One of the most critical challenges of this century is the increasing global demand for energy and the resulting impact on the environment. Worldwide, the residential and commercial sectors use 2589 Mtoe (mega tonnes of oil equivalent) in energy, which accounts for almost 40% of final energy use in the world.[1]  In European countries, 76% of this energy goes towards comfort control in buildings - heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Immediate action to improve this large energy consumption is arguably more pressing than in any other, due to the long lifespans of buildings and the fact that improvements made at design-time are generally more effective and cheaper to implement than retrofits.

The research in the area of building control at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH aims at the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings with maintained or increased user comfort. Currently, the focus is on two projects, which both started in 2007. 

Fig: Energy efficiency by using new designs and advanced IT technology and control.

Projects: 

    OptiControl: 

    Energy efficient ventilation: 

Contact:

Building Control Group Automatic Control Laboratory Physikstrasse 3 CH-8092 Zürich building@control.ee.ethz.ch

Fig: View at the buildings in ETH Hönggerberg.               © Hannes Röst, CC by-sa.

Acknowledgments:  The "OptiControl"  project is carried out in cooperation with Siemens Building Technologies, the Building Technologies Laboratory of EMPA Dübendorf  (Materials Science and Technology), the Federal Institute for Meterology and Climatology MeteoSwiss and the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich.           "OptiControl" is funded by Swisselectric Research and is part of the large-scale project  "Innovative Building Technologies for the 2000 W Society" (House2000, lead by T. Frank, EMPA). "House2000" is supported by the ETH domain's "Competence Center Energy and Mobility" (CCEM-CH). The "Energy Efficient Ventilation" project is done in collaboration with Siemens Building Technologies, as well as the BP Institute for Multiphase Flows, University of Cambridge, England. The "Energy Efficient Ventilation" project is funded by the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) in the area of  mobile information and communication systems, MICS.