Sensors and control solutions for Smart-IoT façade modules

Abstract

Measuring the operating conditions of buildings' components is generally applied to technical systems for improving the energy and environmental management, especially exploiting the IoT functions. However, the measuring and connectivity capabilities are not largely applied to the building envelope. This paper presents the development of a sensing and control system integrated into prefabricated envelope elements, with the functionalities typical of an IoT system. In fact, the Smart-IoT fac ¸ade is based on the idea of transforming the buildings' fac ¸ade into a IoT device, capable of communicating with external actors: building owner/manager, building management systems or local controller. Given the importance of the fac ¸ade as interface between indoor and outdoor environments, the possibility of having real-time data on the envelope operating conditions, is significant to improve the building operation, in terms of comfort and energy efficiency, enabling the adaptive or intelligent fac ¸ade concept. To this aim, the RenoZEB project is developing a plug&play fac ¸ade module for building renovation, with embedded sensors and actuators. The module with the sensing architecture is completely assembled off-site, reducing the amount of work to be done onsite. Once installed and configured, the module sends data to a IoT platform, that makes them available for third parties. Different configurations of sensors/actuators can be developed. Among them, this paper presents a solution to optimize the control of windows' shadings. Thus, the fac ¸ade sensing system has been integrated with an advanced controller that aims at optimizing the shadings position to provide the maximum comfort but allowing the right amount of solar radiation to pass through the windows.

Building Impulse Toolkit (BIT): A novel IoT system for capturing the influence of façades on occupant perception and occupant-façade interaction

“…Cost-effective sensing solutions are nowadays often combined with mobile-app platforms for gathering occupant feedback [23,24]. However, only two IoT solutions to-date are known to focus specifically on the occupant-façade interaction [11,25]. The first IoT solution [11] captures the façade effects on the thermal and visual indoor environment by measuring workplace illuminance and operative temperature at each occupant position, by means of temperature, luminance and vertical illuminance sensors and an analogue interface for gathering occupant feedback.…”

“…However, other important environmental characteristics, such acoustics and air quality, are not captured and no sensors are placed on the façade. The second IoT solution [25] consists of a novel sensor for assessing Mean Radiant Temperature and surface temperatures within the whole indoor environment. It integrates the data collection with the Building Management System (BMS) and smart façade sensing platforms.…”

“…The additional new features beyond those found in Refs. [11,25,26] create the missing link between key façade-induced environmental parameters and corresponding response and IEQ at the occupant location, that could among other things inform occupant-centred controls in future applications. The present study also includes the first ever systematic validation of the Building Impulse toolkit in terms of the accuracy and resolution of the data gathered.…”

Integration of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems in Building Envelope for Structural Health Monitoring with Fiber Optic Sensing Technology

“…In this scenario, while balancing renewable energy sources at building scale with micro-gird and energy grid is a well-established scenario [18][19][20], the smart component with IoT embedded in building' products address self-powered solutions adopting energy harvesting [21][22][23]. In this context, the role of active module to provide building envelopes with copiabilities is a path of research widely researched within smart building component [24][25][26][27] and the role of energy harvesting can boost their adoption. The façade integration of smart components can include components such shading, actuators for openable vents supplied by the building energy system and connected to the Building Management System (BMS), but also active technology as PV or solar collector, as well as IoT, sensors and AI edge solutions.…”

Integration of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems into Building Envelopes for Structural Health Monitoring with Fiber Optic Sensing Technology

“…In this scenario, while balancing renewable energy sources at the building scale with microgrids and energy grids is a well-established scenario [18][19][20], the smart component with IoT embedded in building products addresses self-powered solutions adopting energy harvesting [21][22][23]. In this context, the role of active modules in providing building envelopes with capabilities is a path of research widely researched within smart building components [24][25][26][27], and the role of energy harvesting can boost their adoption. The façade integration of smart components can include components such as shading, actuators for openable vents supplied by the building energy system and connected to the Building Management System (BMS), but also active technology such as PVs or solar collectors, as well as IoT, sensors, and AI edge solutions.…”