Smart buildings have been gaining pace in recent years. A smart building is one where all the electronic systems work together to make the user experience more pleasant. However, many people realize that even the most modern facilities are still not as efficient as possible. That provides an opportunity to create smarter buildings that do not waste energy while at the same time making sure occupants’ needs are met too.

Energy efficiency is one of the biggest challenges that modern society is facing. In the next few years, we need to transition from traditional energy systems to smart building solutions for a smarter, more sustainable world. The evolution of IoT has been driven by an increasing demand for real-time information, on-demand services, and products and services tailored to individual requirements. The main causes of energy waste are inefficient lighting and air conditioning systems, inaccurate thermostats, and poor insulation. These factors make optimizing building performance a challenging task. There are three main areas IoT can be applied for energy efficiency. The first is monitoring actual energy use in buildings, which can be done using sensors or other devices connected to the network. The second area is predictive analytics, which means using the data to predict when equipment will fail and preventative maintenance. The third area is demand response, which refers to how buildings can respond to peak energy use and help reduce the overall amount of power used.

A few of the challenges of implementing IoT solutions for smart buildings include lack of a clear business case, unsuitable existing IT environment, technical issues related to connecting sensors, security, service costs, and difficulty installing sensors. With the growing demand for energy and increasing energy costs, there is a great need to implement optimal energy efficiency solutions in buildings. To make this possible, reliable, real-time information on energy usage is required. Implementing various IoT-based solutions will allow building owners to monitor their facilities more effectively and efficiently. However, the implementation of IoT in smart buildings is complicated due to various factors like network connectivity issues, lack of standardization in data exchange, etc. A few smart buildings are already implemented with IoT solutions collecting data from sensors and relaying them via WSNs or cloud-based solutions. Some of these systems are installed with ML algorithms to detect anomalies in the data collected from sensors and predict future events. These systems can be used as an input trigger for further actions by building occupants. This will provide real-time data on energy usage and help building occupants save money and reduce carbon footprints. In this special issue, we have investigated the main challenges for smart buildings regarding energy efficiency and welcome new ideas for smart buildings and IoT solutions deployed in the future.

Papers could consider but are not limited to

• IoT-based energy storage technologies
• Advanced methodology in IoT for energy management
• A move towards carbon sequestration, biofuels, and replacements
• The challenges of data privacy in IoT applications
• The high implementation cost of an IoT-based system
• Role of renewable energy in increasing energy system efficiency
• Energy-efficient software and IoT applications for sustainability
• Energy-saving IoT applications in healthcare technologies
• Smart city renewable energy systems
• Energy-saving measures using smart occupancy sensors
• Integrating smart buildings with the environment
• AI-powered privacy protection in smart buildings

Instructions for Manuscripts

Each paper, written in English, the maximum words number in each paper should be below 8,000 words, including the references and illustrations. More information can be found at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/. Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.

Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/internet-tech. When submitting papers, authors should specify that the manuscript is for Special Issue on “Insights of Energy Efficient Smart Buildings: An IoT-Based Approach”. The manuscript template can be found at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/about/submissions#authorGuideline.

Important Dates

Article Submission Deadline: 01-July-2022  15-July-2022

Authors First Notification Date: 01-September-2022

Revised Papers Due Date: 01-October-2022

Final Notification Date: 01-January-2023

Tentative Publication: January 2024

Guest Editors

Dr. Hamed Hashemi-Dezaki

Regional Innovation Centre for Electrical Engineering (RICE), University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic

E-mail: hhashemi@ieee.org

Dr. Hamed Nafisi

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin)

E-mail: Hamed.Nafisi@TUDublin.ie