Energy consumption estimator for building climate conditioning systems

A method for estimating energy required to a target building having a climate control system associated therewith, in order to obtain desired indoor environmental conditions based on given outdoor environmental variables, the method comprising:

• in a training phase:
• a) for each of a plurality of individual buildings, each having a climate control system associated therewith, collecting and averaging building-specific characterization data over a first time period (T1), the characterization data comprising outdoor environmental variables, respective indoor environmental variables, and the energy supplied to the respective individual building, the climate conditioning system being active during at least a portion of the first time period (T1);
• b) for each individual building, utilizing one or more building-specific characterization data to calculate at least one individual building-specific characteristic parameter (k), the parameter (k) being calculated utilizing at least outdoor and indoor environmental variables and energy supplied to the respective individual building;
• c) for each of the plurality of individual buildings, collecting building-specific training data over a second time period (T2), the training data comprising outdoor environmental variables, respective indoor environmental variables, and the energy supplied to the respective individual building over the second time period (T2), the climate conditioning system being active during at least a portion of the second time period (T2);
• d) using a computer system capable of executing a grey-box type artificial intelligence software, training a single mathematical model of a building using aggregated building-specific training data collected from the plurality of individual buildings to output an estimate of the energy supplied to each individual building in the second time period (T2), the model being responsive to input data obtained at the second time period (T2), the input data comprising for each building of the plurality of buildings, outdoor environmental variables, and indoor environmental variables, and the respective building-specific characteristic parameter (k);
• in an adaptation phase:
• e) for the target building, collecting and averaging target building characterization data over a third time period (T3), the target building characterization data comprising outdoor environmental variables, respective indoor environmental variables, and the energy supplied to the target building, the target building climate conditioning system being active during at least a portion of the first time period (T3);
• f) for the target building, utilizing one or more target building characterization data to calculate a target building characteristic parameter (k) in the same manner as done for the calculation of building-specific characteristic parameter (k) in step b);
• in one or more estimation phases:
• g) utilizing the grey-box type artificial intelligence software as used in step d), estimating energy (Etarget) to be supplied to the target building using the mathematical model of step d) by supplying thereto a value representative of targeted indoor environmental conditions, the target building characteristic parameter (k), and measured, estimated, and/or forecasted outdoor environmental variables;
• and,
• h) communicating to a user output device the estimated energy (Etarget) to be supplied.