System identification competition announcement

[Jan Kreider]

Announcement of 

***System Identification Competition***

Benchmark tests for estimation methods of thermal characteristics of 
buildings and building components.


*Objective

The objective of the benchmark is to set-up a comparison between 
alternative techniques and to clarify particular problems of system 
identification applied to the thermal performance of buildings. 


*Organisation

J. Bloem, U. Norlen, EC - Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
H. Madsen, H. Melgaard, IMM TU of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
J. Kreider, JCEM, University of Colorado, U.S.


*Active period of the competition : July 1, 1994 - December 31, 1994


*Introduction

A wide range of system identification techniques is now being applied 
to the analysis problems involved with estimation of thermal properties 
of buildings and building components. Similar problems arise in most 
observational disciplines, including physics, biology, and economics. 
New commercially available software tools and special purpose computer 
programs promise to provide results that were unobtainable just a 
decade ago. Unfortunately, the realisation and evaluation of this 
promise has been hampered by the difficulty of making rigorous 
comparisons between competing techniques, particularly ones that come 
from different disciplines.

This competition has been organised to help clarify the conflicting 
claims among many researchers who use and analyse building energy data 
and to foster contact among these persons and their institutions. The 
intent is not necessarily only to declare winners but rather to set up 
a format in which rigorous evaluations of techniques can be made. 
Because there are natural measures of performance, a rank-ordering will 
be given. In all cases, however, the goal is to collect and analyse 
quantitative results in order to understand similarities and differences 
among the approaches.

At the close of the competition the performance of the techniques 
submitted will be compared.  Those with the best results will be asked 
to write a scientific paper and will be invited for a presentation of 
the paper. There will be no monetary prizes. A symposium at the JRC 
Ispra, Northern Italy, has been scheduled for the Autumn 1995 to 
explore the results of the competition in formal papers. The competition,
 the overall results and papers on selected methods will published by 
the organisers in a book.

Research on energy savings in buildings can be divided in three major 
areas:

1) building components, 2) test cells and unoccupied buildings in 
real climate and 3) occupied buildings. Three competitions are planned 
along this line of which the present competition concerned with building 
components will be the first one.

The present competition is concerned with wall components and no solar 
radiation involved. Five different cases are provided for estimation and
prediction. Four cases have been designed with wall components in order
to test parameter estimation methods. Prediction tests are also 
included. Some of the dependent variable values will be withheld from 
the data set in these cases. Contestants are free to submit results 
from any number of cases.

When the outcome of this first competition is positive a second 
competition is planned which concerns test cells and unoccupied 
buildings under real climate conditions (1995). A third competition 
concerns occupied buildings (1996).

If there is sufficient interest, a network server may be set up to 
operate as an on-line archive of interesting data sets, programs, and 
comparisons among algorithms in the future. 


***ACCESSING THE DATA

The competition does not require advanced registration; there are two 
ways to enter: 

1. by normal mail. Simply request the data by sending a letter. The 
data are available on diskettes (3.5-in size) in ASCII, IBM-PC format. 
(there is no charge for the data diskette). To receive the data, 
send the letter together with a self-addressed rigid envelope to :

Joint Research Centre
Institute of System Engineering and Informatics
J.J. BLOEM,     Building 45
I - 21020 Ispra (VA), ITALY

2. by E-mail. In that case just send an request for participation by 
E-mail to J. Kreider at the University of Colorado, Boulder, 
CO 80309-0428, U.S. at the following E-mail address: 

jkreider at vaxf.colorado.edu

Information how to obtain the necessary instructions and the required 
data series, using FTP, are forwarded to you by E-mail.
Instructions on submitting a return disk with the analysis of the cases 
will be included in a README file. The disk will also include an entry 
form that each participant will need to complete and submit along with 
the results.

***FOR MORE INFORMATION


Further questions about the competition should be directed to one of 
the following organisers:


Joint Research Centre
Institute for Systems Engineering 
and Informatics
J.J. BLOEM      Building 45
I - 21020 ISPRA (VA), Italy
tel:    +39 332 789842/789145
fax:    +39 332 789992
E-mail:  hans.bloem at cen.jrc.it


Joint Center for Energy Management
J. KREIDER
Campus Box 428
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO  80309-0428, U.S.
tel:    +303 492 3915
fax:    +303 492 7317
E-mail:  jkreider at vaxf.colorado.edu


End of Announcement SysId Competition.