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Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment

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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: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 10051

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Diego Pablo Ruiz Padillo

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Guest Editor

Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: environmental data processing and modelling; air quality; acoustics; physical risks; climate change; environmental pollution and its modelling; energy efficiency in buildings; circular economy; green technologies; renewable energy; building information modelling; acoustic sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. María Luisa de la Hoz Torres

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Construction, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: indoor environmental quality; air quality; acoustics; built environment; thermal comfort; environmental data processing and modelling; building information modelling

Prof. Dr. María Dolores Martínez Aires

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Construction, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: indoor environmental quality; built environment; PtD; health and safety; building information modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Indoor environmental conditions (such as thermal, acoustic, air quality, etc.) have a high impact on people’s and workers’ well-being and productivity since they spend the most part of a day in indoor environments. The need to ensure that indoor spaces are safe and healthy has become more evident as a result of the recent global pandemic. However, maintaining proper indoor environmental conditions may require buildings to have high-energy consumption and, therefore, a high impact on the sustainability of cities. The aim of this Special Issue is to collect a set of scientific contributions about the current indoor environmental conditions and new trends or strategies to make societies resilient through healthy and sustainable buildings.

Research efforts are requested in, but not limited, to the following topics:

Monitoring indoor environment.
Measurement and monitoring of workplace conditions.
Environmental assessment of building.
Thermal comfort strategies.
Indoor thermal environment.
Indoor acoustic environment.
Building energy analysis and efficiency.
Occupant satisfaction and evaluation.
Indoor environmental quality.
Green buildings.
Environmental ergonomic.
Construction materials and their impact on indoor conditions.

Prof. Dr. Diego Pablo Ruiz Padillo
Dr. María Luisa de la Hoz Torres
Prof. Dr. María Dolores Martínez Aires
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 monthly 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

indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
well-being
thermal comfort
indoor acoustic quality
energy efficiency
sensor technology
human behaviour
built environment
environmental ergonomic

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 5534 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Environmental Evaluation of Ventilation Systems Aimed at Reducing Indoor Radon Concentration

by Licia Felicioni, Martin Jiránek, Barbora Vlasatá and Antonín Lupíšek

Buildings 2023, 13(11), 2706; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13112706 - 26 Oct 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1080

Abstract

The primary measures against radon in buildings are a tight contact structure or venting the subsoil beneath the building. In many cases, ventilation systems used in buildings to ensure good indoor air quality can also be used to reduce the radon concentration. This study aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of residential ventilation systems for their ability to lower the concentration of this gas. The life cycle assessment methodology was used to assess two kinds of ventilation systems. The results indicate that 95% of environmental impacts are associated with operational emissions, while 5% are associated with embodied ones. Moreover, an increase in radon supply rates resulted in an increase in energy consumption and related emissions, for example, the operational energy of an exhaust ventilation system aimed for a reduction to 200 Bq/m³ in a 9/15 cyclic mode range from 9.69 for a radon supply rate of 50 Bq/m³h to 32.27 for 200 Bq/m³h. These simulations show that ventilation systems cannot be considered universally suitable measures to reduce the radon concentration because they may become very energy demanding, and their environmental impact may be significant even considering the type of energy source. Based on this study, we can determine whether it makes sense for a given radon supply rate and energy source to use a ventilation system to reduce the radon concentration in residential buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment)

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25 pages, 3260 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Variables Affecting Indoor Thermal Comfort in Mediterranean Climates Using Machine Learning

by Pablo Aparicio-Ruiz, Elena Barbadilla-Martín, José Guadix and Julio Nevado

Buildings 2023, 13(9), 2215; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092215 - 30 Aug 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1128

Abstract

To improve the energy efficiency and performance of buildings, it is essential to understand the factors that influence indoor thermal comfort. Through an extensive analysis of various variables, actions can be developed to enhance the thermal sensation of the occupants, promoting sustainability and economic benefits in conditioning systems. This study identifies eight key variables: indoor air temperature, mean radiant temperature, indoor globe temperature, CO₂, age, outdoor temperature, indoor humidity, and the running mean temperature, which are relevant for predicting thermal comfort in Mediterranean office buildings. The proposed methodology effectively analyses the relevance of these variables, using five techniques and two different databases, Mediterranean climate buildings published by ASHRAE and a study conducted in Seville, Spain. The results indicate that the extended database to 21 variables improves the quality of the metrics by 5%, underscoring the importance of a comprehensive approach in the analysis. Among the evaluated techniques, random forest emerges as the most successful, offering superior performance in terms of accuracy and other metrics, and this method is highlighted as a technique that can be used to assist in the design and operation or control of a building’s conditioning system or in tools that recommend adaptive measures to improve thermal comfort. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment)

