HIT2GAP

HIT2GAP is a four-year project which began in September 2015 and will run to September 2019.  Its aim is to reduce the gap between the theoretical energy performance of buildings and the actual consumption in use, by focusing on what happens, and on what could be done, while a building is in operation. A typical office building will use much more energy than the design team and client expected at the design and construction phases.  An innovative project called ‘HIT2GAP’ is now seeking to solve this problem, in order to help to reduce the gap between the anticipated energy use of a building and what actually happens once the building is occupied.  The reasons for ‘the gap’ relate to the fact that the design and construction of a building involve compromises, construction issues ad unforeseen behaviours, some of which will have an energy impact.

For example, the difference between the theory of putting together the building and the complexity of doing this on a building site means that construction defects can arise as the building is assembled.  Once the building has been constructed, the commissioning of heating, cooling, and ventilation introduce further inefficiencies in the overall performance of the building.  Finally, the people who occupy buildings introduce unpredictable needs and behaviours, some of which will lead to higher energy consumption.

All of these factors can contribute to the energy consumption of the building being higher than had originally been anticipated.  Furthermore, renewable energy devices and other building services do not always work well with each other, and this can reduce the overall savings from devices designed to save energy.

HIT2GAP cannot solve all of these problems and while the project is focused specifically on eliminating some of the wastage of energy in buildings in use, it can also help identify other contributory factors such as construction defects. 

The aims of the HIT2GAP project are:

• To reduce the energy performance gap, focusing on the operation phase of buildings;
• To propose a new paradigm for the development of energy management platforms in buildings, integrating existing expertise and resources;
• To provide a marketable, smart platform.

The HIT2GAP partners are working together to create a platform that is both generic and modular, which could be used in a wide variety of buildings and groups of buildings. It will include plug-and-play modules that are designed to inform users about the operational performance of their building(s), based on data collected at the building level.

WP1 – Requirements framework and methodology to perform energy savings from data treatment – Lead Company – APINTECH – Nikos Sakkas

WP2 – Data Acquisition solutions and software architecture – Lead Company – EURECAT – Regina Enrich

WP 3 – Design integration and testing of data treatment bricks – Lead Company – Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems – Nicolas Rehault

WP 4 – Design integration and testing of the software platform – Nobatek INEF – Pierre Bourreau

WP 5 – Demonstration in a pilot – Mostostal – Juliusz Żach

WP 6 – Innovative services definition and exploitation – Lead – Thomas Messervey

WP 7 – Dissemination and communication – Lead Company – Building Research Establishment – Lori McElroy

WP 8 – Project management – Lead Company – Nobatek INEF – Pascale Brassier 

HIT2GAP – Deliverables

BEMServer

HIT2GAP-EU-PROJECT/bemserver

HIT2GAP – Highly Innovative building Control Tools Tackling the Energy Performance Gap

Twitter – @HIT2GAP