The energy efficiency class of a building is calculated every month based on the consumption and considering the actual weather conditions and the quality of the indoor climate is evaluated based on the measured indoor air parameters. In cooperation with Estonian companies Thinnect and R8 Technologies, the solutions reach the market and customers worldwide. The project won the first prize in the 2023 development work competition of Tallinn University of Technology.

Data both in general and close-up view

In DigiAudit's pilot project, 25 educational buildings in Tallinn and Tartu were connected to the Internet of Things platform. The continuous monitoring of energy, ventilation and air quality in hundreds of rooms generated a data collection for which relevant analytics were developed. It enables the condition of buildings to be monitored and buildings to be compared and it supports diagnostics and error detection in technical systems of buildings.

The project created a method that compares the energy efficiency of an individual building with other buildings of the same type. A data set containing energy efficiency indicators of 35,000 Estonian buildings was analysed. Based on this, a model was developed that shows the approximate energy efficiency of an individual building compared to other buildings of the same type. The project analysed the change in energy efficiency of 35,000 buildings over time. It turned out that during the last decade, the energy efficiency of buildings in Estonia has been increasing at a fairly good pace, and if it continues the same way, we can hope that a large part of Estonian buildings will become carbon neutral in the coming decades.

The thermal comfort of buildings is evaluated based on the temperature of the rooms and the air quality is evaluated based on the level of carbon dioxide measured in the rooms. In addition, the users of the rooms have the opportunity to give feedback about their satisfaction with the room's indoor climate using a QR code. Some sheets with codes are in place at the TalTech main building and the project team is studying how to take the feedback into account when evaluating the indoor climate. Whether the room is in use or not is also automatically detected, which was extremely important for assessing the indoor climate. For example, if nighttime and weekends are used in the analysis of air quality of schools and kindergartens, the situation appears more to be positive than in reality.

The DigiAudit platform’s user interface allows property owners to get an overview of the energy efficiency, carbon footprint, indoor climate and energy costs of the entire building portfolio, as well as get separate, more detailed overviews of each connected building.

Cooperation between scientists and entrepreneurs took DigiAudit to customers

The goal of all FinEst Centre for Smart Cities pilot projects is to create a functioning product or service. DigiAudit is one of the first successful examples where this goal has been achieved. The DigiAudit solution was fully licensed to the Estonian company Thinnect in mid-2023. The product is offered by Thinnect's sister company, ThinFacility and to date the solution has been installed in 20 buildings, totalling approximately 100,000 m2.

According to Jürgo Preden, head of Thinnect, this is a top scientific achievement that has yet to have a competitor on the market. As he puts it, nowadays, no building manager knows exactly where the energy is spent, as buildings are complex and the way they operate changes over time. The DigiAudit solution plays an important role here, helping to understand where energy is spent and how to reduce the cost of it.

At the beginning of 2024, we started to cooperate with the human-centred artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology company R8 Technologies OÜ, whose software solution based on artificial intelligence already ensures energy efficiency in hundreds of buildings in twenty countries. The DigiAudit algorithms that R8 will now use is a step further and complement the R8 Technologies solution for more accurate energy class ratings for buildings.

According to Kristo Peerna, project manager of R8 Technologies, the company provides its customers with the necessary data to make improvements in the building. This data is also based on the energy class calculated by DigiAudit algorithms, which allows property owners to know the real energy efficiency class of their buildings.

Two partners

Thinnect offers solutions to improve energy saving and efficiency and ease of use and cooperates with Tallinn and Tartu cities, Ülemiste City and eight other countries besides Estonia.

R8 Technologies is a leading human-centric artificial intelligence (AI) technology company managing over three million square meters of commercial real estate across Europe. With a data-based artificial intelligence solution, R8 Digital Operator helps to improve the management of real estate, including office and public buildings, shopping centres and hotels.