Smart Readiness Research Articles

Enhancing smart readiness of buildings: bridging the knowledge gap to European citizens

ABSTRACT This study delves into the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), an innovative measure designed to assess and enhance the smart capabilities of buildings across Europe. Addressing the critical question, ‘How can the SRI be effectively documented, made more accessible to European citizens, continuously monitored, and financially supported to enhance its adoption and under-standing?’ This research aims to bridge the gap between the conceptual framework of SRI and its practical implementation for the benefit of European citizens. The study introduces the SRI FAQ Initiative, a pivotal effort aimed at demystifying the SRI through the compilation and dissemination of essential questions and answers. The establishment of the SRI Observatory is another significant outcome, documenting the ongoing development of SRI and providing annual out-looks for future advancements. The research employs a multifaceted methodology, incorporating field research, extensive literature reviews, stakeholder interviews, and both digital and roundtable discussions.

An adaptive framework for assessing climate resilience in buildings

As global climates continue to evolve, the urgency to enhance built environments against environmental challenges becomes more pronounced. Inspired by the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI)—a system for assessing a building’s smart readiness—this study introduces a framework to assess and evaluate climate resilience in buildings. The framework assesses a building’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse climate-related events. It begins with a climate exposure analysis that examines certain hazards and incorporates historical weather data for a comprehensive exposure analysis. Based on this analysis, a structured and quantifiable approach is employed to assess and benchmark the resilience of different building typologies across several domains. The assessment is grounded in qualitative analysis through extensive literature research, institutional guidelines, and best practices. It also employs a dynamic weighting based on the exposure assessment of a building’s location, assigning resilience importance according to the climate risks faced. Initially applied to two buildings in Athens, Greece, and Helsinki, Finland — locations with significantly different climatic characteristics — the framework was then tested in experimental simulations. These simulations highlight the framework’s adaptability to different climatic conditions. Finally, we summarize the major findings of the research, emphasizing its importance in promoting climate-resilient building practices, supporting the inventory of building stock, and aiding decision-making against increasingly intense and frequent climate risks.

Assessment of the potential correlation between Smart Readiness Indicator and energy performance in a dataset of buildings in South Tyrol

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive introduced the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), a common European system for assessing buildings’ smart readiness. While not mandatory across the European Union, some countries have initiated trial phases, and several studies already examined its application in different Member States. In this work, we present the findings of an extensive application of the SRI methodology on a sample of 59 recently constructed or recently renovated high-performance buildings in South Tyrol, Italy. Our research focused on two main objectives: (1) characterizing the level of smart readiness of state-of-the-art modern buildings in the Italian Alpine region of South Tyrol, and (2) discussing the potential correlation between the level of smart readiness and building energy performance class. Specifically, the HVAC and building systems with the most widespread adoption of advanced smart technologies were identified, as well as those configurations with traditional control solutions suggesting potential for improvement. The analysis proved that the different building categories present various levels of smart readiness, which is higher for the local office buildings and lower for the residential ones. No particular correlation was found between smart readiness and energy performance class, suggesting the need of adopting the SRI to give a more comprehensive characterization of the building performances.

Towards harmonising energy performance certificate indicators in Europe

Achieving the European Union's ambitious goal of transforming buildings into carbon-neutral assets is crucial for combating climate change and improving energy efficiency. The harmonization of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) plays a vital role in this effort. It can provide a standardized measure of building energy performance, which is crucial for benchmarking and improving energy efficiency across Member States. In the context of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) of 2024, this study examines the progress made by EU Member States in standardizing EPCs. The research aims to evaluate the implementation of EPC indicators, focusing on data quality, calculation methods, and costs. The methodological procedure followed for the study led to the development of a dedicated Cross Comparative Matrix (CCM) to assess the implementation of EPC indicators across 27 EU Member States and their reading feature allowed the declination into three scenarios for different EPC data analysis: qualitative, quantitative and burden costs. The findings reveal significant disparities, particularly in areas such as thermal comfort and smart readiness, due to the lack of a common methodology and local regulatory differences. While key indicators like energy performance class and primary energy use are widely implemented, compliance with EU standards varies. The study concludes by recommending standardized methodologies and enhanced assessor training to improve EPC quality, harmonization, and effectiveness. This research contributes to policy discussions by offering a comprehensive framework for EPC evaluation and insights into improving data quality, reliability, and accessibility. The originality of this study lies in its cross-national analysis, highlighting the need for a unified EPC scheme to promote building sustainability across the EU.

