The Grundfos Dormitory Lab (GDL), also known as Grundfos Kollegiet, is a newly constructed low-energy dormitory placed in the harbour of Aarhus. There are currently several research projects working with this building as a test bed. Among these projects, there is the Danish research project named Virtual Power Plants for Smart Grid Ready Buildings and Customers (VPP4SGR). This project aims at developing a virtual power plant to monitor and control the energy usage of a residential building in an optimal way, while satisfying the needs of the electrical grid.
The building has 12 floors, 159 apartments, a big common kitchen, a laundry room and a bike room. Currently, approximately 200 students are living in GDL in individual or two-person apartments. Each apartment is no larger than 40 m2 and is equipped with around 20 sensors reporting information every 5 seconds about indoor climate conditions, electricity consumption, domestic water usage and district heating usage among others. Besides the sensors placed in the apartments, the building has sensors in the common areas and facilities (e.g. ventilation system, weather station, etc.).
