Sensor Impact Evaluation and Verification

This project will evaluate the impact of new sensing technologies and their integration with existing building systems. The overarching project goal is to develop a framework for investigating the impact of sensor configuration on building energy optimization, fault detection and diagnosis, occupant thermal comfort, and (potentially) grid efficiency. Sensor configuration and deployment methodology critically impact building system control and thermal comfort; however, traditionally sensing techniques are often suboptimal with respect to energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

For this project, ORNL, PNNL, and NREL will collaborate to develop a framework for investigating the impact of sensor configuration on building energy optimization, fault detection and diagnosis, occupant thermal comfort, and (potentially) grid efficiency. Potential sensor configuration use cases will be identified for building control and fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) applications. A novel sensor impact emulator to quantify the energy efficiency and thermal comfort impacts of sensor architecture design will be developed using building energy simulation, computational fluid dynamic models, and experimental study. Iterative simulation will then be used to optimize sensor configuration strategies.

Finally, building system use cases will be developed to demonstrate and validate the resulting evaluation framework. NREL's contributions to this project will focus on the FDD implications of sensor architecture.

Project Impact

The project team will evaluate the impact of new sensing technologies and their integration with existing building systems.