Special Issue "Energy Efficient Building Design"
Quicklinks
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2011)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Dr. Stephen Treado
Department of Architectural Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Engineering Unit A, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Website: http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/faculty/Treado/index.asp
E-Mail: streado@engr.psu.edu
Phone: +1 (814) 867-3323
Interests: building automation; control systems; distributed generation; optimization; renewable energy; sustainability
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Efforts to make the built environment more energy efficient continue unabated in the quest to reduce energy consumption, costs and environmental impacts. The concept of high performance buildings incorporates both energy efficiency and thermal performance, a blended goal that requires a high degree of integrated building design and operation. One additional layer is the relationship between individual buildings, groups of buildings, communities and the utility grid. Transforming the building stock from its current status as the largest energy consuming sector into an efficient, effective and sustainable entity will entail a radical rethinking of the methods currently used to provide necessary building services, such as space conditioning, illumination, electricity and water. Many efforts are currently underway to address these challenges and develop cost-effective solutions in the form of new building materials, components and systems. Related efforts are aimed at the improvement of design and construction methods. A third critical area includes building operating strategies. Indeed, most of the potential for near-term improvement in the energy performance of buildings is associated with tight integration of building systems coupled with distributed power generation and dynamic control. Managing the energy flows within a building to meet the needs of the occupants when and where required is essential for obtaining optimal performance.
Dr. Stephen Treado
Guest Editor
Related Special Issues in Other Journals
Keywords
- adaptive control
- automation
- building information model
- energy efficiency
- high performance buildings
- integrated design
- sustainable design
- thermal performance
- zero-energy-buildings
Published Papers (5 papers)
|
Received: 3 September 2011; in revised form: 4 November 2011 / Accepted: 5 November 2011 / Published: 23 November 2011
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (1220 KB)
Abstract: The key factors in the energy-saving design of a building’s exterior in Taiwan are the thermal performance of the roof and window glazing. This study used the eQUEST software to investigate how different types of roof construction, window glasses and sunshield types affect the energy consumption in residential buildings under common scenarios. The simulation results showed that the use of an appropriate window glass significantly reduced the annual energy consumption, followed by the shading device, whereas the roof construction produced less of an energy-efficiency benefit. By using a low-E glass and a 1.5 × 1.5 m box shading (e.g., balcony), this could save approximately 15.1 and 13.6% of the annual electricity consumption of air conditioners, respectively. Therefore, having control over the dominant factors in the building envelope is indeed an important step in the path to achieving energy savings and carbon reduction in residential houses.
|
|
Received: 8 September 2011; in revised form: 29 September 2011 / Accepted: 21 November 2011 / Published: 24 November 2011
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (816 KB)
Abstract: The primary energy consumption in residential buildings is determined by the envelope thermal characteristics, air change, outside climatic data, users’ behaviour and the adopted heating system and its control. The new Italian regulations strongly suggest the installation of centralized boilers in renovated buildings with more than four apartments. This work aims to investigate the differences in primary energy consumption and efficiency among several independent and centralized heating systems installed in Northern Italy. The analysis is carried out through the following approach: firstly building heating loads are evaluated using the software TRNSYS® and, then, heating system performances are estimated through a simplified model based on the European Standard EN 15316. Several heating systems have been analyzed, evaluating: independent and centralized configurations, condensing and traditional boilers, radiator and radiant floor emitters and solar plant integration. The heating systems are applied to four buildings dating back to 2010, 2006, 1960s and 1930s. All the combinations of heating systems and buildings are analyzed in detail, evaluating efficiency and primary energy consumption. In most of the cases the choice between centralized and independent heating systems has minor effects on primary energy consumption, less than 3%: the introduction of condensing technology and the integration with solar heating plant can reduce energy consumption by 11% and 29%, respectively.
|
|
Received: 29 November 2011; in revised form: 17 December 2011 / Accepted: 21 December 2011 / Published: 27 December 2011
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (1376 KB) | Download XML Full-text
Abstract: Much of the residential sector in Spain is obsolete, with inadequate conditions of comfort and high energy consumption. For this reason most of the potential for improving energy efficiency lies in the existing residential sector, which requires upgrading to meet the quantitative and qualitative changes required at present. This study of specific cases aimed at establishing general criteria for action has been prompted by the difficulty in proposing general intervention strategies. This paper presents a case study for the energy retrofit of 68 social housing units in Cordoba (Spain) evaluating their energy consumption, with a view to improving the building’s energy balance and indoor thermal comfort, on which user comfort depends.
|
|
Received: 9 November 2011; in revised form: 13 January 2012 / Accepted: 20 January 2012 / Published: 2 February 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (5882 KB)
Abstract: The search for energy efficient construction solutions is still pending in the agro-food industry, in which a large amount of energy is often consumed unnecessarily when storing products. The main objective of this research is to promote high energy efficiency built environments, which aim to reduce energy consumption in this sector. We analyze the suitability of using the thermal inertia of the ground to provide an adequate environment for the storage and conservation of agro-food products. This research compares different construction solutions based on the use of ground thermal properties, analyzing their effectiveness to decrease annual outdoor variations and provide adequate indoor conditions. The analysis undertaken is based on over five million pieces of data, obtained from an uninterrupted four year monitoring process of various constructions with different levels of thermal mass, ranging from high volume constructions to others lacking this resource. It has been proven that constructive solutions based on the use of ground thermal inertia are more effective than other solutions when reducing the effects of outdoor conditions, even when these have air conditioning systems. It is possible to reach optimal conditions to preserve agro-food products such as wine, with a good design and an adequate amount of terrain, without having to use air conditioning systems. The results of this investigation could be of great use to the agro-food industry, becoming a reference when it comes to the design of energy efficient constructions.
 |
|
Received: 19 March 2012; in revised form: 29 May 2012 / Accepted: 26 June 2012 / Published: 10 July 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (4811 KB)
Abstract: Traditionally, people in the Mediterranean region knew that the temperatures in their courtyards were cooler in summer than outside temperature. This paper provides a quantitative study on the usefulness of Mediterranean courtyards as passive energy saving systems. This work is based on the creation of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical model developed using the open source Freefem++ language. In this work, first the numerical model is tested using simplified-shape courtyards which have been previously studied both physically under controlled parameters, and mathematically through numerical simulations. We also study the most appropriate depth ratio for a courtyard, based on these simplified shapes, depending on the climate. Secondly, we apply the numerical model in a real geometry, the Monte Málaga hotel. We compare the numerical results with the monitored data of the temperature in the courtyard of the hotel. The numerical model takes into account precomputed solar radiation in the walls of the courtyard, the predominant wind and buoyancy effects.
|
Last update: 25 September 2012
