Advanced building energy monitoring using wireless sensor integrated EnergyPlus platform for personal climate control

Building energy monitoring to individual occupant´s personal climate level has vast advantages added on to the present building management system. With Internet of Things (IoT) as part of energy systems, it opens up a gateway of opportunities ahead to personalize energy monitoring. Distributed wireless sensor network (WSN) to integrate with the EnergyPlus model has created an advanced building energy monitoring platform. The proposed building energy monitoring platform has the mean to estimate and predict the energy consumption of an individual in a space within the building (kWh per m²) and the type of building services like air-conditioning, lighting systems, etc. being utilized. Building-wide deployment of a low-cost WSN system to measure these building services´ equivalent parameters, such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and illumination, are integrated into an EnergyPlus model being developed. This results in a more accurate estimation and prediction of the energy consumption within each individual space on top of the building energy measured by existing building management system. In addition, the sensor information helps building owner and tenants to better understand the well-being of the building, as well as, its indoor environmental quality and comfort level in a real-time format.