Ph. D.

Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

Project description for the Ph. D. Thesis of Marko Masic:

Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy
performance
1. Background
Growing demands for rational use of energy and demands for the better quality of indoor
environment lead to seeking of the new solutions in the heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC). These demands are by their nature conflicting and that is the reason for
the putting more efforts into the design and maintenance of the HVAC systems. Although
new products are presented, it is obvious that the biggest opportunity for the fulfilling these
demands exists in the better integration and maintenance of these systems. Some researches
regards that 20-30% of the energy can be saved in the existing commercial buildings by
rectifying faults in the operation of HVAC systems. This is the reason for the intensive
research in this field through the last decade conducted by IEA Energy Conservation in
Building and Community Systems (ECBCS) agreement.
It should be expected that functioning of HVAC system will be deteriorated during the life
time of the building. Also, some faults made in the design of the building often are not
noticed until building is put into the function. Designers often can not predict use of the
building and transient regimes of the building functioning. Also, maintenance of the HVAC
systems can often be poor and that can cause malfunction and also huge costs. These are the
reasons for introduction of the commissioning of building HVAC systems. This tool should
exceed all gaps which exist in all phases of the life time of HVAC systems, from the design
phase, through the installation, to the operation.
Building energy monitoring represents the tool which enables review and understanding of
actual building energy performance. It represents the outset for the improving of the HVAC
functioning. Since the prices of monitoring instruments are continuously decreasing, this
implies higher usage of these tools. However, monitoring should not be too complex. It
should give representative and clear information about functioning of HVAC system. That is
the reason for implementing standardized monitoring protocols.
Monitoring can not be seen as the isolated part of the overall HVAC system. It can be
concerned as the part of HVAC control system. IEA ECBCS have conducted several projects
dealing with control of HVAC systems. Annex 16 and 17 concerns Building Energy
Management Systems (BEMS). Annex 25 and 34 deals with fault detection and diagnostics in
the HVAC systems. Annex 40 and 47 concerns commissioning. It is obvious that monitoring
represents component of all this systems and processes. Growing knowledge in this field and
demands which stands in front the HVAC engineers imply systematization and
standardization of monitoring process.
Although different building energy monitoring projects can have different objectives and
scopes, all have several issues in common that allow methodologies, procedures and protocols
to be standardized. Monitoring can be uninstrumented (no additional instrumentation beyond
the utility meter) or instrumented (additional sources, such as installed instrumentation

Ph. D. Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

package). The main point is to make payable and quick measuring protocol (plan) for building
commissioning. The measuring protocol (plan) should allow low cost and effective building
examination. Also, all collected data from measuring must be easy adoptable through
commissioning calculation process (for example in building simulation, etc.).

2. Aim
The aim of the project is to make monitoring procedures easier for use through its
standardization. This way, monitoring will be more close to HVAC engineers and this should
lead to its higher presence in the engineering praxis. Also, there is the need for
systematization and connecting of monitoring with different techniques, such as
commissioning, control through BEMS and fault detection within HVAC systems.
The project will develop new guidelines for building monitoring projects that provide the
necessary measured data for use in commissioning, building diagnostics and continuous
verification of building energy performance. The project should develop common protocol for
selecting all field monitoring points so data can be readily verified and compared. The project
has to develop guidelines for pointing data and frequency of data collection. The number of
measuring points should ensure efficient, reliable and cheap monitoring. Also, monitoring
should give realistic review of consumption of the system parts. This will lead to faster
detection of the fault in HVAC system functioning. Buildings of today are intelligent, so
that it is sometimes hard to follow its work. Efficient monitoring system should exceed these
problems.
The guidelines should be specified for particular type of study and type of project. The project
has to specify monitoring procedures in the characteristic and most presented cases in the
HVAC systems. Unification of monitoring procedure will give easiness in the design and
using of monitoring system.
Diagnostic projects measure physical and operating parameters that determine the energy use
of building and system. The project goal is to determine the cause of problem, model or
improve energy performance of a building or building system, or isolate effects of
components.
Building monitoring has been significantly simplified and made more professional in the
recent years by the development of fairly standardized monitoring protocols. Although there
may be no way to define a protocol to encompass all types of monitoring applications,
repeatable and understandable methods of measuring and verifying retrofit savings are
needed. However, following a protocol does not replace adequate project planning and careful
assessment of project objectives and constraints.

Ph. D. Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

3. Scope of work
The project will especially be dealing with the following issues:
Planning: Many common problems in monitoring projects can be avoided by effective and
comprehensive planning. This implies developing plan protocols for commissioning
measuring in the particular types of buildings.
Implementation and Data Management: The following steps can facilitate smooth project
implementation and data management: calibrate sensors before installation; track sensors
performance regularly; generate and review data on a timely and periodic basis. Automating
the process of checking data reliability and accuracy can be invaluable.
Data Analysis and Reporting: The collected data must be analyzed and put into reports. The
objective is to translate these data into information and ultimately into knowledge and action.
The importance of this issue cannot be overemphasized. An automated data pipeline should
be developed.

