Robustness of building energy optimization with uncertainties using deterministic and stochastic methods: Analysis of two forms

Building performance optimization is effective in searching for optimal design solutions, but its result may be unrobust with uncertainties in input parameters, especially for form design. Stochastic optimization is a promising approach to handle this problem, but its effectiveness in improving robustness is unclear. In this study, stochastic optimization is compared to the traditional deterministic method under holistic uncertainties in 13 input parameters. Energy optimizations of two office building forms, a shoe-box and an irregular quadrilateral, were inspected. The results indicate that robustness problems exist in both deterministic and stochastic optimization with uncertainties, but utilizing optimization results is still a good strategy, as the average chance of the optimized form outperforming random designs exceeds 0.7 for all cases involved. Using stochastic optimization helps obtain more robust results, but the expected …

Recommended citation: Lu, Shuai, Chunxiao Wang, Yue Fan, and Borong Lin. "Robustness of building energy optimization with uncertainties using deterministic and stochastic methods: Analysis of two forms." Building and Environment 205 (2021): 108185.
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