A brief review of adaptive building energy management and control applications

Building energy management techniques and energy controllers have potentials for enhancing building energy efficiency and improving occupant comfort. However, sudden and unforeseen events affecting building variables challenge the effectiveness of traditional controlling systems. Adaptive building energy management and control systems can adapt to changes quickly and make optimum control decisions, through dynamic adjustments to changing conditions. Adaptive control systems, regulating the operation of the building HVAC system, and adaptive management systems, planning the efficient performance of buildings, can ensure the reliability of building system operation while increasing resilience. In this paper, some influential articles concerning adaptive control and management of buildings are reviewed. This review classifies selected studies into adaptive control and management systems and distinguished them based on their adaptation method (reactive/proactive). Proactive adaptation involves future forecast for making decisions, while in reactive one, controllers just respond to immediate changes. Finally, as a result of the synthesis of reviewed papers, the concepts of “adaptation cycle” and “adaptation spiral” are proposed and explained to provide a better understanding of the adaptation process. Improving the intelligence of these adaptive systems utilizing the potential of virtual models and adaptation cycle/spiral leads to developing controllers that can manage energy consumption, flexibility potential, thermal comfort, and resilience of buildings autonomously.