Domain H
Heating
The heating domain looks at how smartly a building controls its heat: per room or centrally, based on occupancy and outdoor temperature, and whether the boiler or heat pump follows demand. Heat storage and fault reporting are part of it too.
In short
- 1This page shows how the Smart Readiness Indicator assesses the heating domain.
- 2It covers nine smart-ready services, from radiator control to fault reporting.
- 3Each service has functionality levels from 0 to 4, which together determine how smart a building's heating is.
Services in this domain
- Heat emission controlH-1a · 5 levels · A
- Emission control for TABS (heating mode)H-1b · 4 levels
- Storage and shifting of thermal energyH-1c · 3 levels · A
- Control of distribution pumps in networksH-1d · 5 levels
- Thermal Energy Storage (TES) for building heating (excluding TABS)H-1f · 4 levels
- Heat generator control (all except heat pumps)H-2a · 3 levels · A
- Heat generator control (for heat pumps)H-2b · 4 levels · A
- Sequencing in case of different heat generatorsH-2d · 5 levels
- Report information regarding heating system performanceH-3 · 5 levels · A
- Flexibility and grid interactionH-4 · 5 levels
What does the heating domain measure?
The heating domain is one of nine domains within the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), the European measurement tool for the digital intelligence of buildings. This domain examines how a building generates, distributes and controls heat.
There are nine smart-ready services within this domain. They cover space control, heat generation, pump control, heat storage and reporting on system performance.
Which services belong to heating?
Service H-1a assesses how heat output is controlled per room, from no automatic control to individual control with occupancy detection. Service H-1b does something similar for thermally active building elements (TABS), such as floor heating integrated into the building structure.
Other services examine the heat generator itself. H-2a applies to boilers and other heat generators, H-2b specifically to heat pumps. Both assess whether the temperature is constant, follows outdoor temperature or responds to actual heat demand.
Service H-2d covers sequencing when a building has multiple heat generators, for example a combination of a heat pump and a boiler. The highest levels take account of predicted load, efficiency, CO2 emissions and electricity grid signals.
Why do storage and flexibility count?
Services H-1c and H-1f assess whether a building can store heat and shift it across time. This matters because storage helps align heating with periods of cheap or renewable energy.
Service H-4 assesses the flexibility of the entire heating system towards the electricity grid. The highest level requires optimised control based on local forecasts and grid signals, for example through model-based predictive control.
What does reporting deliver?
Service H-3 assesses whether the building provides information about heating system performance. This ranges from no reporting to predictive maintenance with fault detection at the highest level.
This reporting function is often one of the cheapest ways to improve the score in this domain, as it mainly requires software and no new installations.
Weight per building type
- Officeheavy
- Schoolheavy
- Care buildingheavy
- Hospitalheavy
- Hotelheavy
- Retail and supermarketmedium
- Logistics and distribution centremedium
- Industry and manufacturingmedium
- Apartment buildingheavy
- Municipal and public buildingsheavy
- Sports facilityheavy
Next step
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