4. Methods of Research
The research is based on the present methods for monitoring, control, fault detection and
diagnostics within HVAC systems. These methods encompass different tools, such as
optimization methods, simulations and numerical methods.
Building simulation programs will be used for verification of the monitoring procedures.
Different simulation studies will be performed. In the final phase, case study on the real
building will represent the final verification of the proposed monitoring procedure.
Optimization methods can be used for the determination of the monitoring scope, concerning
number of measuring points and frequency of measurements.
Different numerical methods can be used in the modeling of the processes, data acquisition,
etc.

5. Expected Results
The project should cover monitoring projects range from energy savings verification projects
to building performance monitoring. It will give procedure summarized through monitoring
protocol which will encompass different aspects of the monitoring process, such as
commissioning, control of HVAC system and fault detection.
The project should contribute to the Project Life-Time Commissioning for Efficient Operation
of Buildings (LTC Project). This means that it should be functional part of the project. All
procedures and protocols developed through this PhD project have to be complementary with

Ph. D. Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

other procedures developed by other participants in the project. This means that this study has
to be composed as the consisted part of the LTC Project.

6. Work Plan
The present work will consist of the following activities, further described below:
1. Literature study
2. Analysis and systematization of the HVAC monitoring for the most presented cases
3. Development of the procedure for the optimization of measuring points and frequency
of measuring.
4. Analysis of the fault detection procedures regarding monitoring
5. Development of the procedure which will encompass previous analysis and procedures
6. Verification of the monitoring procedures through building simulations
7. Case study on the real building as the final verification of the proposed monitoring
procedure
8. Documentation of work will be conducted through writing the Ph.D. thesis. In addition,
papers will be published to conferences and journals as the work proceeds.
Time schedule for the Ph. D. work
Activity

2006
1 2

2007
1 2

2008
1 2

Literature study
Work on the required Ph.D. courses

Analysis and systematization of the

HVAC monitoring for the most
presented cases
Development of the procedure for
the optimization of measuring
points and frequency of measuring
Analysis of the fault detection
procedures regarding monitoring
Development of the procedure
which will encompass previous
analysis and procedures
Verification of the monitoring
procedures
through
building
simulations
Case study on the real building as
the final verification of the proposed
monitoring procedure
Documentation of work

Ph. D. Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

7. References
1. Commissioning tools for improved energy performance, Results of IEA ECBCS
Annex 40, 2004
2. Summary of IAE Annexes 16 and 17, Results of IEA ECBCS Annex 16 and 17,
1997
3. Computer aided evaluation of HVAC system Performance, Results of IEA ECBCS
Annex 34, 2001
4. Real time simulation of HVAC systems for building optimization, fault detection and
diagnosis, Results of IEA ECBCS Annex 25, 1996
5.

Energy simulation in building design, J A Clarke, University of Strathclyde

Glasgow, Scotland, 2001

6. Design of thermal systems, W.F. Stoecker

7.

Control system design guide, PECI, 2006

8. Practical Guide for Commissioning Existing Buildings, Tudi Haasl and Terry Sharp,
PECI, 1999
9. The Commissioning Process, ASHRAE 1-2005,
10. The HVAC Commissioning Process, ASHRAE Guideline 1-1996
11. Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Novakovi V., Compendium for the Training
Program at University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade,
Serbia, prepared by Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim,
Norway, 2003
12. Projektovanje postrojenja za centralno grejanje, Todorovi B., Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade, 2000
13. Optimizing Energy Consumption and Indoor Environment in Cold Climate Buildings
through use of Simulation Codes and Optimizing Procedures, Novakovi V., N.J.
Holst, K. Kolsaker, KGH Magazine, Belgrade, 2003
14. Performance validation and energy analysis of HVAC systems using simulation,
Tim Salsbury and Rick Diamond, Energy and Buildings, Volume 32, Issue 1, June
2000
15. Fault detection in HVAC systems using model-based feedforward control, T. I.
Salsbury and R. C. Diamond, Energy and Buildings, Volume 33, Issue 4, April 2001
16. Fault-tolerant control and data recovery in HVAC monitoring system, Xiaoli Hao,
Guoqiang Zhang and Youming Chen, Energy and Buildings, Volume 37, Issue 2,
February 2005

Ph. D. Project Description: Using building energy monitoring to verify building energy performance

17. Transient pattern analysis for fault detection and diagnosis of HVAC systems
Energy Conversion and Management, Sung-Hwan Cho, Hoon-Cheol Yang, M.
Zaheer-uddin and Byung-Cheon Ahn, Volume 46, Issues 18-19, November 2005,
18. Portable Dataloggers - Diagnostic Tools for Energy-Efficient Building Operation,
Tudi Haasl, PECI, 1999

Trondheim, 16. August 2006.

Vojislav Novakovic
Teaching supervisor

Marko Masic
Candidate