Profit assessment of home energy management system for buildings with A-G energy labels

Abstract

There are various studies related to the advantages of implementing home energy management system (HEMS) for residential buildings to minimize the cost of energy consumption and improve user’s comfort level. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive study to evaluate benefits of utilizing HEMS technologies in various residential buildings with different insulation quality (highly or poorly insulated buildings, which can be determined by energy labels). Therefore, in this paper, a concise yet comprehensive comparative analysis is conducted to investigate the operating profits of using HEMS technologies in residential buildings with different energy labels. Moreover, this comparative analysis is performed with two different heat emission systems: radiator only system and a combination of floor–radiator system. The HEMS performance results are presented and compared for both the heating systems in terms of minimizing the cost of energy and the user’s comfort. Also, the results for each building are compared with a baseline case (without HEMS technology) for both heating systems to prove the HEMS performance effectiveness. The simulation results demonstrate that the HEMS operating profits increase as the building insulation quality rises. For example, the HEMS can minimize the cost of energy by 41% in a building with label “A” (highly insulated building), while in a building with label “G”, the energy cost minimization is 26% under the same conditions. Finally, it is proved that the HEMS is more effective with floor-radiator combination heat emission system rather than the radiator only system.