Overview
People live a large portion (app 85%) of their lives in buildings, at home, at work or at leisure activities. Historically, buildings were just passive consumers of energy with no possibility to monitor or reduce their energy use. Building sector is responsible for a significant share of approximately 40% of total energy demand in EU, due to various factors such growth of population but also changes in life style, and thus also the largest CO₂ emitters.
The step forward towards smart buildings involves the use of information and communications technology-based systems, services and technology in order to optimise the performance of technical systems.
The module 'Smart Buildings: Modern technologies and systems integration' will consist of a comprehensive learning set which will provide students with specific and practical knowledge on building “smartness”, entailing the building’s ability to sense, interpret, communicate and actively respond to changing internal and external conditions as well as building occupants’ behaviour.
Learning objectives
Students will be introduced to:
- A smart building concept and why this is significant in today's world.
- Smart metering and data collection.
- Energy management tools and functionalities.
- Smart readiness indicator (SRI).
- The basic principles of how new technologies and processes are used towards building smartness such as demand side management.
- Specific building systems and how they can impact greenhouse gas emissions.
