BUILD TWIN

Artículos científicos

• Guerrero Ramírez, K.; Pachano, J.E.; Santamaría Ulecia, J.M.; Fernández Bandera, C. Single-Stage Calibration of Building Energy Models: Overcoming Data Limitations for Energy Performance Contracts Using an Ideal Loads Air System. Buildings 2025, 15, 879.

The energy and digital transition are key for taking on global challenges like climate change and energy dependence. Buildings account for nearly 40% of energy consumption in Europe, and many of them are inefficient. To tackle that situation, BuildTwin proposes a solution based in advanced technology, digital twins, which are virtual replicas that simulate the thermal behaviour of buildings.

BuildTwin is an ambitious R&D project led by the University of Navarre (UNAV) in collaboration with the Navarre Industry Association (AIN), whose primary goal is to develop innovative digital tools to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, with a special focus on comfort and sustainability.

Project Goals

The project seeks to create digital models that help energy services companies (ESCOs) to predict and guarantee real energy savings in climate control systems, especially in the context of energy performance contracts (EPCs).

The kinds of models have been developed.

• Type C model: based on historic consumption data– black box
• Type D model: detailed physical simulation of the building – white box
• Hybrid C+D model: combines the best of both worlds, precision and computational agility

In addition, air quality indicators and thermal comfort analyses with a gender perspective (a pioneering approach for this kind of project) were included.

Primary Activities

The activities were organised into several phases that span building energy models to validating and comparing them.

1. Energy modelling a real university building (Amigos building UNAV)
2. Define and implement energy saving strategies, like optimising temperatures or improving the use of HVAC systems
3. Installing IoT systems with sensors and switches to evaluate the comfort perceived by men and women
4. Comparison of the results between models, estimate savings and validate against real data
5. Cost-effectiveness analysis of the solutions

Expected Impact

BuildTwin is aligned with the sustainable development goals and S4 strategy of Navarre for the ecological and digital transition. Some of the results obtained were:

• Help lower energy consumption for climate control by more than 10%
• Promote more comfortable, sustainable and healthier buildings
• Provide an inclusive point of view that takes gender differences in thermal comfort into account