IEA's Energy in Buildings and Communities programme supports IEA Annex 81 (Research Project) on "Data-driven Smart Buildings", which brings together more than 100 collaborators from 19 countries. This activity is part of IEA Annex 81 activities.

The overarching aim of Annex 81 is to increase access to low-cost, high-quality data from buildings and support the development of data-driven energy efficiency 'Applications' and analytics. This will: (i) enable automated energy efficiency optimisation of building operations and (ii) provide energy efficiency data and decision support for building facilities managers.

The recent revolution in digital technology and cyber-physical systems has the potential to reduce costs and overcome barriers to energy efficiency through advanced control and operation of building HVAC systems. Emerging digital tools include

• The Internet of Things (IoT); provides access to more diverse, low-cost data on the status and activity of equipment and people in buildings.
• Artificial intelligence and data analytics; enable more comprehensive energy performance assessment and predictive management of assets.
• Sharing economy platforms; providing new business models for connecting users and energy efficiency software services providers.

Unfortunately, progress in the digitalisation of building services has been slow, and the application of digitalisation for improving energy efficiency in buildings has not reached its full potential. Open data concepts have been proposed to reduce barriers and stimulate innovation in energy efficiency software services.

This project imagines a future world empowered by access to low-cost information-rich data from buildings through an open data-exchange platform, enabling software ‘Applications’ (such as model-based control and fault detection and diagnosis (FDD)) to scale rapidly.

This research aims to map the current technology and innovation landscape in non-domestic smart buildings and data-driven building services. In this context, we seek to collect qualitative and quantitative information from case study buildings to develop exemplar technical briefs summarising the technical details, business cases and stakeholder stories associated with implementing these technologies in the real world. We will compile technical briefs and quantitative datasets (if available) with the information collected and communicate to relevant stakeholders from academia, industry, and government groups to advance the current understanding of smart buildings and data-driven solutions.

We are particularly looking at case studies with the focus on collecting qualitative narratives, including evidence relating to the implementation journey, benefits and disbenefits, outcomes and impacts arising from the implementation of smart technologies in the context of the case study building(s) exemplars received from IEA Annex 81 participants and extended network.

Barriers, incentives, and existing business models for stakeholders’ adoption of smart building technologies are also collected to investigate the potential of business model innovation and new smart data-driven strategies to reduce barriers and increase motivation for market adoption. Finally, quantitative information about the case study buildings (e.g., data from the building management system, building plans, etc.) is collected (if possible) and used for demonstration activities of data-driven applications.

Annex participants have identified relevant case studies in their countries and detailed case study leads to fill in a template while given some guidance. We have chosen contributors that have been involved in the decision-making or implementation of one or more smart-building technology solutions. The final version of each case study has been reviewed and approved by the contributor before its publication on the website.