Sustainable Design and Smart Control of Building Energy to Accelerate Net-Zero Operations

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 March 2026 | Viewed by 242

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Sustainable Buildings Research Center, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia
Interests: building energy efficiency; energy flexibility; data-driven modelling; smart building control; air conditioning

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Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: heat transfer; ground source heat pump; radiative sky cooling technologies; IAQ; numerical & analytical simulations
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Interests: numerical analysis; engineering, applied and computational mathematics; numerical modeling; engineering thermodynamics; numerical simulation; CFD simulation; fluid mechanics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With carbon neutrality emerging as a global priority, significant decarbonization in the building sector has become more urgent than ever. However, achieving substantial emissions reductions while maintaining high service quality in built environments remains a complex challenge. This Special Issue invites contributions that explore innovative solutions for building decarbonization and the transition to net-zero operations. We welcome original research articles and reviews across a range of topics, including (but not limited to) the following:

  • Building integrated renewable energy;
  • Demand side management;
  • Building load forecasting;
  • Artificial intelligence for smart buildings;
  • Energy storage technologies and applications;
  • Building energy modeling and digitalization;
  • HVAC systems;
  • Innovative building design;
  • Building energy performance assessment;
  • Sustainable materials and construction.

Dr. Xinlei Zhou
Dr. Lin-Rui Jia
Dr. Zheng Cao
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • building energy
  • decarbonization
  • renewable energy
  • net-zero
  • built environment
  • energy management
  • sustainable design
  • demand flexibility
  • HVAC

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 8225 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Simulation of Solar-Assisted Medium-Depth Ground Heat Exchanger Direct Heating System
by Le Chang, Lingjun Kong, Yangyang Jing, Wenshuo Zhang, Sifang Fu, Xueming Lu, Haiqing Yao, Xiaona Xie and Ping Cui
Buildings 2025, 15(10), 1690; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15101690 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 106
Abstract
The global challenges of rising energy consumption and carbon emissions underscore the urgent need for efficient and sustainable heating solutions in the building sector. The implementation of high-performance buildings that envelope insulation and the increasing adoption of low-temperature radiant heating systems have significantly [...] Read more.
The global challenges of rising energy consumption and carbon emissions underscore the urgent need for efficient and sustainable heating solutions in the building sector. The implementation of high-performance buildings that envelope insulation and the increasing adoption of low-temperature radiant heating systems have significantly reduced the water temperature required from heat sources, enabling greater compatibility with renewable energy systems. In this study, we propose a renewable energy heating system incorporating a solar-assisted medium-depth ground heat exchanger (MDGHE). A dynamic simulation model of the solar-assisted MDGHE system was developed in TRNSYS, featuring a novel MDGHE module specifically developed to improve simulation accuracy. A case study of a residential building in China was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. The simulation results demonstrate that while the standalone MDGHE covers 71.9% of the building’s heating demand, integrating solar collectors with the MDGHE can increase this coverage to 99.9%, enabling full compliance with heating requirements without relying on conventional heat pumps. The results revealed that the system’s COP reached 9.26. Compared with the traditional medium-depth ground source heat pump system with the COP of 4.84, the energy efficiency of this system has been enhanced by 47.7%. A static payback period of 7 years has been obtained compared with the cost of central heating service for residential buildings. These findings highlight the potential of solar-geothermal hybrid systems as a sustainable alternative to traditional heating methods. Full article
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