A novel framework for assessing the smartness and the smart readiness level in highly electrified non-residential buildings: A Norwegian case study

This work presents a new operational framework to measure the smartness and smart readiness of highly electrified buildings. The framework seeks to enhance legacy systems and controls of existing buildings and establish minimum criteria for future constructions to ensure they interact effectively with users and the grid, aiming for a clean energy transition. To this end, we develop two modified complementary assessments, one based on the method indicated by the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), proposed by the European Union (EU), and the other following the Smart by Powerhouse scheme, introduced by a Norwegian consortium of stakeholders focused on developing future proof climate buildings. The proposed structure is implemented in ten non-residential buildings in Norway with different energy systems, typologies, and construction dates. The results of this study demonstrate that energy flexibility quantification plays a crucial role in correctly implementing the framework in highly electrified buildings. Therefore, the dynamic impact of having Electric Vehicle Charging (EVC) and other electrical-dependent loads must be considered in the assessment. With the proposed modifications, the EVC weight in the flexibility score now varies from 24.0 to 43.6%, up from the original 5%. Overall, the pilot buildings have a smart readiness level between 21.6% and 31.7%, with mostly automated smartness levels. Nevertheless, the study also emphasizes the need to differentiate current HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) technologies and their efficiencies.

How Can Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Contribute to the Assessment of the Smart Readiness Indicator?

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) is a framework introduced by the EU in 2018 to assess smart buildings in various aspects. However, the SRI has been criticized for several limitations, including its ambiguous service definitions. This paper proposes the application of Non-Intrusive-Load Monitoring (NILM) technology to enhance SRI evaluation on the example of SRI service E-12. NILM can be used to disaggregate energy consumption data to end use levels and allows for granular non-intrusive energy consumption measurement. The study involves a rigorous methodology using open sensor data and NILM algorithms to evaluate device-specific energy consumption We evaluate the IDEAL dataset and three different frequencies (5s, 15min, 1h), three different algorithms (CO, RNN, Seq2Point) and one data imputation strategies (forward filling). The results show that with a higher frequency, the performance metrics (F-score, normalized absolute error) increase. Regarding further considerations, we identify a trade-off between resource and energy efficiency, as well as privacy considerations with increasing measurement frequency. To achieve its aims for awareness, the SRI needs to consider interoperability and appropriate aggregations (frequency and spatial).

Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) as a Decision-Making Tool for Low Carbon Buildings

According to the European Energy Efficiency Directive for Buildings, member states are required to develop long-term strategies to adopt more sustainable, secure, and decarbonized energy systems in buildings by 2050. In this line of approach, an optional common regime has been established to define and calculate the smart readiness of buildings and assess their ability to adapt their operation to the needs of the occupants and the network. Thus, the smart readiness indicator (SRI) emerged, which assesses technological readiness by examining the presence and evaluation of the functionality level of various smart services, aiming at energy savings, the ability of the building to respond to users’ needs, and energy flexibility. This paper focuses on examining the SRI calculation methodology’s application to an office building, which is currently being deeply renovated. Initially, there is an analysis of the SRI, its calculation methodology, and its goals. This is followed by the practical calculation part of the SRI for a typical office building located in Greece and belonging to the climate zone of southern Europe. The results indicate that the SRIs application is not a straightforward issue since parameters that need to be considered are not regulated to the same degree. On the other hand, SRI can provide a stimulus for exploiting the renovation potential of buildings, precisely by integrating the various aspects and linking those to the use of innovative technologies.

Constructing A Climate-Smart readiness index for smallholder farmers: The case of prioritized bundles of climate information services and climate smart agriculture in Ghana

Issues around bundling of climate smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS) have been kept relatively distinct whereas in reality, they are more impactful when integrated. Using the case of the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Change Research in Africa (AICCRA) Project that emphasizes bundling as a critical component of research in development, six regions of Ghana were purposively selected based on the identified value chain crops for implementation. 120 respondents including practicing farmers and advisors as reference, rated contributions of 21 innovations to 25 climate smartness indicators. These include gender, youth and social inclusion (GSI), enabling environment (EE), ability to enhance soil, water, crop and animal health (One-Health Achievement) (OHA), end-user friendliness (EUF) and climate smart agriculture (CS) for prioritization, bundling and ultimately to construct a Climate Smart Readiness Index (CSRI). There was a high level of concordance between the ratings of farmers and advisors on the Climate Smartness; moderate concordance on OHA and a lower concordance on GSI. The CS and EUF had a significant and same agreement among farmers while EE had a substantial same agreement among advisors. These elements (CS, GSI, OHA, EUF, EE) formed an integral part of the CSRI construct confirmed by the Fornell-Larcker and the Heterotrait-Monotrait criteria. While OHA was the fundamental factor in determining CSRI for farmers, EE was considered more important by the advisors. CSRI informs policy makers and agricultural practitioners on appropriate bundling of CSA and CIS practices to generate evidence for farmer preparedness in the context of resilience, productivity, adaptation, and mitigation.

