Virtual sensors for estimation of energy consumption and thermal comfort in buildings with underfloor heating

Evaluating a building’s performance usually requires a high number of sensors especially if individual rooms are analyzed. This paper introduces a simple and scalable model-based virtual sensor that allows analysis of a buildings’ heat consumption down to room level using mainly simple temperature sensors. The approach is demonstrated with different sensor models for a case study of a building that contains a hybrid HVAC system and uses fossil and renewable energy-sources. The results show that, even with simple sensor models, reasonable estimations of rooms’ heat consumption are possible and that rooms with high heat consumption are identified. Further, the paper illustrates how virtual sensors for thermal comfort can support the decision making to identify the best ways to optimize building system efficiency while reducing the building monitoring cost.