Monitoring and control of energy consumption in buildings using WoT: A novel approach for smart retrofit

Interoperability issues on networks of heterogeneous devices create a relevant and complex challenge. The Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops a series of specifications, called the Web of Things (WoT), to address this challenge. WoT is focused on integrating smart things into the application layer of a system using on Web technologies. Thus, WoT is expected to have a great impact on the smart retrofit of buildings once data from existing and future planned systems are able to be gathered and analysed seamlessly. In this paper, we (i) analyse the application of the W3C WoT on the core of the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) to enable the universal integration of both private and public systems; (ii) propose a novel architecture for the BEMS based on the W3C specifications; and (iii) present a real-world application based on this architecture. The application covered in this paper allows data gathering from sensors with standard commands, enabling data analysis with a simple collecting process. By applying these specifications, smart building retrofit can be benefited from: (i) the ability to merge and scale different systems and devices; (ii) the easiness to access data; (iii) the reduction of development and maintenance costs; and (iv) offering standard interfaces to the BEMS.