New Advances in Building Energy and Smart Building Control
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 22 March 2026 | Viewed by 25
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The built environment accounts for a significant proportion of global energy consumption and carbon emissions, making buildings a critical sector for advancing energy efficiency and sustainability. With the rapid integration of renewable energy, digital technologies, and intelligent systems, the next generation of building design and operation is moving toward smart, adaptive, and resilient solutions. This Special Issue, titled “New Advances in Building Energy and Smart Building Control”, aims to showcase cutting-edge research and innovative applications that are shaping the future of sustainable buildings.
This issue will cover a wide range of topics, including novel methods for energy-efficient building design, intelligent control strategies for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, optimization of energy storage and renewable integration, and applications of artificial intelligence, digital twins, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in building management. Contributions highlighting occupant-centered approaches, demand response, smart grid interaction, and multi-objective optimization for both comfort and efficiency are particularly encouraged.
By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from architecture, engineering, computer science, and energy systems, this Special Issue will provide a comprehensive overview of the latest advances driving the transition toward low-carbon, smart, and adaptive buildings. The collected works will not only advance academic understanding but also offer practical insights to policymakers, practitioners, and technology developers committed to addressing the global challenges of energy and climate.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Energy-efficient building design, retrofitting, and performance optimization;
- Advanced heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) control strategies;
- Application of reinforcement learning in buildings;
- Integration of renewable energy sources and energy storage in buildings;
- Demand response strategies and smart grid–building interaction;
- Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital twins for building energy management;
- Internet of Things (IoT) applications and sensor networks in smart buildings;
- Building automation systems and intelligent control platforms;
- Occupant-centered comfort modeling and adaptive control methods;
- Multi-objective optimization of energy, comfort, cost, and sustainability;
- Cyber–physical systems and data-driven approaches for building control;
- Energy benchmarking, diagnostics, and fault detection in building systems;
- Simulation, modeling, and validation of smart building performance;
- Policy, economics, and decision-making frameworks for sustainable buildings.
Prof. Dr. Xilei Dai
Guest Editor
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. Energies 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
- smart buildings
- data-driven control
- grid-responsive buildings
- building energy system modeling and optimization
- occupant-centered buildings
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