Analysis of modern approaches to energy-efficient planning of building space use

Abstract

Improving building energy efficiency requires coordination between HVAC operation and the spatial-temporal organisation of room use. This paper systematises recent approaches to occupancy sensing and prediction, building energy modelling, predictive HVAC control, energy-aware timetabling, and flexible-space optimisation. The analysis covers peer-reviewed research published in 2022–2025. Four review papers were used to construct the classification and identify primary studies; twenty unique primary articles were coded without double counting. The qualitative map shows that monitoring, modelling, operational control, and organisational planning have mostly developed as separate functional classes. Existing systems commonly treat the room-use schedule as an external input: local controllers adapt temperature setpoints to occupancy and weather, while scheduling tools usually optimise organisational feasibility or total energy without a room-specific forecast of heating transitions. The content analysis indicates that quantitative room occupancy is considered in 80.0% of the sample, temperature mode in 42.5%, plan generation in 32.5%, transient thermal modes in 25.0%, and an individual room energy profile in 20.0%. Functional room status is treated as a planning variable in only 5.0%, and specific energy consumption per person-hour is not used as a planning objective. Based on these findings, an integrated research direction is formulated. A building is represented as a set of rooms with capacity, functional constraints, local HVAC characteristics, and individual dynamic energy profiles. Candidate assignments of events to rooms and time slots are evaluated by forecast heating energy, including preheating and comfort-maintenance periods, while organisational and comfort constraints define the feasible set. The proposed performance indicator relates heating energy to the delivered person-hours. When person-hours are fixed, this criterion is equivalent to total-energy minimisation but remains useful for comparing different loading levels; when useful output varies, it has an independent optimisation meaning. The research objective, six tasks, expected scientific results, and practical role of an integrated decision support system coordinating local HVAC controllers are defined.