A model based indoor climate control concept is developed which improves the indoor comfort while saving energy. The controller developed within the EU-FP7 HERB project will automatically quantify key parameters describing the thermal balance of the building using a limited number of sensors and an adaptive statistical model. Aiming at large scale integration, a combination of advanced control concepts with state of the art low cost hardware will be used. Various control concepts will be developed, implemented, tested and validated in renovation dwellings in different European climate regions. More precisely, this paper starts by presenting the desired “holistic” control concept, followed by a study of a first control concept employing Genetic Algorithms with hardware implementation considerations.