Abstract:

The energy performance of building systems for heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation is a driving factor to reduce global CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change. Five Universities located in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg have joined to connect their thermal and electrical laboratories to provide complementary research and teaching capabilities to contribute to more sustainability in the building sector.

Within the project RCC|KN, Network of Climatic Chambers (“Réseau de Chambres Climatiques | Klimalabor Netzwerk”) which started in 2018, the laboratories and their equipment were connected through a remote connection on a digital platform [1]. The platform delivers real time data (temperature, pressure, humidity, flow rates, controls from the equipment, electrical power, thermal comfort values) from the laboratories and it offers the opportunity to perform remote experiments between the connected labs. Furthermore, the platform can be connected to a simulation tool (TRNSYS) to extend the applicability of the experiments via emulation [2].

This paper aims to present the next step of the RCC/KN project which is the development of a multi-stakeholder distance learning platform for university students and practitioners. It will be based on the RCC/KN platform and allows the remote testing and distance learning in the field of thermal systems and building environment. In addition to the complementarity of sensors and equipment in the different labs, the Covid pandemic further increases the need for such a joint effort to offer cross-institutional collaboration in a digital format.

The platform will encourage the interaction of students as they can decide over possible solutions, for example in terms of choosing the right system to maintain thermal comfort, they can experience the inertia of different heat emission systems and the actual energy demand needed to achieve the required conditions. It will enhance the students’ ability to set up an experiment with the given systems, monitoring the output during the experiment, working with the gathered data and analyzing the results. Through the digital lab experiments they will improve their understanding of how to operate buildings in an energy efficient way and hence, later on in their career, they are able to contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector.

References:
[1] “Development of a network of connected labs and a platform for remote testing of the energy performance of building systems in the Greater Region”, Grégoire Botquin, Pauline Abrahams, Mathias Kimmling, Klaus Friedrich, Allaoua Soudani, Damien Descieux, Sabine Hoffmann, Riad Benelmir, Philippe André, Proceedings of Ecos 2019, the 32nd International conference on efficiency, cost, optimization, simulation and environmental impact of energy systems, June 23-28, 2019, Wroclaw, Poland
[2] submitted: “Interfacing a real-time data exchange platform with TRNSYS”, Pauline Abrahams, Grégoire Botquin, Philippe André, Riad Benelmir, Stefan Winternheimer, Mathias Kimmling, Klaus Friedrich, Allaoua Soudani, Sabine Hoffmann, Damien Descieux

Keywords:

Virtual distance learning platform, distance teaching, building energy performance, thermal systems, connected laboratories, remote experiments.