Review of model selection and identification for continuous commissioning implementations

To guarantee indoor thermal comfort in a typical European office building, about 40% of the total average yearly primary energy use can be attributed to its HVAC systems. Unfortunately, many existing HVAC systems (both new and old) are operated in a suboptimal way. The process of continuous commissioning (CCx) can keep track of energy wasters, through the investigation, follow-up and (if needed) modifications of building and HVAC installations or settings. Some CCx-functions that can be implemented in offices by using building and HVAC models are:  Identification, implementation and follow-up of energy conserving opportunities (ECO)  Fault detection, diagnosis and evaluation (and overhaul) to maintain or increase HVAC efficacy (FDDe)  Improved (model based) HVAC control (MBC) During the last decade, Internet of Things and Big Data paradigms have boosted the market penetration of (manual) CCx dashboards, especially for ECO and FDDe, however only limited standardisation has occurred, since a plethora of technologies and algorithms are available. Also, fully automated CCx implementations are still quite rare. This contribution gives an overview of real-life, model-based (MB)-CCx implementations, both by academics and building energy management systems (BEMS) manufacturers, with a focus on model requirements, identification methods and implementation examples for three distinct CCx-subtopics (as described above). The relations between model structure, identification procedure, sensor data quality and calculation power is highlighted. This sheds a light on the reusability potential of MB-CC-models and suitable identification procedures for MB-CC models. These insights are crucial for office building managers, BEMS manufacturers and researchers involved or interested in the selection and implementation of MB-CCx strategies.status: publishe