Smart Monitoring, Retrofit , and Decarbonization of HVAC Systems in Urban Buildings
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 129
Special Issue Editors
Interests: life cycle analysis; building energy; retrofit; thermal comfort; smart control of HVAC system; decarbonization
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are among the largest contributors to energy consumption and carbon emissions in urban buildings. With increasing demands for healthier indoor environments, resilient infrastructure, and net-zero transition pathways, there is an urgent need for innovative strategies to improve HVAC performance through smart monitoring, retrofit solutions, and decarbonization technologies.
This Special Issue, entitled “Smart Monitoring, Retrofit , and Decarbonization of HVAC Systems in Urban Buildings,” aims to provide a platform for applied researchers and practitioners to cooperate with industry and share recent advances in the assessment, optimization, and sustainable transformation of building environmental systems. Topics of interest include field-based performance monitoring, fault detection and diagnostics, chiller degradation analysis, energy-efficient retrofit strategies for existing buildings, indoor air quality management, low-carbon HVAC design, and the integration of digital and data-driven approaches for building energy optimization.
We particularly welcome contributions addressing challenges in high-density urban contexts, critical building environments such as hospitals and transport infrastructure, and practical case studies supporting energy and carbon reduction goals.
We invite you to contribute original research articles or comprehensive reviews that advance knowledge and practice in sustainable HVAC systems for the future built environment.
Dr. Alan Fong
Dr. Yan Pan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- HVAC system degradation and monitoring
- building energy retrofit
- sustainable urban buildings
- building energy efficiency
- field operational data analysis
- airborne pollutants
- life cycle analysis
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