TY - JOUR KW - Competition KW - Buildings KW - HVAC KW - BOPTEST AU - Harald Taxt Walnum AU - Balázs András Tolnai AU - David Blum AU - Jicheng Shi AU - Colin N Jones AU - Deep Dessai AU - Wenbin Wang AU - Wenjie Xu AU - Sebastien Gros AU - Igor Sartori AB -

A smart building HVAC control competition crowdsourced and compared algorithms on fair and equal ground using the standardized BOPTEST framework. The competition attracted 138 participants, but only 9% submitted valid solutions for the final stage, highlighting the complexity of advanced HVAC control design. The winning solutions showed significant potential to reduce energy use and cost by shifting demand, without compromising occupant comfort. Across scenarios, thermal energy cost reductions of 36–76% relative to a baseline, were achieved. In peak heat periods, the cost reduction leveraged limited energy use reduction (0–15%), but more significant energy price reduction (34–62%). This shows smart controls' ability to avoid as much as possible consumption during the morning peak hours, when spot prices are tendentially the highest. Hosting the competition has highlighted challenges in creating competitions that both are fair and promotes solutions that are transferable to real life implementation.

BT - Journal of Building Performance Simulation DA - 30/04/2026 DO - 10.1080/19401493.2026.2656363 N2 -

A smart building HVAC control competition crowdsourced and compared algorithms on fair and equal ground using the standardized BOPTEST framework. The competition attracted 138 participants, but only 9% submitted valid solutions for the final stage, highlighting the complexity of advanced HVAC control design. The winning solutions showed significant potential to reduce energy use and cost by shifting demand, without compromising occupant comfort. Across scenarios, thermal energy cost reductions of 36–76% relative to a baseline, were achieved. In peak heat periods, the cost reduction leveraged limited energy use reduction (0–15%), but more significant energy price reduction (34–62%). This shows smart controls' ability to avoid as much as possible consumption during the morning peak hours, when spot prices are tendentially the highest. Hosting the competition has highlighted challenges in creating competitions that both are fair and promotes solutions that are transferable to real life implementation.

PB - Journal of Building Performance Simulation (JBPS) PY - 2026 SP - 1 EP - 22 T2 - Journal of Building Performance Simulation TI - Smart building HVAC control challenge: experience and solutions from the ADRENALIN project UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/19401493.2026.2656363 SN - 1940-1493, 1940-1507 ER -