1 AN INTEGRATED MODEL-BASED APPROACH TO ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDING SYSTEMS OPERATION

The effective operation of building systems for indoor environment control is a non-trivial task. Specifically, complex buildings are frequently affected by shortcomings in the configuration and operation of building service systems, resulting in sub-par indoor climate conditions and poor energy performance. To address these concerns, this contribution presents a research effort toward an integrated model-based approach to energy-efficient operation of building systems. The ingredients of the corresponding concept are as follows: i) A comprehensive building state model underlines all operative activities in the life-cycle of the building. This model includes information on building context (e.g. weather conditions), building topology, components, and systems, as well as building occupancy (user presence and actions); ii) The model is updated real-time via a sensory infrastructure including sensor for outdoor and indoor environmental conditions, occupancy presence and actions, state changes in control devices; iii) The building state model is provided to multiple applications pertaining to facility management and control systems. Such applications use various tools (including building performance simulation, trend analysis and learning algorithms) in order to anticipate the state of building and indoor climate as a result of alternative control options. 2. Model Generation and Actualization To realize a model-based building control strategy, the building must possess a model of itself, including both context and components. For example, a sky model is generated on a real-time basis using calibrated digital photography