Innovating Sustainable Built Environment Integrating Low-Carbon Energy, Energy Efficiency Solutions, and Environmental Considerations

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 911

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: low-carbon energy for buildings; thermal energy storage; building retrofit; heating and cooling; decarbonisation

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Guest Editor
School of Equipment Engineering, Shanxi Vocational University of Engineering Science and Technology, Jinzhong 030619, China
Interests: thermal energy storage; heat and mass transfer; building heating; indoor environment

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Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Interests: building energy; big data management; demand response; indoor environmental quality control technologies; building-integrated photovoltaics technologies

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Guest Editor
College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Interests: energy systems; sustainable technologies; building physics; thermofluids; renewables

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Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: air conditioning; energy efficiency; indoor environment; thermal energy; energy systems
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

While progress is being made in decarbonising grid energy, achieving net-zero targets will require a list of actions to decarbonise buildings and communities. Buildings and the built environment, interacting closely with the grid, pose a major challenge to emission reduction. There are a range of interrelated challenges: the imperative for decarbonisation, escalating energy costs, concerns over both indoor and outdoor environmental quality, and the operational complexity of integrating decentralised sustainable systems. This Special Issue aims to address these pressing issues by inviting original research and review papers that explore transformative solutions at both the building and community scale. Topics of interest include energy-efficient and sustainable building technologies, low-carbon heating and cooling systems, energy storage integration, indoor environmental quality and occupant wellbeing, and digital modelling for energy optimisation and decarbonisation. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions that combine engineering innovations, data-driven control strategies, and policy insights to support climate-resilient, occupant-centred transitions in the built environment.

Dr. Cheng Zeng
Dr. Xiaojing Han
Dr. Yuanda Cheng
Dr. Abdur Rehman Mazhar
Prof. Dr. Jun Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • decarbonisation
  • energy efficiency
  • built environment
  • energy storage
  • renewable energy
  • digital modelling and optimisation
  • community energy systems
  • indoor environmental quality
  • building physics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 8584 KB  
Article
Experimental Investigation of Dynamic Operation and Performance Limits of ASHP-Driven Radiant Floor and Fan Coil Heating System
by Zuo Chen, Cheng Zeng, Jun Lu and Enhao Liu
Buildings 2026, 16(7), 1325; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16071325 - 26 Mar 2026
Viewed by 487
Abstract
This study investigates the operation of an air source heat pump (ASHP) working with combined radiant floor (RF) and fan coil unit (FCU) heating systems in hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) regions. Intermittent heating demands and ASHP sensitivity to supply water temperature [...] Read more.
This study investigates the operation of an air source heat pump (ASHP) working with combined radiant floor (RF) and fan coil unit (FCU) heating systems in hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) regions. Intermittent heating demands and ASHP sensitivity to supply water temperature in these regions lead to insufficient steady-state assumptions, while experimental evidence on transient heating behavior, thermal comfort development, and operational limits remains limited. In this study, experiments were conducted to analyze six supply water temperatures (ranging from 35 °C to 45 °C) with respect to the system’s dynamic thermal response, vertical air temperature difference, floor surface temperature, power consumption, and coefficient of performance (COP). The results show that start-up heating is dominated by FCU convection, causing pronounced vertical temperature stratification, while radiant heat becomes dominant as the system approaches steady operation. A good vertical air temperature difference with respect to breathing zones and ankle-level temperature differences below 2 °C was achieved after sufficient operating time. Increasing the supply water temperature accelerated the heating response, where the time required for the average indoor temperature to reach 18 °C decreased from 5.5 h at 35 °C to 2.2 h at 45 °C. However, this improvement was accompanied by reduced energy efficiency, with the mean ASHP unit COP declining from 2.5 to 2.3. Excessively high supply temperatures further induced premature indoor overheating and the frequent start–stop cycling of the heat pump, thereby limiting thermal benefits and increasing power demand. These findings provide experimentally grounded insight into the operation and performance limits of ASHP RF–FCU heating systems. Full article
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