Abstract

A Hungarian research centre intended to submit a proposal to the FP7 Research for SMEs call (FP7-SME-2010) is inviting partners to develop a portable energy audit system. The objective of the innovation proposed in the project is to reduce the time necessary for the evaluation process, thus reducing the costs of building energy auditing. SME (manufacturer/distributor of telemetric systems) for field testing and help the dissemination and exploitation of project results are searched.

Description

In the EU roughly 40% of the energy is consumed by buildings (heating, HVAC, etc.). A serious potential for savings has been identified in the sector. To this end the EU has adopted Directive 2002/91/EC, which makes it mandatory to audit new buildings and those offered for sale or rent. The output of the audit process is a certificate issued by qualified auditors. The portable system will making it possible for building energy auditors to classify buildings accurately, based on objective data collected on-site, find the “weak spots” in a building faster and offer remedial actions.

The system will comprise measurement sensors with wireless communication capability that can be easily installed, and removed, to monitor the necessary parameters (e.g. indoor and outdoor temperature, heat flow, electric energy consumption, etc.). The U-value of the walls will be determined, based on measured quantities, improving significantly the accuracy of the evaluation. These measured values will represent the input to an audit software, which will generate a report for audit purposes. The system will make it possible to derive the conclusions from objective measurement data and to perform the audit on this basis.

The hardware will include wireless measurement nodes that will be installed all over the building, mapping its energy efficiency parameters. Most likely the sensors will implement the ZigBee standard for wireless communication owing to its numerous advantages inherent to ad-hoc wireless mesh networks, e.g. simplifying the set-up of the communication network. ZigBee has specially been designed for industrial applications like remote monitoring. The gathered data will be matched against the model of the building, set up based on the actual layout, making it possible to make all necessary calculations.

Technical Specifications / Specific technical requirements of the request

The main challenges of the project will be:
- to determine with high enough accuracy the U-value of the walls,
- to implement a highly customizable building model that can be used reliably for any type of building,
- to develop a reliable, comfortable and quick means to draw up a plan of the building in question.
Finally the software will evaluate all the inputs and classify the building, generating a report, which can be used to justify the energy audit certificate issued. The software will also be able to locate problematic areas from energy point of view (e.g. where too much heat escapes, poorly performing HVACs, etc.) and make suggestions on how to improve the situation.

Under certain conditions (e.g. the efficiency of the building fails to hit a certain threshold) it is mandatory to make such suggestions. If the suggestions and their results can be quantified, it would be valuable information for the customers and could be offered as additional service, beside the compulsory energy audit certificate.

Call title: Research for the benefit of SMEs

Call identifier: FP7-SME-2010

Probable publication: 2010 autumn

Technology Keywords:                   
4.6.1    Energy management
9.1.9    Sensor Technology related to measurements
1.2.20  Building Automation Software

Collaboration Details / Comments:

- Type of partner sought: SME

- Specific area of activity of the partner:
1) manufacturer/distributor of telemetric systems
2) distributor of building automations systems

- Task to be performed:
1)  provide technical consultation/assessment
2)  help the dissemination and exploitation of project results
3)  assist field testing