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Turner, William J. N.
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Turner, William J. N.
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Turner, William J. N.
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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
- PublicationModelling Household Occupancy Profiles using Data Mining Clustering Techniques on Time Use Data(2017-08-09)
; ; ; A strong correlation exists between occupant behaviour and energy demand in residential buildings. The choice of the most suitable occupancy model to be integrated in high temporal resolution energy demand simulations is heavily in uenced by the purpose of the building energy demand model and it is a tradeoff between complexity and accuracy. The current paper introduces a new occupancy model that produces multi-day occupancy profiles and can be adaptable to various occupancy scenarios (e.g., at home all day, mostly absent) and scalable to different population sizes. The methodology exploits data mining clustering techniques with Time Use Survey (TUS) data to produce realistic building occupancy patterns. The overall methodology can be subdivided into two steps: 1. Identification and grouping of households with similar daily occupancy profiles, using data mining clustering techniques; 2. Creation of probabilistic occupancy profiles using 'inverse function method'. The data from the model can be used as input to residential dwelling energy models that use occupancy time-series as inputs.243Scopus© Citations 5 - PublicationGeocooling with integrated PCM thermal energy storage in a commercial buildingGeocooling and thermal energy storage (TES) are two strategies that could help alleviate the energy and carbon emission burden from cooling commercial buildings. This simulation study analyses the potential for geocooling, both with and without TES, in a Mediterranean climate. Spherically-encapsulated phase change material (PCM) was used as the thermal storage medium in the TES system. A PCM TES tank model was developed and validated within the TRNSYS environment. Using a small, lightweight commercial building as a case study, it was found that electricity savings of between 24 and 45% are possible from combining geocooling with TES, when compared to a system based on a reference ground-source heat pump (GSHP).
355Scopus© Citations 32 - PublicationDevelopment of occupancy-integrated archetypes: Use of data mining clustering techniques to embed occupant behaviour profiles in archetypesBuilding stock modelling usually deploys representative building archetypes to obtain reliable results of annual energy heating demand and to minimise the associated computational cost. Available methodologies define archetypes considering only the physical characteristics of buildings. Uniform occupancy schedules, which correspond to national averages, are generally used in archetype energy simulations, despite evidence of occupancy schedules which can vary considerably for each building. This paper presents a new methodology to define occupancy-integrated archetypes. The novel feature of these archetype models is the integration of different occupancy schedules within the archetype itself. This allows building stock energy simulations of national population subgroups characterised by specific occupancy profiles to be undertaken. The importance of including occupant-related data in residential archetypes, which is different than the national average, is demonstrated by applying the methodology to the UK national building stock. The resultant occupancy-integrated archetypes are then modelled to obtain the annual final heating energy demand. It is shown that the relative difference between the heating demand of occupancy-integrated archetypes and uniform occupancy archetypes can be up to 30%.
343Scopus© Citations 23 - PublicationA statistically-based fault detection approach for environmental and energy management in buildingsCommercial buildings during operation are dynamic environments where changes to control strategies and space usage regularly occur. As a result of these and other issues, a performance gap between design intent and actual building performance emerges. This paper seeks to address the operational performance gap and enhance operational building performance through statistically-based fault detection. Additionally, this paper seeks to remedy the knowledge gap building managers face in the identification of key building faults based on minimal quantities and streams of time-series building data. A new methodology is presented that incorporates simulation and breakout detection to address these issues. Residual based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts and Shewhart charts are compared against a breakout detection algorithm to identify shifts or faults in building performance data. Artificial faults are introduced into the measured time-series data to test the validity of the chosen statistical techniques. Statistical metric sensitivity and precision are calculated to quantify the performance of the new methodology. A summary of results demonstrate that the breakout detection algorithm was the most effective method in detecting meaningful faults in building performance data, followed by residual based EWMA and Shewhart models.
