Energy Management, Energy Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

Energies is delighted to invite submissions of original research articles, case studies, and reviews to an upcoming Special Issue centred around the theme of “Energy Management, Energy Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Buildings”.

Decarbonizing buildings while ensuring building resilience, equity, and affordability as well as occupant comfort remains paramount. Since the evolution of AI, the spectrum of approaches to enhance building energy efficiency has broadened, opening substantial new avenues for research in building engineering. For instance, the accessibility of open-source building-related data coupled with the application of data science has paved the way for research opportunities aimed at improving load prediction and building performance simulation accuracy at both the building and urban scale. The progress in Advanced Building Control (ABC) has catalysed research on building energy flexibility and energy optimization. Energy storage systems are increasingly contributing to peak-shifting and -shaving strategies and the prolonged operation of renewable energy systems, thus expanding the research scope for energy sustainability in buildings. In addition to the above, the potential role of occupants in maximising energy savings and energy efficiency remains relatively underexplored, presenting a significant opportunity for future research. Accordingly, this Special Issue is designed to cover these pivotal areas, aiming to maximise building energy efficiency with a focus on energy management and sustainability. While this Special Issue appears to encompass a wide range of topics, this breadth is envisioned to be advantageous for consolidating high-quality research on building energy efficiency.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Data science for building energy management, energy feedback, and energy-saving advisories;
• Pattern extraction and the application of data mining to reduce uncertainties in building energy performance simulation;
• Urban building energy modelling;
• Occupancy modelling concepts and the role of occupants in building energy management;
• Advanced control strategies including occupant-centric control strategies;
• Fault detection and diagnosis in HVAC systems;
• Renewable energy integration and micro-grids;
• Energy storage systems for building energy management and sustainability;
• Heat pumps for building space conditioning and water heating applications.

This Special Issue is committed to the open-access, rapid publication of high-quality research works related to its broad scope. By presenting new research results that build on the existing literature on the above-mentioned topics, this SI aims to uncover the links between data science, AI, energy efficiency, and low-carbon technologies. Applications of data science at the urban scale, challenges in urban building energy modelling, and studies that predominantly support building energy code updates related to occupant schedules (occupancy, thermostats, appliances, hot water demand) are also encouraged.  

Dr. Karthik Panchabikesan
Prof. Dr. Ursula Eicker
Dr. Fuzhan Nasiri
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.

• building energy management
• energy-efficient buildings
• data science advancement in buildings
• net-zero-energy buildings
• decarbonization
• energy storage systems
• energy flexibility