Publications related to RECA: A Multi-Task Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Recommender System for Co-Optimizing Energy, Comfort and Air Quality in Commercial Buildings

Fusing Pre-existing Knowledge and Machine Learning for Enhanced Building Thermal Modeling and Control

Buildings play a pivotal role in the ongoing worldwide energy transition, accounting for 30% of the global energy consumption. With traditional engineering solutions reaching their limits to tackle such large-scale problems, data-driven methods and Machine ...

EPFL2024

Self-catalysed frontal polymerisation enables fast and low-energy processing of fibre reinforced polymer composites

Véronique Michaud, Baris Çaglar, Jacobus Gerardus Rudolph Staal

Frontal polymerisation has the potential to bring unprecedented reductions in energy demand and process time to produce fibre reinforced polymer composites. Production of epoxy-based fibre reinforced polymer parts with high fibre volume content, commonly e ...

2024

Electrical and Optical Manifestations of Flat Band Physics in Van der Waals Materials

Gabriele Pasquale

The scientific progress is significantly transforming contemporary society with the introduction and widespread application of technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Despite their profound impact, these technologies necessitate en ...

EPFL2024

What is NExT? A new conceptual model for comfort, satisfaction, health, and well-being in buildings

Dusan Licina

Buildings are designed to respond to functional and regulatory needs, providing comfortable conditions to occupants, offering satisfactory environmental settings, minimising health risks, and enhancing individual and collective quality of life. Although th ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Solar-assisted clean steam generator, a cleaner production approach for sustainable healthcare facilities

Fernando Porté Agel, Ahmad Arabkoohsar, Mohammad Jamshidmofid

Healthcare sector buildings, particularly hospitals, significantly contribute to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Hospitals require a substantial amount of steam, including the essential hygienic or " clean steam, " that is currently ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Renewable energy integration and waste heat valorization in aluminum remelting for co-producing kerosene and methanol

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The aluminium sector relies on natural gas for the conversion of recycled scrap into new feedstock, which results in substantial atmospheric emissions. Hydric resources are also impacted, as they serve as heat sinks for the waste heat generated during the ...

Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024

Absolute energy levels of liquid water from many-body perturbation theory with effective vertex corrections

Alfredo Pasquarello, Thomas Bischoff, Aleksei Tal

We demonstrate the importance of addressing the F vertex and thus going beyond the GW approximation for achieving the energy levels of liquid water in manybody perturbation theory. In particular, we consider an effective vertex function in both the polariz ...

National Academy of Sciences2024

Is the powersave governor really saving power?

David Atienza Alonso, Luis Maria Costero Valero, Darong Huang

A frequency scaling governor is critical for the performance management of cloud servers, as it enhances energy efficiency and helps to control operational temperatures, thereby ensuring system reliability. However, our in-depth analysis of the application ...

2024

DIET Controller: Dynamic Indoor Environment using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Arnab Chatterjee

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Systems utilize much energy, accounting for 40% of total building energy use. The temperatures in buildings are commonly held within narrow limits, leading to higher energy use. Measurements from office bui ...

EPFL2023

PePTM: An Efficient and Accurate Personalized P2P Learning Algorithm for Home Thermal Modeling

Rachid Guerraoui, Omid Ardakanian, Alexandre David Olivier Maurer

Nowadays, the integration of home automation systems with smart thermostats is a common trend, designed to enhance resident comfort and conserve energy. The introduction of smart thermostats that can run machine learning algorithms has opened the door for ...

MDPI2023

Electrification and digitalization effects on sectoral energy demand and consumption: A prospective study towards 2050

François Maréchal, Fabian Heymann, Xiang Li

Energy transition is blurring the boundaries between the demand and supply sides with growing participation of prosumer resources. The intensifying pace of electrification and digitalization during the past decade tends to continue, leading to potential te ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Building ventilation and outdoor air pollution: Implications for health, comfort and energy

Evangelos Belias

As humans spend most of their time indoors, indoor air quality (IAQ) significantly impacts their health. In parallel, building ventilation consumes significant energy, contributing to climate change. However, the relationships between the building ventilat ...

EPFL2023

Assessment of Monitoring Strategies for Inhalation Exposure and Occupancy in Office Environments

Seoyeon Yun

Given people's significant time spent indoors, ensuring good indoor air quality (IAQ) is essential because it significantly influences occupants' health and productivity. Office buildings consume about 50% of commercial building energy and 18% of total bui ...

EPFL2023

Preserving suspended structures with light façades (1960-1980). Architectural study and retrofitting proposals

Giuseppe Galbiati

Nowadays, the energy efficiency of the existing building stock is internationally accepted as a topical issue. Energy retrofitting is encouraged, improving the thermal performances of buildings, but often altering the historical image of our cities. Attent ...

EPFL2023

Transparent structured conductive coating for applications in smart windows

Jérémy Jacques Antonin Fleury

Solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth for a period of one hour contains more energy than that consumed by mankind over an entire year. Some of this solar energy is already collected by photovoltaic cells to cover the electricity needs of buildi ...

EPFL2023

Taking a step back from glass towers facades to make them compatible with the 2050 targets

Bernard Paule, Sergi Aguacil Moreno

Skyscrapers or glass towers are an extremely common model throughout the world. In the current context of climate change and resource depletion, we need to develop new postures towards these objects, especially for existing buildings that are becoming obso ...

2023

Efficacy of temporal and spatial abstraction for training accurate machine learning models: A case study in smart thermostats

Rachid Guerraoui, Omid Ardakanian, Alexandre David Olivier Maurer

Smart thermostats are increasingly popular in homes and buildings as they improve occupant comfort, lower energy use in heating and cooling systems, and reduce utility bills by automatically adjusting room temperature according to measurements of their bui ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2023

Dynamic indoor thermal environment using Reinforcement Learning-based controls: Opportunities and challenges

Dolaana Khovalyg, Arnab Chatterjee

Currently, the indoor thermal environment in many buildings is controlled by conventional control techniques that maintain the indoor temperature within a prescribed deadband. The latest research provides evidence that more dynamic variations of the indoor ...

2023

Energy, SBS symptoms, and productivity in Swiss open-space offices: Economic evaluation of standard, actual, and optimum scenarios

Cecile Anne Berquand, Dusan Licina, Dolaana Khovalyg, Arnab Chatterjee, Verena Marie Barthelmes

The fundamental aspiration of new-generation high-performing buildings is to reduce energy use while securing indoor environmental quality conducive to human health and productivity. However, existing frameworks for identifying Key Performance Indicators ( ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

A modelling framework for modern heritage buildings energy simulation

Franz Graf, Giulia Marino, Giuseppe Galbiati

The latest European polices highlight the urgent need to rehabilitate the existing building stock, responsible for 40 % of the EU's total energy consumption. In this process, a key role is played by thermal simulations, assessing the effective energy perfo ...

Elsevier2023