What if, while providing clean air, comfortable living, and configurable space, your smart building could reduce CO2 emissions by producing, storing and selling clean energy? VTT provides smart building solutions and strategic roadmaps as well as implementation action plans for urban transformation towards a carbon-neutral society.
Key facts about smart building solutions
Smart buildings technology contribute to the paradigm shift towards a carbon-neutral society by improving energy-efficiency and advancing sector integration.
Technology transforms existing buildings and homes into smart ones – buildings that can sense changes in their environment and optimise and adapt themselves accordingly.
VTT has been at the forefront of developing concepts, scenarios, roadmaps, and solutions for smart buildings at national, European and global levels.
The typical person spends more than 80% of their time indoors and needs at least 12m3 of clean air per day. At the same time, building use is responsible for about 40% of all CO2 emissions, mainly due to energy use. Smart buildings ensure both the comfort of the people and the sustainability of the building’s energy use.
VTT’s research on smart buildings and cities accelerates the transition towards a carbon-neutral society.
Combining expertise with the right technology makes innovations come to life. Technology can transform an existing building into a smart one – a building that can sense changes in its environment and optimise and adapt accordingly. More importantly, it can empower people with actionable insights and options whereby the building can be configured on demand based on the needs of its users. VTT has been at the forefront of developing concepts, scenarios, roadmaps, and solutions for smart buildings at national, European and global levels.
Smart buildings are intelligent
What if your home was not just a structure, but an intelligent space that could understand your needs and communicate with you? The embedded sensors and building automation systems in a smart building support informed decision-making by providing real-time contextual information. Furthermore, they create a comfortable living environment and a seamless user experience. VTT provides a wide range of solutions, concepts and knowhow on smart buildings.
Resiliency and energy efficiency are key components of smart homes
What if your building, instead of consuming energy and contributing to CO2 emissions, actually produced, stored, and sold clean energy? Smart buildings are a major contributor to carbon neutrality: new smart buildings can be energy positive by producing more energy than they use, whereas older buildings can be made more energy efficient through smart renovation.
Smart buildings also have the ability to function as part of a larger smart district. This involves sustainable and optimised energy production and consumption, which can be implemented using small modular reactor (SMRs) and energy communities. These district energy solutions also improve the resilience of the buildings in the face of energy shortages and increasing environmental standards. With our extensive expertise in energy systems and smart grids, we can help you figure out how to improve the sustainability and resilience of your buildings.
Smart building solutions are part of the smart city infrastructure
Buildings do not exist in a vacuum, separate from their surroundings. With the emergence of smart grids, smart buildings have great potential to function as a part of sector integration and provide demand flexibility by producing and storing energy in addition to consuming it. As the popularity of electric vehicles increases, buildings also need to connect to charging infrastructure for electric cars.
At VTT, we can help you plan entire smart cities or smart districts in addition to optimising individual smart homes and buildings. As parts of a bigger whole, smart buildings can have a significant impact in advancing cities that are smarter, safer and more sustainable.
Smart buildings are safe and healthy
Having clean, fresh air that circulates and adapts according to the needs of the building’s users is crucial for people’s health. In a smart building, air conditioning is energy-efficient and low-maintenance thanks to sensors that tell the system when and where air conditioning is needed.
Smart, optimised air conditioning can reduce the amount of energy spent on it by up to 50% without compromising on the comfort and safety of the people using the building. We have worked with multiple clients to develop efficient air conditioning systems that ensure a healthy atmosphere in smart, modern buildings.
No demolition but renovation for smart buildings
What if your existing building could become smart? We are developing new materials with embedded sensors that will make existing building structures energy-efficient and self-optimised based on use.
A smart building should also be configurable based on need. We develop service concepts for modular and configurable spaces based on functional and operational needs. This allows for re-use of materials and modular blocks and minimises the need for demolition.
Turning existing buildings into smart ones has many benefits, like significant reductions in operational and maintenance costs. Maintenance will no longer be reactive, but proactive. Buildings will be continuously monitored and maintained based on demand, and well in advance of any system failure.
