HEART (Holistic Energy and Architectural Retrofit Toolkit), is financially supported by the European Commission through the Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020, grant number 768921.

The HEART project aims to address the increasing need for deep retrofit interventions and to develop systemic strategies leading to high performance and cost effective solutions.

HEART proposes a multifunctional toolkit that integrates several technologies (BIPV, ASHP, PCM thermal storage, electric storage, and cloud-based DSS and BEMS) to transform existing buildings into energy efficient and smart buildings. While HEART is developed with a focus on existing residential buildings, the concept can be applied to new residential and commercial buildings as well.

The research for the cloud platform for DSS (Design Support System) and BEMS (Building Energy Management System) used in the project is based on two fundamental tools. The first one is parametric simulation to produce a large spectrum of possible building energy performance outcomes, considering realistically the impact of the user behaviour and variable operating conditions from the very beginning. The second one is model calibration employing simple, robust and scalable techniques.