Abstract
Human life requires energy. Moreover, people spend around 90% of their time in buildings while about 40% of primary energy needs are due to buildings. That is why the present paper deals with a methodology allowing identifying and assessing the energy impact of a building on the electricity grid. Thanks to both the building models we developed and fuzzy logic contribution (used to control ventilation and develop occupancy scenarios related to human habits and lifestyle), the results we obtained in simulation validate the proposed impact indicator. Different insulation levels were considered as well as energy production (solar photovoltaic and thermal panels and a vertical axis windmill) and storage (a domestic hot water tank) systems. These results highlighted the pertinence of such an indicator for optimizing the design of the just-mentioned systems and minimizing the amount of energy exchanged by buildings and the electricity grid. One can promote energy injection or take into account the status of the electricity grid when designing these systems. As a key result, the produced renewable energy is partially self-consumed, what allows for a more efficient and rational use of energy in buildings. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.