The RLT-Opt project addresses the problem of inefficient ventilation and air-conditioning systems in German non-residential buildings. The project consortium estimates that the approximately 400,000 partial air conditioning and 600,000 medium and large ventilation systems in existing buildings consume around 40 TWh/a of electricity, which accounts for around 8% of total German consumption (as of 2022).

The project focuses in particular on increasing the energy efficiency of heating, cooling and air conditioning systems in office buildings while taking user satisfaction into account. Model predictive control (MPC) is used, which makes it possible to predict and automatically control non-linear system behavior. Various studies estimate energy savings of between 15 % and 50 % (Mork et al. 2023).

Housing companies usually operate different buildings with a variety of technologies for heating and hot water supply. The potential for optimizing the operation of these central heating systems in apartment buildings is enormous. This should be as user-friendly as possible and ideally automated.