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16 pages, 4138 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Predictive Model of Clothing Insulation in Naturally Ventilated Educational Buildings

by María L. de la Hoz-Torres, Antonio J. Aguilar, Nélson Costa, Pedro Arezes, Diego P. Ruiz and Mª Dolores Martínez-Aires

Buildings 2023, 13(4), 1002; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041002 - 10 Apr 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1827

Abstract

Providing suitable indoor thermal conditions in educational buildings is crucial to ensuring the performance and well-being of students. International standards and building codes state that thermal conditions should be considered during the indoor design process and sizing of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Clothing insulation is one of the main factors influencing the occupants’ thermal perception. In this context, a field survey was conducted in higher education buildings to analyse and evaluate the clothing insulation of university students. The results showed that the mean clothing insulation values were 0.60 clo and 0.72 clo for male and female students, respectively. Significant differences were found between seasons. Correlations were found between indoor and outdoor air temperature, radiant temperature, the temperature measured at 6 a.m., and running mean temperature. Based on the collected data, a predictive clothing insulation model, based on an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm, was developed using indoor and outdoor air temperature, radiant temperature, the temperature measured at 6 a.m. and running mean temperature, gender, and season as input parameters. The ANN model showed a performance of R² = 0.60 and r = 0.80. Fifty percent of the predicted values differed by less than 0.1 clo from the actual value, whereas this percentage only amounted to 32% if the model defined in the ASHRAE-55 Standard was applied. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment)

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25 pages, 10209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Thermal Comfort and Air Quality in Office Rooms of a Historic Building: A Case Study in Springtime in Continental Climate

by Arman Ameen, Magnus Mattsson, Hanna Boström and Hanna Lindelöw

Buildings 2023, 13(1), 156; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010156 - 7 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1765

Abstract

One of the most important aspects of working in an office environment is ensuring that the space has optimal thermal comfort and an indoor environment. The aim of this research is to investigate the thermal comfort and indoor climate in three office rooms located at one of the campus buildings at the University of Gävle, Sweden. The evaluated period is in the month of April during springtime. During this period, parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, CO₂, supply air flow rate, and room air velocities are measured on site. The results of the measurement show that the indoor temperature is on average lower in the rooms facing north, at 21–23.5 °C, compared to the rooms facing south, which reach high temperatures during sunny days, up to 26 °C. The results also show that the ventilation air supply rate is lower than the requirement for offices in two of the office rooms. The ACH rate is also low, at ≈ 1 h⁻¹ for all the rooms, compared to the required levels of 2–4 h⁻¹. The CO₂ levels are within the recommended values; on average, the highest is in one of the south-facing rooms, with 768 ppm, and the maximum measured value is also in the same room, with 1273 ppm for a short period of time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment)

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Review

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28 pages, 2246 KiB

Open AccessReview

Adaptive Façades: Review of Designs, Performance Evaluation, and Control Systems

by Xi Zhang, Hao Zhang, Yuyan Wang and Xuepeng Shi

Buildings 2022, 12(12), 2112; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122112 - 1 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3333

Abstract

Adaptive building envelope systems can manage energy and mass transformation between indoor and outdoor environments, which contributes to the achievement of environmental benefits via reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission while maintaining human comfort and well-being. However, the market penetration of adaptive façades (AFs) is far from sufficient, even though their capabilities have been recognized in research. Hence, this paper explores the factors hindering the growth of the market share of AFs, based on an exhaustive examination of designs, evaluation criteria and tools, and control systems. Insufficient commercial technology, inaccurate and incomplete performance data, and inconsistent evaluation criteria are demonstrated to be the factors that have hindered the widespread utilization of AFs thus far. Future research tendencies, including reducing costs, retrofitting existing building façades, developing building performance measurement tools, and building consensus evaluation criteria that favor the wide applicability of such façades in actual practice are identified. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategies to Promote Resilience, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of the Indoor and Built Environment)

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