on Empa’s famous NEST building and its digital twin, and co-supervised between IfA and Empa.
The key steps envisioned for the completion of the
project are as follows:
1. Conduct a literature review on energy management systems in buildings (1 month).
2. Set up a baseline scenario with a minimal set of sensors and a basic control system
(1 month).
3. Implement alternative scenarios with different levels of sensing and actuating
capabilities and (optional) control strategies (2 month).
4. Compare with the baseline scenario and establish a Pareto front to analyze trade-
offs between sensor/actor investment and control performance (1 month).
5. Summarize the results and write the final report (1 month).
**Prerequisites**
A good understanding of numerical modeling and familiarity with Python
are required for the project. Please submit your current CV and academic transcripts
with your application
Buildings are major contributors to global energy consumption and carbon emissions. The rise of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure has made digital transformation in the building sector increasingly feasible. However, the cost-effectiveness of sensor-based systems for energy management remains an open question. The trade-off between investing in sensor-based systems versus the resulting cost savings during building operation will be investigated in the project.
**Project description**
The project will be based on Empa’s famous NEST building and its digital twin, and co-supervised between IfA and Empa.
The key steps envisioned for the completion of the project are as follows:
1. Conduct a literature review on energy management systems in buildings (1 month).
2. Set up a baseline scenario with a minimal set of sensors and a basic control system (1 month).
3. Implement alternative scenarios with different levels of sensing and actuating capabilities and (optional) control strategies (2 month).
4. Compare with the baseline scenario and establish a Pareto front to analyze trade- offs between sensor/actor investment and control performance (1 month).
5. Summarize the results and write the final report (1 month).
**Prerequisites**
A good understanding of numerical modeling and familiarity with Python are required for the project. Please submit your current CV and academic transcripts with your application
The goal of this project is to find the optimal trade-off between investing in an improved control solution for a building by augmenting its sensing and actuating capabilities, and the resulting reduction of operating cost of the building.
The goal of this project is to find the optimal trade-off between investing in an improved control solution for a building by augmenting its sensing and actuating capabilities, and the resulting reduction of operating cost of the building.
IfA: Claudia Fischer (c.fischer[at]control.ee.ethz.ch)
Empa: Hanmin Cai (hanmin.cai[at]empa.ch)
IfA: Claudia Fischer (c.fischer[at]control.ee.ethz.ch) Empa: Hanmin Cai (hanmin.cai[at]empa.ch)