Modeling, simulation and control tools for nZEB: A state-of-the-art review

Nowadays, most areas of human activity should be reviewed with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions, since these activities are producing the majority of these emissions. Specifically, the building sector is one of the main responsible activities. In order to minimize the ecological footprint and ensure energy sufficiency, European Union created the nearly-Zero Energy Building (nZEB) concept. More than ten years have elapsed and it worth to review the current state around the concept, considering the new advances in computer development that are already applicable to this field. Accordingly, recent researches published in reputed indexed journals and international conferences have been reviewed. This paper explains the nZEB concept and reviews research articles focused on achieving it. A research gap is detected, so enabling concepts and technologies as Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) tools and Model Predictive Control (MPC) are recalled, and relevant researches where used are included in a specific state-of-the-art for each concept, since the academia considers that these tools should be applied in building air conditioning to achieve nZEB. After this deep analysis, we conclude that the possibilities to optimize the energy consumption are huge combining properly in a holistic way BEPS tools for modeling and simulation and MPC for control strategies. It is possible to manage a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system using Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in an effective means, reducing CO2 emissions problems worldwide and reaching considerable energy savings.