A novel framework to measure and promote smartness in neighborhoods

Although several sustainability rating systems have been proposed to assess the sustainability performance of projects, there is still no comprehensive framework to support the implementation of smart solutions within buildings and neighborhoods.To bridge this gap, this research project aims to propose an assessment framework to measure the smart readiness of neighborhood which can make a significant contribution in structuring and valuing existing potential technologies and smart solutions through various conceptual levels of smartness. This framework is developed using a mixed method approach through three phases: i) creating the taxonomy of smartening KPIs; ii) assigning weights to the KPIs by formulating determinant indexes reflecting sustainability and ESG targets (Customized based on four well-known certifications namely, LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, and GRESB); iii) introducing an output-based measurement method; finally, the framework is tested on a case study. The implementation of the smartening assessment framework through the different use of smart solutions and technologies resulted in a progressive sum of scores which emphasized the importance of stakeholders' engagement in planning smartening scenarios. This framework empowers managers and policymakers to clarify the objective level of smartness mostly through different social and environmental aspects and quantitatively distinguish the critical differences between smart and smarter neighborhoods.

Enhancing the smart readiness of buildings: Combining Collective intelligence and Reinforcement learning in Building Energy Management

This research introduces a novel Energy Management approach, named CIRLEM, aiming to enhance the smartness of buildings by focusing on technical systems operations, environmental variations, and occupants' needs. Deployed in a simulated environment using Building Performance Simulation and Python integration, the study evaluates CIRLEM's performance under future extreme cold weather scenarios, employing a set of representative climate data. The pilot case, two building blocks in Sweden, undergoes assessment for energy demand, peak power, and thermal comfort. Results indicate that CIRLEM, particularly when driven by demand and price signals, effectively reduces energy demand and costs, demonstrating strong adaptability to extreme weather conditions. Thermal comfort is maintained regarding the temperature limits and variations. Ongoing developments attempt to refine the reward function and signal generation for thermal comfort enhancement and real-world implementation.

Energy Analyses and Optimization Proposals for Hotels in Sicily: A Case Study

The recent post-pandemic period has economically affected many business sectors. One of these is the hotel industry. As a result of this economic crisis, it is necessary to act on the economic costs of running energy-intensive buildings such as a hotel. The thermal and electrical energy consumption of an accommodation facility weighs heavily on the economic balance. Governments around the globe have moved to help those activities in need. To improve the sustainability of the hospitality sector from an environmental and economic point of view, the introduction of energy retrofit solutions is mandatory. Following European sustainability laws, the impact and efficiency of the building were calculated using smart readiness indicators. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a 5-star hotel located in southern Italy characterized by high energy consumption. Precisely these consumptions are due to air conditioning, lighting, hot water, catering, and all other utilities. The entire building and the systems serving it were characterized by means of software that studies consumption with dynamic models, Trnsys. The same software made it possible to model the case study by replacing the existing air conditioning system with one supplied by renewable energies. Two energy retrofit hypotheses were chosen to obtain the best economic and environmental results. First, the choice was to install solar cooling powered by flat solar panels, and the second choice was solar cooling powered by evacuated tube collectors. This paper reports the technical and economic characteristics of both proposed solutions, quantifying the energy and economic savings to identify the best solution.

A new method for estimating the smart readiness of building stock data using display energy Certificate data

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) was introduced by the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2018/844/EU, as a voluntary scheme for rating the smart readiness of buildings. The methodology addresses the benefits of smart technologies and their functionalities in buildings to offer low-energy, healthier, and environmentally comfortable buildings that balance the needs of occupants and the energy grid. This is a case study implementation of the SRI calculation to the university campus scale. The SRI methodology is applicable on a building-by-building basis; however, the assessment of large stocks and energy hubs is not addressed and will be the focus of this study. Other studies have proposed a method to extend the calculation to building clusters which, however, involves assessing all the buildings in the cluster in detail. The current case study extends to a much larger number of buildings, therefore, the assessment of each individual building was not considered effective. A critical implementation of the SRI calculation is presented here that leverages publicly available information like Display Energy Certificate (DEC) advisory recommendation reports for a university campus. A complex building is used to verify the proposed method based on the SRI detailed methodology. The proposed method provides a solution to the large-scale processing of building information across multiple complex buildings, hence benefiting decision-makers early on. Furthermore, the method benefits from the inclusion of building-specific recommendations based on DEC surveys. For the 98 buildings examined, a campus SRI score range has been estimated and focus areas have been identified as the foundation of smart energy and net-zero transition pathways.

