ii Abstract Space heating and cooling account for 65% of the total energy consumption in Canada's residential sector. As a result, the design and construction of passive houses is becoming mainstream. However, passive houses are prone to overheating, even sometimes in the winter. Proper operation of window shading devices can provide substantial savings to the space conditioning loads in homes.Model predictive control (MPC) of automated window blinds has proved to be effective at managing solar gains to reduce the heating and cooling loads in buildings. MPC involves predicting a system's response to a control input over a finite period of time in order to determine the best current control decision. This predictive quality of MPC is beneficial in buildings due to their delayed thermal response to solar gains.This thesis details the framework for an MPC application for automated blind control of a single-family home in Ottawa. Building performance simulation (BPS) software was used to predict the interactions between the blind positions and the energy demand in the home. Optimizations were performed to minimize the total energy demand attributed to heating and cooling the home.The performance of the MPC application was simulated over representative weeks of the year, and compared to a reactive, rule-based controller (RBC), which is the standard practice in blind automation. Energy savings of up to 36% were recorded in comparison to the RBC.iii I wish to thank my office colleagues, Roxana Barcelo, Sadeem Al-Attar and Amr Daouk, for making my time in Ottawa enjoyable.Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family for their continuous support and encouragement. Thanks to my parents and sisters for always being there for me in my time of need, and to Nafisa Jadavji for her excellent mentorship. iv R Thermal resistance [K/W] QFA Future thermal flux into air nodes [W] QFC Future thermal flux into construction nodes [W] QFS Future thermal flux into surface nodes [W] TFA Future temperature of air nodes [ • C] TFC Future temperature of construction nodes [ • C] TFS Future temperature of surface nodes [ • C] xii Chapter 1