Efficient Design Incorporating Fundamental Improvements for Control and Integrated Optimisation

Operating a building efficiently means co-ordinating the physical plants with constantly changing needs. Building energy management is performed in different ways, on European scale, since design, manufacture, engineering, installation, commissioning and maintenance processes are contemporary involved, and it reflects the wide variations in climate, building type, space per capita, control and management methods, and national regulations. Optimisation and integration through smart building control systems can save substantial amounts of energy while improving requirements for indoor comfort. The EDIFICIO project, funded in part by the EU Commission in the frame of the JOULE III Programme, has the goal to develop innovative, adaptive, integrated control systems for the optimal energy management and indoor comfort in buildings. This is achieved by using Soft Computing Techniques (SCT), specially Fuzzy Logic (FL), Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Genetic Algorithms (GAs).