Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2020) | Viewed by 15082

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. George Cristian Lazaroiu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Faculty of Energy, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: energy systems; renewable energy sources; smart cities; optimization of power systems operation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Mariacristina Roscia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Science Applied, Universita di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
Interests: smart cities; smart home; smart building; prosumer side management; IoT; blockchain; electric vehicles; smart grids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart cities must be sustainable not only from an energy point of view, but also from the environmental and social points of view, in order to improve quality of life. However, often what may be valid for one city cannot be applied to another city.

This Special Issue aims to define how smart cities can be implemented, regardless of their geographical location and political horizons. A common key element is the individual, who through technology must become an intelligent, active prosumer, whose ultimate goal is to improve their quality of life and sustainability at all levels (social, economic, political, environmental, etc.).

Therefore, this Special Issue supports and encourages researchers who collaborate in a multidisciplinary way to converge towards a unique, complex, adaptable and resilient global solution.

It must also provide a practical aid for decision-makers to push economies in this direction, supported by scientific contributions, which make SCs feasible and not abstract utopias.

There are many opportunities for creating smart cities, but it is crucial that the strategic vision finds full consensus from all public and private operators, as well as the citizens themselves, who must share the change in action. Smart cities must be equipped with decision-making abilities and conscience, and this is the greatest effort that is required of new technologies.

Smart cities can become the Internet of the third millennium.

This is the real smart challenge and we have to be part of it.

Prof. Dr. George Cristian Lazaroiu
Prof. Dr. Mariacristina Roscia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

smart cities
smart buildings
IoT
prosumer side management (PSM)
smart homes
smart agents
smart grids for smart cities
bussiness energy models
blockchain
quality of life
sustainable urban development

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

33 pages, 11725 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of IoT and BEMS to Visualise the Environmental Performance of an Educational Building

by Mohataz Hossain, Zhenzhou Weng, Rosa Schiano-Phan, David Scott and Benson Lau

Energies 2020, 13(15), 4009; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13154009 - 03 Aug 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5700

Abstract

This paper presents the application of Internet of Things (IoT) Technology and Building Energy Management System (BEMS) within the Marylebone Campus of the University of Westminster, located in central London, to improve the environmental performance of the existing building as well as enhance the learning experience on energy and sustainability. Sixty IoT sensors connected to minicomputers were planned to be deployed within three floors of the building to continuously measure the real-time environmental parameters, such as dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity, illuminance level, carbon dioxide, and sound levels. Experimental workshops were also arranged with undergraduate and post-graduate students at their classrooms using IoT sensors, portable Bluetooth sensors and online questionnaires to increase awareness of the effect of environmental and behavioural changes on energy saving through real-time visualisation. Users’ subjective feedback on their workplace was also collected through Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) questionnaire surveys. The results show the effectiveness of IoT systems and BEMS in supplying the building users and management with high-resolution, low-cost data acquisition systems highlighting the existing challenges and future scopes. The study also documents the process and the improvement in students’ awareness of environmental and energy performance of their building through IoT data visualizations and POE. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

26 pages, 1667 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Potential of RES in the Reduction of Air Pollution: The SWOT Analysis of Smart Energy Management Solutions for Krakow Functional Area (KrOF)

by Tomasz Jeleński, Marta Dendys, Barbara Tomaszewska and Leszek Pająk

Energies 2020, 13(7), 1754; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13071754 - 06 Apr 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3347

Abstract

Health impacts and a decrease in the quality of life caused by air pollution is a major problem worldwide. Krakow is one of the most affected cities in the EU by air pollution mostly caused by burning solid fuels in households’ furnaces. It is considered that the most effective remedies would be adequate spatial planning solutions and application of low-emission sources including renewable energy sources (RES). This article draws from the analysis of the use of RES as a means for reducing harmful emissions in Krakow Functional Area (KrOF). The inventories of renewable energy sources and systems were compiled by the authors as a part of the EU project “Smart Edge—Sustainable Metropolitan Areas and the Role of The Edge City”. Using the data from the inventories, a SWOT analysis has been carried out to identify factors that determine the smart management of the RES potential, particularly the decisions of households on the transition towards RES. The results of the analysis have shown that many actions have been taken at the national, regional, and local levels but the greatest influence bear the solutions initiated and implemented at the communal level. The conclusion is that legislative regulations should be combined with locally tailor-made instruments. The proposed method of analysis can be applied in other metropolitan areas as a diagnostic procedure supporting action planning to solve air-quality problems caused by distributed emission sources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 7292 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stationary Energy Storage System for Fast EV Charging Stations: Optimality Analysis and Results Validation

by Akhtar Hussain, Van-Hai Bui, Ju-Won Baek and Hak-Man Kim

Energies 2020, 13(1), 230; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13010230 - 02 Jan 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2983

Abstract

In order to minimize the peak load of electric vehicles (EVs) and enhance the resilience of fast EV charging stations, several sizing methods for deployment of the stationary energy storage system (ESS) have been proposed. However, methods for assessing the optimality of the obtained results and performance of the determined sizes under different conditions are missing. In order to address these issues, a two-step approach is proposed in this study, which comprises of optimality analysis and performance evaluation steps. In the case of optimality analysis, random sizes of battery and converter (scenarios) are generated using Monte Carlo simulations and their results are compared with the results of sizes obtained from sizing methods. In order to carry out this analysis, two performance analysis indices are proposed in this study, which are named the cost index and the power index. These indices respectively determine the performance of the determined sizes in terms of total network cost and performance ratio of power bought during peak intervals and investment cost of the ESS. During performance evaluation, the performance of the determined sizes (battery and converter) are analyzed for different seasons of the year and typical public holidays. Typical working days and holidays have been analyzed for each season of the year and suitability of the determined sizes is analyzed. Simulation results have proved that the proposed method is suitable for determining the optimality of results obtained by different sizing methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1568 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fault Isolability Analysis and Optimal Sensor Placement for Fault Diagnosis in Smart Buildings

by Max Emil S. Trothe, Hamid Reza Shaker, Muhyiddine Jradi and Krzysztof Arendt

Energies 2019, 12(9), 1601; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en12091601 - 26 Apr 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2484

Abstract

Faults and anomalies in buildings are among the main causes of building energy waste and occupant discomfort. An effective automatic fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) process in buildings can therefore save a significant amount of energy and improve the comfort level. Fault diagnosability analysis and an optimal FDD-oriented sensor placement are prerequisites for effective, efficient and successful diagnostics. This paper addresses the problem of fault diagnosability for smart buildings. The method used in the paper is a model-based technique which uses Dulmage-Mendelsohn decomposition. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that this method is used for applications in smart buildings. First a dynamic model for a zone in a real-case building is developed in which faults are also introduced. Then fault diagnosability is investigated by analyzing the fault isolability of the model. Based on the investigation, it was concluded that not all the faults in the model are diagnosable. Then an approach for placing new sensors is implemented. It is observed that for two test scenarios, placing additional sensors in the model leads to full diagnosability. Since sensors placement is key for an effective FDD process, the optimal placement of such sensors is also studied in this work. A case study of campus building OU44 at the University of Southern Denmark is considered. The results show that as the system gets more complicated by introducing more faults, additional sensors should be added to achieve full diagnosability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Smart Building, Smart Cities, Home Automation and IoT

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (4 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI