The information below gives an update on the status of the four demo sites at month 30 of the project.
Demonstration in operational efficiency
Helix Building
Helix Demo Site is an office building, one of the structures of the West of Scotland Science Park, a research centre located 5km north-west of Glasgow city centre.
Key Results
An audit was conducted on the Helix building which included many findings including:
- there was an existing IoT system already installed. To save costs, it was decided to re-use this system instead of purchasing new hardware, compatible with Schneider Electric’s systems. New equipment compatible with the existing system’s protocol was then purchased and installed.
- Building’s heating was controlled by two thermostats in circulation areas, which is causing comfort issues in open office zones and meeting rooms. Therefore, themostatic radiator valves (TRVs) were replaced in two meeting rooms and developer’s area to demonstrate efficient control of heating and improve both comfort and energy use.
- Two new smart thermostats were added and integrated with iSCAN, heat meters were cloudified, and an electrical sub-metering squid was installed to measure electricity. Smart plugs were also placed in high-demand sockets. All these devices were commissioned and tested to ensure they could be remotely accessed or controlled.
- Following discussions with vBMS service providers IES, CEA, IMR and VIOTAS, demonstration use cases were completed that describe how the service implementation will take place with detailed narrative, inputs, outputs, and equipment required. These use cases include:
- Energy-Comfort Optimization in open office areas and meeting rooms,
- Optimized blind operation for the improvement of glare and illuminance, Load shedding using smart plugs,
- Air Quality optimization in open office areas and meeting rooms,
- Fault Detection and Diagnosis,
- Predictive Maintenance,
- What-if Scenarios and Measurement & Verification
- One of the use cases, “Energy-Comfort Optimization in meeting rooms using TRVs,” was implemented in November 2022, in the Nevis meeting room, by controlling the TRVs using a new algorithm that optimizes the heating based on room occupancy.
- The building’s energy model was also fully calibrated and improved to better reflect the recent equipment installations and data collected. Using this model, we managed to estimate the effects of the heating scenarios that we are planning to implement, and results are showing significant energy savings.
Country Crest
The Country Crest demo site in Dublin, Irelandis a building that grows and pre-packs fresh potatoes for the retail sector.
Key Results
The installation of ICT equipment was 100% concluded in Country Crest demo site, including indoor air quality sensors, energy meters, relays for remote control, and communication devices. The activities below were necessary to achieve the objectives:
- Preliminary installation and integration trial in the laboratory.
- LoRa gateway, 4G router, power relays, and sensors configuration and test.
- Site preparation, wiring, and build box for equipment.
- MQTT broker configuration and test.
- Commission all installed equipment.
- The main use cases and services to be deployed were identified:
- Energy optimisation techniques will be performed for the HVAC system and for the oil burners.
- To improve comfort, CO2/CO will be monitored in the warming area.
- Predictive maintenance and fault detection techniques will be deployed for the HVAC system.
- Demand Response will be performed in the air handling units.
Demonstration in Retrofits
World Trade Center
The World Trade Center is a business and congress center inaugurated in 1993 and located in the heart of the Europole district of Grenoble, France.
Key Results
- A second comfort survey among WTC occupants was conducted in September 2022. The objective was to collect the employees’ feelings about the summer season, regarding thermal comfort, air quality and lighting comfort. The online survey was sent to a panel of 79 participants, with an excellent response rate of 63%, an improvement over the previous survey (45%).
- The survey results concluded
- The majority of employees are satisfied with the air quality and lighting comfort (the inconveniences systematically concern an excess of light, with an increased sensitivity to energy waste when artificial lighting is turned on without real need)
- There is dissatisfaction with thermal comfort: a third of respondents complain of excessive temperatures on the south side of the building (due to a very glazed facade), or of cold sensations on the north side.
- The specification of the hardware to be installed at the WTC has been completed and finalized, the exchanges with the subcontractor in charge of the installation and the programming have allowed to finalize and place the order for the work.
- The hardware supplied by Schneider was received in Grenoble, completed by electrical sub-meters from CEA and non-intrusive thermal meters from Eolya.
- The installation work started in December 2022 with the installation of all the meters and sensors, their connection by wired buses in floors 5 and 8 of the building, the programming of the data transmission to the iBECOME cloud, the demand response control system of VIOTAS. This will be followed by an exhaustive commissioning step.
- In parallel Eolya proposes a base of use cases to each service provider, which will be discussed and finalized in order to define precisely the different demonstrations that will be carried out on the building in 2023, taking advantage of all the hardware installed, the data collected and the possibility of controlling the setpoints and equipment. For example, the comfort optimization service aims:
- to control more precisely (room by room) the setpoints, depending on room location (due to building glazed facades, occupants’ comfort is very impacted by room location/orientation) and real occupancy;
- to anticipate heating/cooling operation based on electricity prices/CO2 intensity;
- to improve the management of unoccupied rooms/periods.
- The last step before the real time demonstration consists in the construction of adapted dashboards, i.e. interfaces that will allow the users, operators and managers of this demonstrator building to follow the deployed scenarios, the comfort parameters, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions, and in a general way all the KPIs characterizing the performances of the iBECOME vBMS.
ASP della Carnia
ASP della Carnia demo site is based in Udine, Italy. The building is a residential care facility for the elderly and disabled and it provides health and rehabilitation services, as well as hotel and social entertainment services.
Key Results
The specifications of the hardware requirements and ICT architecture have been updated to meet new constraints on the building’s HVAC system and occupancy.
- New technical solutions are under evaluation to exploit the room controller for controlling thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) to maximise the thermal comfort for the occupants.
- The identification of all the sensors for IAQ monitoring and energy metering has been completed: this will permit the implementation of unique services like healthcare management, thermal and visual comfort optimization, and EV charging optimization.
- A first what-if scenario analysis has been performed using the digital twin of the building in IESVE by assessing the possible benefits that can be achieved through the installation of a roof-top PV field.
- The project partners performed the first tests under real conditions of the car-sharing app that ENER.GI is developing, using CIVIESCo’s e-vehicle with ENER.GI’s equipment on board.
- The iBECOME app allows users to benefit from a mobility service by booking a vehicle, getting evidence of its location, allowing other users to request to share the trip, and controlling the opening and closing of the doors without the need for a physical key.
- The service has been created firstly for companies with a small fleet that would like to offer the car sharing as a benefit to their employees the company cars for commuting optimization and help to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reduction and cost savings.