Non-intrusive monitoring systems for the refinement of energy analysis models in public buildings

The influence of occupant behavior and improper management practices on energy consumption in buildings is becoming increasingly significant with the decrease in the overall energy demand. The recent jump in smart meter technology opened new perspectives in monitoring occupant behavior and the poor management of air conditioning systems in buildings, allowing them to be used to refine energy consumption analysis and forecasting models. This paper describes the research activities carried out within the RSE 2024-25 High efficiency buildings for energy transition, aimed at implementing experimental data for monitoring indoor comfort in two public buildings in the municipality of Carbonia. Targeted measurement campaigns were conducted to evaluate electricity consumption in some residential and two public buildings. Primary energy consumption was instead estimated: for residential buildings, from sample interviews; for public buildings from municipal administration billings and systems’ operating hours. The hourly data provided by Indoor Air Quality sensors allowed the validation of the results obtained. The results show that the most significant errors (over 42%) are in estimating the primary energy requirement for summer air conditioning, largely due to unrealistic efficiency data on the generation systems. The data have been correlated to the different construction typologies and related to the territorial energy mapping of interest.