534Scopus© Citations 17 - PublicationLumped Parameter Building Model Calibration using Particle Swarm Optimization(2016-11-29)
; ; ; ; This paper presents a methodology for the automated calibration of deterministic lumped parameter models in building energy simulation using optimization methods. A heterogeneous model topology is proposed to represent a residential building archetype developed in the EnergyPlus simulation environment. The archetype model has previously been used to characterize the domestic building stock in Ireland. The automated calibration problem is solved as a least squares error problem solved using a local optimization method (Sequential Quadratic Programming) and two heuristics methods (Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm). It is shown that Particle Swarm Optimization provides the best performance for this particular problem and provides an inherent robustness under model uncertainty.579 - PublicationModelling residential building stock heating load demand - Comparison of occupancy models at large scale(2017-06-28)
; ; ; In the residential housing sector, a strong correlation exists between occupant behaviour and space heating energy use. In particular, the occupancy scenario (e.g., daytime absence, morning presence, etc.) has a significant influence on residential heating load profiles, as well as on cumulative heating energy consumption. In the literature, many occupancy models have been utilised to predict occupancy profiles of individual dwellings as part of larger residential building stocks. The choice of the most suitable occupancy model is a trade-off between complexity, accuracy and computational effort, as well as model integration at large scale. The current paper analyzes the combined influence of different occupancy assumptions and different occupancy models on housing heating loads for a UK building stock sample. The building stock heating loads are estimated using a dynamic thermal model based on an equivalent Resistance-Capacitance electric circuit. It is assumed that the heating periods are coincident with the actively occupied periods. The actively occupied periods are first determined using two existing consolidated occupancy models, and then by using newly developed probabilistic occupancy models. All the models are characterised by a different grade of complexity and accuracy. Comparing the results of all the presented methodologies, the advantages of the new probabilistic approaches are analyzed.152 - PublicationClustering of household occupancy profiles for archetype building modelsThe continued penetration of renewable energy sources in electricity generation and the de-carbonization of the domestic space heating and hot water sectors is increasing the importance of demand side management (DSM). The development of end-use energy consumption models that can be easily integrated with electricity dispatch models is crucial for the assessment of the integration of supply and demand. The energy consumption of the domestic building stock is highly correlated with occupant behaviour, however the inclusion of occupant behaviour in energy models is challenging due to its highly variable nature. Nevertheless, in order to obtain reliable models of domestic energy consumption at high time resolution, the analysis of occupant behaviour patterns is fundamental. This paper aims to develop a new methodology to generate realistic occupancy patterns that can be representative of large numbers of households. This method is based on the clustering of household occupancy profiles using the UK 2000 Time Use Survey data as a case study. The occupancy profiles that result from this method can be used as input to residential building energy end-use models, thereby giving improved overall model performance.
642Scopus© Citations 34 - PublicationBuilding Performance Optimisation: A Hybrid Architecture for the Integration of Contextual Information and Time Series DataBuildings tend to not operate as intended, and a pronounced gap often exists between measured and predicted environmental and energy performance. Although the causes of this ‘performance gap’ are multi-faceted, issues surrounding data integration are key contributory factors. The distributed nature of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry presents many challenges to the effective capture, integration and assessment of building performance data. Not all building data can be described semantically, nor is it feasible to create adapters between many different software tools. Similarly, not all building contextual data can easily be captured in a single product-centric model. This paper presents a new solution to the problem based upon a hybrid architecture that links data which is retained in its original format. The architecture links existing and efficient relational databases storing time-series data and semantically-described building contextual data. The main contribution of this work is an original RDF syntax structure and ontology to represent existing database schema information, and a new mechanism that automatically prepares data streams for processing by rule-based performance definitions. Two test cases evaluate the concept by 1) applying the hybrid architecture to building performance data from an actual building, and 2) evaluating the efficiency of the architecture against a purely RDF-based solution that also stores all of the time-series data in RDF for a virtual building. The hybrid architecture also avoids the duplication of time-series data and overcomes some of the differences found in database schemas and database platforms.
710Scopus© Citations 23 - PublicationEnsemble Calibration of Lumped Parameter Retrofit Building Models using Particle Swarm Optimization(Elsevier, 2017-11-15)
; ; ; Simulation-based building retrofit analysis tools and electricity grid expansion planning tools are not readily compatible. Their integration is required for the combined study of building retrofit measures and electrified heating technologies using low-carbon electricity generation. The direct coupling of these modelling frameworks requires the explicit mathematical representation of Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) in building-to-grid energy system models. The current paper introduces an automated calibration methodology which describes retrofitted buildings as parametric functions of ECMs. The buildings are represented using a lumped parameter modelling framework. A baseline model, representative of the building prior to retrofit, and the retrofit functions are calibrated using Particle Swarm Optimization. Synthetic temperature and heating load time-series data were generated using an EnergyPlus semi-detached house archetype model. The model is representative of this residential building category in Ireland. It is shown that the proposed methodology calibrates retrofitted building models to an acceptable level of accuracy (MAE below 0.5 °C). The methodologies introduced in the current paper are capable of generating lumped parameter building models with similar dynamics for different ECMs for any archetype building energy model. The identified building retrofit models have the potential to be integrated with electricity grid models in a computationally-efficient manner.410Scopus© Citations 16