Energy performance forecasting of residential buildings using fuzzy approaches

The energy consumption used for domestic purposes in Europe is, to a considerable extent, due to heating and cooling. This energy is produced mostly by burning fossil fuels, which has a high negative environmental impact. The characteristics of a building are an important factor to determine the necessities of heating and cooling loads. Therefore, the study of the relevant characteristics of the buildings, regarding the heating and cooling needed to maintain comfortable indoor air conditions, could be very useful in order to design and construct energy-efficient buildings. In previous studies, different machine-learning approaches have been used to predict heating and cooling loads from the set of variables: relative compactness, surface area, wall area, roof area, overall height, orientation, glazing area and glazing area distribution. However, none of these methods are based on fuzzy logic. In this research, we study two fuzzy logic approaches, i.e., fuzzy inductive reasoning (FIR) and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), to deal with the same problem. Fuzzy approaches obtain very good results, outperforming all the methods described in previous studies except one. In this work, we also study the feature selection process of FIR methodology as a pre-processing tool to select the more relevant variables before the use of any predictive modelling methodology. It is proven that FIR feature selection provides interesting insights into the main building variables causally related to heating and cooling loads. This allows better decision making and design strategies, since accurate cooling and heating load estimations and correct identification of parameters that affect building energy demands are of high importance to optimize building designs and equipment specifications.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A hybridwind speed forecasting system based on a 'decomposition and ensemble' strategy and fuzzy time series

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Accurate and stable wind speed forecasting is of critical importance in the wind power industry and has measurable influence on power-system management and the stability of market economics. However, most traditional wind speed forecasting models require a large amount of historical data and face restrictions due to assumptions, such as normality postulates. Additionally, any data volatility leads to increased forecasting instability. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid forecasting system, which combines the 'decomposition and ensemble' strategy and fuzzy time series forecasting algorithm, is proposed that comprises two modules-data pre-processing and forecasting. Moreover, the statistical model, artificial neural network, and Support Vector Regression model are employed to compare with the proposed hybrid system, which is proven to be very effective in forecasting wind speed data affected by noise and instability. The results of these comparisons demonstrate that the hybrid forecasting system can improve the forecasting accuracy and stability significantly, and supervised discretization methods outperform the unsupervised methods for fuzzy time series in most cases

Statistical Mechanics and Information-Theoretic Perspectives on Complexity in the Earth System

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Application of a novel early warning system based on fuzzy time series in urban air quality forecasting in China

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. With atmospheric environmental pollution becoming increasingly serious, developing an early warning system for air quality forecasting is vital to monitoring and controlling air quality. However, considering the large fluctuations in the concentration of pollutants, most previous studies have focused on enhancing accuracy, while few have addressed the stability and uncertainty analysis, which may lead to insufficient results. Therefore, a novel early warning system based on fuzzy time series was successfully developed that includes three modules: deterministic prediction module, uncertainty analysis module, and assessment module. In this system, a hybrid model combining the fuzzy time series forecasting technique and data reprocessing approaches was constructed to forecast the major air pollutants. Moreover, an uncertainty analysis was generated to further analyze and explore the uncertainties involved in future air quality forecasting. Finally, an assessment module proved the effectiveness of the developed model. The experimental results reveal that the proposed model outperforms the comparison models and baselines, and both the accuracy and the stability of the developed system are remarkable. Therefore, fuzzy logic is a better option in air quality forecasting and the developed system will be a useful tool for analyzing and monitoring air pollution

Wireless Sensor System for Prediction of Carbon Monoxide Concentration using Fuzzy Time Series

Carbon monoxide (CO) concentration produced from incomplete material burning affects both work health and safety. A smart system capable of early detection of carbon monoxide (CO) concentration is therefore required. This research develops a carbon monoxide sensor detection capability using a wireless sensor system that transmits data to the web server via internet connection. A semiconductor CO sensor is installed in a remote terminal unit. A computer application is developed for data acquisition and sending  via online and in real time to a web server using an internet modem. For a web-based prediction of CO concentration, a Fuzzy Time Series algorithm induced by Pritpal Sing matrix is used. This research uses CO concentration data for two months. The resulting carbon monoxide concentration   prediction   is  displayed   in  real  time  on  a dashboard. This prediction is for the next day’s forecast. Results show that the Fuzzy Time Series that is induced by Pritpal Sing matrix has an average error of 2.67 %, calculated  with its average forecasting error rate (AFER). This error value varies, depending on the number of data and data characteristics