Long-Term Techno-Economic Performance Monitoring to Promote Built Environment Decarbonisation and Digital Transformation—A Case Study

Abstract

Buildings’ long-term techno-economic performance monitoring is critical for benchmarking in order to reduce costs and environmental impact while providing adequate services. Reliable building stock performance data provide a fundamental knowledge foundation for evidence-based energy efficiency interventions and decarbonisation strategies. Simply put, an adequate understanding of building performance is required to reduce energy consumption, as well as associated costs and emissions. In this framework, Variable-base degree-days-based methods have been widely used for weather normalisation of energy statistics and energy monitoring for Measurement and Verification (M & V) purposes. The base temperature used to calculate degree-days is determined by building thermal characteristics, operation strategies, and occupant behaviour, and thus varies from building to building. In this paper, we develop a variable-base degrees days regression model, typically used for energy monitoring and M & V, using a “proxy” variable, the cost of energy services. The study’s goal is to assess the applicability of this type of model as a screening tool to analyse the impact of efficiency measures, as well as to understand the evolution of performance over time, and we test it on nine public schools in the Northern Italian city of Seregno. While not as accurate as M & V techniques, this regression-based approach can be a low-cost tool for tracking performance over time using cost data typically available in digital format and can work reasonably well with limited resolution, such as monthly data. The modelling methodology is simple, scalable and can be automated further, contributing to long-term techno-economic performance monitoring of building stock in the context of incremental built environment digitalization.

Interpretable Data-Driven Methods for Building Energy Modelling—A Review of Critical Connections and Gaps

“…Even if the DT focus is put on a single domain and a single problem, namely energy and operation, the current research landscape appears to be quite diversified, as discussed by Ye et al for energy management in industrial applications [66]. Being able to leverage both short-and long-term operational energy data in buildings is not a trivial problem [67], and Chen et al review the problem of interpretability in relation to building energy management [68], highlighting the lack of a unified consensus regarding interpretability and explainability concepts and the limitations of post hoc techniques such as SHAP and LIME.…”

Toward Sustainability: Dynamics of Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Aggregate Income, Non-Renewable Energy, and Renewable Power

“…Potential solutions to current environmental problems have been identified, along with the development of renewable energy technologies. Innovations promote energy transitions to the exploitation and promotion of renewable energy resources [28]. Kaygusuz [22,24,26] argued that innovations in renewable energy use may alleviate the growing concerns over energy security and climate change.…”

Towards Automated Measurement of As-Built Components Using Computer Vision

“…In recent years, however, the construction industry has been exploring various emerging technologies to support the visual inspection and progress monitoring of construction work [ 7 ]. The on-site application of these technologies has indeed demonstrated significant potential for digitising and automating the capturing, measuring, and reporting updates of the as-built components and project information [ 6 , 8 ].…”