SmartBuild RecSys: A Recommendation System Based on the Smart Readiness Indicator for Energy Efficiency in Buildings

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) is a newly developed framework that measures a building’s technological readiness to improve its energy efficiency. The integration of data obtained from this framework with data derived from Building Information Modeling (BIM) has the potential to yield compelling results. This research proposes an algorithm for a Recommendation System (RS) that uses SRI and BIM data to advise on building energy-efficiency improvements. Following a modular programming approach, the proposed system is split into two algorithmic approaches linked with two distinct use cases. In the first use case, BIM data are utilized to provide thermal envelope enhancement recommendations. A hybrid Machine Learning (ML) (Random Forest–Decision Tree) algorithm is trained using an Industry Foundation Class (IFC) BIM model of CERTH’S nZEB Smart Home in Greece and Passive House database data. In the second use case, SRI data are utilized to develop an RS for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system improvement, in which a process utilizes a filtering function and KNN algorithm to suggest automation levels for building service improvements. Considering the results from both use cases, this paper provides a solid framework that exploits more possibilities for coupling SRI with BIM data. It presents a novel algorithm that exploits these data to facilitate the development of an RS system for increasing building energy efficiency.

A Methodology Integrating the Quantitative Assessment of Energy Efficient Operation and Occupant Needs into the Smart Readiness Indicator

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) was included in the third version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and has since been used in research involving a variety of building types and climate zones. While numerous studies highlighted the qualitative characteristics of the current SRI framework, this work describes a methodology for adding quantitative features to it. It uses indicators for each effect area and proposes multiple standards as rating assessment factors. We specify the integration of this crucial component enhancing the framework. This enhanced framework is applied to a hypothetical use case, and the outcomes are compared with those of the current framework. The results demonstrate that the SRI score was increased after adding quantitative elements to the SRI framework.

On the Multi-Domain Impacts of Coupling Mechanical Ventilation to Radiant Systems in Residential Buildings

In the current context of joint efforts towards the decarbonisation of buildings, integrating occupants’ comfort and health with latest technological advancements for energy efficiency is at the center of the latest development of research, policies and professional practice. Radiant systems are encountering great success since the low-thickness systems can also be used in renovation projects for both heating and cooling, while guaranteeing optimal comfort. However, dehumidification is often required for optimal radiant cooling operation with no condensation risks, and the great potential of mechanical ventilation systems to optimally address the needs for dehumidification, air renewal, health and energy efficiency appears to be far from its full exploitation in the post-COVID-19 era. The present paper aims at providing a quantification of the energy and financial impacts of the implementation of a controlled mechanical ventilation system (CMV) coupled to a radiant system in a typical residential case study building in Italy. The results show that the sole CMV may decrease primary energy demand and energy costs by more than 30% and contribute to an increase in the smart readiness of the building by 8%, but further incentive policies must be developed to cover the still high investment and maintenance cost.

Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Mediterranean Buildings and Cities

Cities have emerged to become a major challenge and at the same time can evolve to an instrument for supporting the global sustainability efforts. Cities consume 78% of the world’s energy and produce more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global waste. In the Mediterranean region, two thirds of the population live in urban areas and urban population it is expected to increase to about 170 million in the countries on the northern shore and to over 300 million to the south and east by 2050. Thus, urban sustainability has become increasingly mainstream in policymaking towards a competitive, secure and decarbonized built environment. In order to promote sustainability efforts, local governments must have the capacity to measure it. Various sustainability methodologies and rating systems have been developed including different performance indicators, like the energy use intensity, carbon emissions, smart readiness, potable water consumption and recycled materials. However, most of them are following a building scale approach, which does not fully exploit the potential for synergies that groups of buildings might offer. The Sustainable MED Cities project, is an on-going effort aiming to provide an easy to use, harmonized methodology and an open-source software to support the assessment, planning and overall and monitoring effective measures to improve sustainability of the built environment at city scale. The work is a collaborative work in the Mediterranean basin among Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Spain, and Tunisia and capitalizes CESBAMED, an existing transnational methodology and assessment tool for buildings and neighbourhoods in European Mediterranean countries. This work reviews the common method and tools for the assessment and the final sustainability rating score. Emphasis is given on the proposed key performance indicators that cover all fields of sustainability, at building, neighbourhood and city scale.

