# An Optimizing Heat Consumption System Based on BMS
## 1 Introduction  
In traditional heating and cooling systems, system management is performed through so-called heating/cooling sources, which are usually a heating radiator or an air-conditioning unit, and cold or hot water, which is distributed around the building without any control [1].  
In most cases, room radiators are equipped with a manual valve, or, in more modern scenarios, the basic adjustment is made through a thermostatic valve. In any case, the room thermostats cannot be controlled by the systems for producing heat (central heating) or cold (air-conditioning system); thus, there is no control over the amount of energy consumed to heat/cool a room. For example, a window or door may be opened and then left open, but the room may still be being heated or cooled.  
The use of a BMS (building management system) will allow engineers to acquire information from the environment through sensors (contactors closing/opening, temperature probes, etc.) and to interconnect both heating/cooling sources and the events that may occur in a room (temperature rises, windows being left open, etc.).  
Based on these possibilities, the BMS system gathers all the necessary information to make an optimal decision regarding starting/stopping the heating/cooling system, in order to obtain maximum efficiency in that environment in terms of temperature and energy consumption. The BMS will open/close all systems at the right time to always ensure an optimum temperature in the managed premises.  
The main objective of this paper is to propose a control system, based on BMS, that optimizes energy consumption to ensure the medium- and long-term functionality of the accommodation services of a campus. This is conducted for two indispensable and related services: the supply of electricity and of heating energy at a reduced price, in accordancewith current and future consumption and in agreement with European Community standards and directives on environmental protection. An energy rehabilitation solution based on the cogeneration of electricity and heat responds to Directive 2004/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 [2] on the promotion of cogeneration, based on the demand for useful thermal energy in the domestic energy market.  
In this paper, we propose a solution for a smart system based on BMS for the optimization of heating energy consumption. The scope of this system is to achieve the optimization of energy consumption in terms of the energy used to heat a building in the cold season. Optimization is performed via automatic control of the energy produced and supplied, depending on the requirements identified by the system. Thus, if a room is uninhabited, then the minimum possible temperature will be maintained in it, and if a room has an open window, the heating system in that room will be turned off, just to avoid wasting energy. This solution includes a cogeneration plant that produces electrical and thermal energy and this is used for the rehabilitation of the students' dormitories on a university campus. Thus, the contributions of this paper are the proposed architecture and the implementation of the management system.  
This paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the background for the study and related work that highlights the advantages and benefits of BMS systems, along with the solution for a BMS presented in the specialized literature; Section 3 presents the general architecture of the proposed system and outlines the operation mode, the general SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system for the cogeneration plant, and the main equipment needed should the solution be adopted. A discussion related to the proposed solution is presented in Section 4 and a case study and related discussions are presented in Section 5. Our final conclusions are presented in Section 6.