BuildingGym: An open-source toolbox for AI-based building energy management using reinforcement learning

Abstract

Reinforcement learning (RL) has proven effective for AI-based building energy management. However, there is a lack of flexible framework to implement RL across various control problems in building energy management. To address this gap, we propose BuildingGym, an open-source tool designed as a research-friendly and flexible framework for training RL control strategies for common challenges in building energy management. BuildingGym integrates EnergyPlus as its core simulator, making it suitable for both system-level and room-level control. Additionally, BuildingGym is able to accept external signals as control inputs instead of taking the building as a stand-alone entity. This feature makes BuildingGym applicable for more flexible environments, e.g. smart grid and EVs community. The tool provides several built-in RL algorithms for control strategy training, simplifying the process for building managers to obtain optimal control strategies. Users can achieve this by following a few straightforward steps to configure BuildingGym for optimization control for common problems in the building energy management field. Moreover, AI specialists can easily implement and test state-of-the-art control algorithms within the platform. BuildingGym bridges the gap between building managers and AI specialists by allowing for the easy configuration and replacement of RL algorithms, simulators, and control environments or problems. With BuildingGym, we efficiently set up training tasks for cooling load management, targeting both constant and dynamic cooling load management. The built-in algorithms demonstrated strong performance across both tasks, highlighting the effectiveness of BuildingGym in optimizing cooling strategies.