Abstract: A method of controlling an environment management system within a building, comprises: monitoring appliance usage within the building; determining patterns of appliance usage that are characteristic of an occupant; creating and storing a persona comprising the patterns of appliance usage; identifying an expected pattern of appliance usage associated with the occupant based on a comparison of detected appliance usage with the occupant's stored persona; and operating the environment management system to control the environment in the building, in accordance with the persona.

Abstract: Method of operating an environment management system within a building uses each of at least a first and a second model to predict, for a chosen time period ahead, one or both of: i) control requirements for the environment management system in light of a current measured system state and a desired future system state or ii) a future system state that would be reached with a particular set of control inputs. The first model is a parameterised physical model of the building and the second model is an implicit model of the building. Prediction models are evaluated, a band of uncertainty determined, and a control strategy that minimizing a likely level of deviation from the desired future system state selected. The control strategy comprises control parameters for the environment management system. The environment management system controls the environment in the building in accordance with the selected control strategy.

Abstract: A method of operating an environment management system within a building, comprises: monitoring appliance usage within the building by monitoring two or more utilities and measuring one or more characteristics relating to each of the utilities to provide an output signal representative thereof; monitoring for changes in the state of each of the output signals at predefined time intervals; combining data from the output signals from each utility, to identify one or more patterns of appliance usage; comparing the identified pattern of appliance usage with stored patterns of appliance usage associated with individual occupants of the building to identify an expected pattern of future appliance usage; and operating the environment management system to control the environment in the building in accordance with the identified expected pattern of future appliance usage.