The monitoring system allows a better control of the energy system with a consequent optimization of the plant efficiency. These actions lead to the reduction of system energy consumptions and the decrease of the GHG emissions. Moreover, a raised awareness on the building energy needs and system operation can be reached, allowing a behavioural change about the system use.

Monitoring systems for energy performances is key to pursuit energy efficiency, indeed you cannot optimize what you don’t measure. Usually, at least in the past, the energy system installer did not care too much to the actual energy performance of the system during operation phase, but just that the requested comfort is guaranteed. In order to change this practice policy can do a lot, requesting to the energy system installer to also monitor the actual system energy performance. Some EU directives (2012/27 and 2018/2002) already go in this direction, but it should be extended also to single family houses and to the other energy needs (i.e. space cooling and domestic hot water).

From the social point of view the citizens should be aware of their energy consumptions and which are the most influencing factors in order to reduce energy waste.

From the economic point of view, the monitoring systems are becoming more and more cheaper, anyway they are not for free, in particular for water-based system, so for this reason the dissemination of cost-benefit analysis that highlights the advantages and potential energy and cost savings of monitoring systems should be empowered.

From the technical point of view, there are already many good products on the market, but often the bottleneck is the lack of specialized installers that can handle it.

Lastly, a key point for success is a comprehensive commissioning of the whole chain linked to a monitoring system. Indeed, as the monitoring system results has to be used to optimize the energy system control is key to have reliable measurements and data, so the sensors selection and installation should be carefully done, as well as the mapping of the logged measurements and the correct and optimal post-process of the logged data into data that can be easily interpreted and used by the final   user and the HVAC system manager.

This solution, if correctly installed, do not have any relevant adverse impacts as it is just a monitoring system, a passive system that does not do actions.

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The impact of “monitoring systems” is mainly represented by:

• The energy savings achieved by their use for the energy system control optimization
• The improvement of the user comfort if not already achieved.

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The solution “monitoring systems” respect the DNSH principle (Do Not Significant Harm) as it is a passive system which does not need any particular harmful material.

The processes for the implementation are relatively easy for new buildings if the monitoring system is installed during the HVAC system realization. On the other hand, the installation of monitoring system on existing building is more complicated, in particular for water base system where there is the need to stop the system even temporarily and due some hydraulic works to install flow meters.  

As part of the so-called “scientific approach” everybody in the literature agrees on the usefulness of monitoring system.

Below an example of a work based on the use of monitoring system is presented, but many other can be found in the literature.

The scientific paper of Fumagalli et al. [1] describe a methodology and results of monitoring several heat pump systems installed in public buildings in the North of Italy. The three-year project, led by the Energy Department of Politecnico di Milano, aimed at evaluating the performance of heat pump systems on field; it involved several kinds of technologies, including gas driven absorption heat pumps. A new monitoring procedure, based on performance indicators expressed in terms of primary energy has been defined; the indicators are calculated on specific system boundaries, in order to characterize the performance of each meaningful subsystem of the monitored plants. Moreover, further indicators are defined in order to characterize the operating conditions of the system; through them, it is possible to understand the significance of the main performance indicators and detect possible faults in the design and management of the plants. The results of the monitoring of the five gas absorption heat pump plants are then presented. They highlight that the performance of a system is not determined solely by the efficiency of the heat pump, but depends also on the good integration of the machine in the system, that should be addressed at design level, and on the coherent management of the system.

[1] Marica Fumagalli, Alessandro Sivieri, Marcello Aprile, Mario Motta, Matteo Zanchi, Monitoring of gas driven absorption heat pumps and comparing energy efficiency on primary energy, Renewable Energy,

Volume 110, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.058.