Web Platform for Optimising Heating Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings

The energy policy challenges of overcoming climate change as well as economic and global political crises require an optimisation of energy consumption in various sectors. Heating energy consumption in buildings plays a central role here: in Germany, space heating accounts for around 28 per cent of final energy consumption – which is similar to the consumption of the entire German transport sector.

Energy savings in the double-digit percentage range with no loss of comfort

In the recently published paper "Development and Application of a Platform for Optimising Heating System Operation Based on the Building User's Temperature Perception", researchers from the Wuppertal Institute, EBZ Business School and iBG inbestergesellschaft GmbH (iBG) explain the results of a living lab aimed at optimising heating energy consumption in commercial buildings: the researchers used a web platform to record the users' comfort requirements and temperature perception, as well as the actual room temperatures and the operation and settings of the heating system specified by the building management. Using a bidirectional flow of data and information, a good balance can be achieved between the necessary room temperatures and comfort on the one hand and the most energy-efficient operation possible on the other.

The authors, Andre Beblek, Florian Felix Sehr and Prof. Dr. Viktor Grinewitschus from the EBZ Business School, Aaron Immanuel Wolber from iBG and Dr. Carolin Baedeker, Co-Head of the Innovation Labs Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute, have found that room temperatures can often be lowered by several degrees Celsius without compromising the comfort of building users. This allows for potential energy savings in the double-digit percentage range.

The paper can be downloaded free of charge via the link below.