Building operation and energy performance: Monitoring, analysis and optimisation toolkit

Buildings consume 40% of global primary energy and contribute to in excess of 30% CO2 emissions. The potential to save energy by systematic building management is known to be significant and estimates range from 5% to 30%. Many research projects have developed IT tools and methodologies to address the complex problem of building energy performance management with various approaches. This research reviews some of these new approaches and proposes a novel integrated toolkit designed to assist energy managers at different stages of their activity relating to systematic energy management in buildings. The focus of this paper is particularly centred on the applicability of the integrated toolkit in the building industry and the potential of the integrated toolkit to achieve energy savings on an industrial scale. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.