SmartWatcher©: A Solution to Automatically Assess the Smartness of Buildings

Buildings have now adopted a new dimension: the dimension of smartness. The rapid arrival of connected devices, together with the smart features that they provide, has allowed for the transition of existing buildings towards smart buildings. The assessment of the smartness of the large number of existing buildings could exhaust resources, but some organisations are requesting this regardless (such as the smart readiness indicator of the European Union). To tackle this issue, this work describes a tool that was created to find connected devices to automatically evaluate smartness. The tool, which was given the name SmartWatcher, uses a design-for-purpose natural language processing algorithm that converts verbal information into numerical information. The method was tested on real buildings in four different geographical locations. SmartWatcher is shown to be powerful, as it was capable of obtaining numerical values from verbal descriptions of devices. Additionally, a preliminary comparison of values obtained using the automatic engine and clipboard assessments showed that although the results were still far from being perfect, some visual correlation could be seen. This anticipates that, with the addition of appropriate techniques that refine this algorithm, or with the addition of new ones (with other more advanced natural language processing methods), the accuracy of this tool could be greatly increased.

Enhancing smartness and interoperability of building management systems in non-residential buildings

In smart and sustainable cities, smartness of buildings is expected to evolve. A smart building should enhance its users’ productivity and minimize its environmental impact. Although these objectives are seemingly common, the development of the smartness of buildings is actualized in the form of an incoherent combination of standards and solutions. The emergence of the IoT (Internet of Things) is expected to bring major improvements in the development of smartness, but at the same time, it may even worsen non-systematicity. Such inconsistency creates barriers to the commercialization of innovations and poses challenges to technical building management. Here, we clarify the situation between the conventional building management system approach and the IoT-based entrants. We analyze the different approaches to building automation systems’ interoperability by means of a literature review, professional interviews and smart readiness indicator impact evaluation. The study forms a general view based on the presented information and suggests approaches for specifying technical building systems, which are expected to improve their schematic clarity and reduce performance gaps of buildings. This study can be used as a practical tool by technical building managers, and it discusses issues needing consideration to the benefit of policymakers, industry and academia.

Evaluation of the Smart Readiness Indicator for Educational Buildings

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) is an assessment scheme for the intelligence of buildings, which was introduced by the European Commission in the directive for the Energy Performance of Buildings in 2018. Since its introduction, many activities related to the maturation and employment of the SRI have been initiated. One of the adaptation needs of the SRI, revealed through public consultation with relevant stakeholders, is the requirement for a tailored SRI for different types of buildings. The aim of this study is to analyze possible scenarios to optimize the smartness performance, as addressed by the SRI score, in educational buildings. The subject of this study concerned campus buildings of the Kaunas University of Technology, in Lithuania. For the definition of the SRI, the calculation sheet developed by the European Commission was used. The effect of the improvements in the smartness performance of buildings on their energy efficiency was examined with the use of a whole-building, BIM-based energy assessment tool (IDA-ICE). The findings of this study revealed that despite the improvement in the automation and control levels of the building heating system, the maximum SRI values achieved deviate significantly by a high-smartness level. This study revealed the importance of services at a city level towards achieving the optimal smartness levels at a building unit level. It also delivered useful findings related to the linkage between energy and smartness performance of a building. The policy implication of the study findings also covers topics relevant to utilities management at a district level, as well as on the need for tailored SRI services catalogs for different types of buildings.

A Tool for Measuring the Smart Readiness of Existing Buildings and Cities in Egypt–Focusing on Energy Sector

ABSTRACT The world is witnessing a shifting toward smart cities and the use of technology in cities. There are many rating systems to measure the smart readiness of existing buildings and cities, but they are not suitable in the Egyptian context. However, Egypt promotes sustainable and smart development through many codes, guidelines and rating systems. This research aims to develop a tool to measure the smart readiness of existing buildings and cities to help decision-makers determine the level of intervention needed for a building or a city to be smart. An induction research approach is used to deduce the smart readiness indicators for existing buildings and cities. The research ends by proposing ‘Checklists’ for measuring the smart readiness of Egyptian existing buildings and cities stock.