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Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency...
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Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 14435

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Giorgio Ficco

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (DICeM), Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, 03043 Cassino, FR, Italy
Interests: thermal and mechanical measurements; legal metrology; flow measurements; building energy performance; energy metering and accounting; environmental pollution measurements; transmission and distribution energy networks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Tomasz Cholewa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Indoor and Qutdoor Air Quality, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, 20-618 Lublin, Poland
Interests: HVAC systems analysis, optimization and control; energy efficiency in buildings; radiant heating/cooling; heat cost allocation in buildings; renewable energy use/integration in buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Individual metering is considered an effective tool to improve savings of energy consumption worldwide in the civil sector. As a matter of fact, in 2012, the EU Energy Efficiency Directive set the obligation for buildings supplied by central heating sources, or by district heating/cooling networks, to install individual metering systems for sharing cost of space heating/cooling and domestic hot water. As a consequence, EU Member States adopted different approaches mainly due to differences in building stocks and climatic conditions concerning, for example, the necessary cost–benefit analysis, the allocation rules, and the compensation factors.

Furthermore, the 2018 revision of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) aims at further promoting smart building technologies, and a Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for buildings has been established and for which individual metering is a key factor for the heating, cooling, and hot water domains. On the other hand, some technical issues are still present and prevent the spread of individual metering systems, such as the availability of metering systems for cooling applications and reliable methods to effectively account for domestic hot water consumptions.

This Special Issue invites scholars to contribute original research and review articles on individual heat metering applications in smart buildings which can enhance energy efficiency and the related limits/opportunities as well as the spread of building automation systems and IoT platforms to improve user awareness and interaction.

Manuscripts related to the below specific topics are also warmly welcome in this Special Issue:

1) New, universal, accurate, widely accepted, and easy to use methods of heat cost allocation;

2) Field tests and/or simulations of HVAC systems and their components used by individual heat metering;

3) Long-term field tests of new proven practice in individual heat metering in existing residential buildings.

Prof. Giorgio Ficco
Prof. Tomasz Cholewa
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. Energies 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

  • Individual metering
  • Heat metering
  • Cooling metering
  • Heat allocation
  • Heat cost allocator
  • Energy savings
  • Energy efficiency
  • Space heating and cooling
  • Domestic hot water
  • User awareness
  • Smart readiness indicator
  • Building automation and control systems
  • Multifamily buildings

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1139 KiB  
Article
On the Minimum and Maximum Variable Cost of Heating of the Flat in Multifamily Building
by Tomasz Cholewa, Alicja Siuta-Olcha, Anna Życzyńska, Aleksandra Specjał and Paweł Michnikowski
Energies 2023, 16(2), 995; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16020995 - 16 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1570
Abstract
Heat cost allocation is commonly used in existing buildings supplied by centralized sources of heating/cooling and provided with individual metering systems. However, this process is not always fair for the users, since “fairness” strongly depends on the methods established to allocate variable and [...] Read more.
Heat cost allocation is commonly used in existing buildings supplied by centralized sources of heating/cooling and provided with individual metering systems. However, this process is not always fair for the users, since “fairness” strongly depends on the methods established to allocate variable and fixed costs among the dwellings. That is why unrealistic cost for heating may be allocated for specific flats. However, there is a lack of evidence about procedures as to how maximum and minimum variable cost of heating may be calculated for specific flats in multifamily building for a specific heating season. This paper presents different methods for estimation of maximum and minimum variable cost of heating of flat in multifamily buildings, the use of which depends of the availability of input data for specific buildings. Evaluation of the proposed methods is made on the example of a case study multifamily building located in Poland. It was shown that the maximum variable costs of heat purchase for specific flats in the analyzed building were in the range from 169% to 256% of the average unit cost of heat, depending on the method used. The recommendation about the accuracy of proposed methods is also provided by the authors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector)
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21 pages, 5241 KiB  
Article
Eco-Efficient Ventilated Facades Based on Circular Economy for Residential Buildings as an Improvement of Energy Conditions
by Pilar Mercader-Moyano, Paula Anaya-Durán and Ana Romero-Cortés
Energies 2021, 14(21), 7266; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217266 - 3 Nov 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3486
Abstract
In a planet with limited resources, climate change is a severe problem, intensified by industrial development. This is particularly important in the construction sector. According to the International Energy Agency (2021), the construction sector is responsible for 40% of the global energy consumption [...] Read more.
In a planet with limited resources, climate change is a severe problem, intensified by industrial development. This is particularly important in the construction sector. According to the International Energy Agency (2021), the construction sector is responsible for 40% of the global energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. In this way, sustainable architectural solutions should be a priority in our fight against climate change, for it is necessary to propose solutions that help to reuse existing resources, thus reducing consumption. In this sense, the rehabilitation of buildings with solutions that favor the circular economy will become a key element in the construction sector. This work provides the design of a facade for building rehabilitation based on the circular economy paradigm, which is implanted in a model building as a case study. The HULC tool quantifies the improvement in energy efficiency that this rehabilitation entails when compared to a conventional facade. With the designed facade, a reduction in energy losses through the envelope is achieved, as well as an improvement in living conditions and environmental impact. Next, an analysis of the building’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions is carried out with the Open BIM Quantities tool. This tool is used by construction researchers and professionals. Finally, the results show the improvements in the rehabilitation of the facade. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector)
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30 pages, 13581 KiB  
Article
Verification and Improving the Heat Transfer Model in Radiators in the Wide Change Operating Parameters
by Mieczysław Dzierzgowski
Energies 2021, 14(20), 6543; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206543 - 12 Oct 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2590
Abstract
Laboratory measurements and analyses conducted in a wide range of changes of water temperature and mass flow rate for different types of radiators allowed to provides limitations and assessment of the current radiators heat transfer model according to EN 442. The inaccuracy [...] Read more.
Laboratory measurements and analyses conducted in a wide range of changes of water temperature and mass flow rate for different types of radiators allowed to provides limitations and assessment of the current radiators heat transfer model according to EN 442. The inaccuracy to determinate the radiator heat output according to EN 442, in case of low water mass flow rates may achieve up to 22.3% A revised New Extended Heat Transfer Model in Radiators NEHTMiRmd is general and suitable for different types of radiators both new radiators and radiators existing after a certain period of operation is presented. The NEHTMiRmd with very high accuracy describes the heat transfer processes not only in the nominal conditions—in which the radiators are designed, but what is particularly important also in operating conditions when the radiators water mass flow differ significantly from the nominal value and at the same time the supply temperature changes in the whole range radiators operating during the heating season. In order to prove that the presented new model NEHTMiRmd is general, the article presents numerous calculation examples for various types of radiators currently used. Achieved the high compatibility of the results of the simulation calculations with the measurement results for different types of radiators: iron elements (not ribbed), plate radiators (medium degree ribbed), convectors (high degree ribbed) in a very wide range of changes in the water mass flow rates and the supply temperature indicates that a verified NEHTMiRmd can also be used in designing and simulating calculations of the central heating installations, for the rational conversion of existing installations and district heating systems into low temperature energy efficient systems as well as to directly determine the actual energy efficiency, also to improve the indications of the heat cost allocators. In addition, it may form the basis for the future modification of the European Standards for radiator testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector)
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19 pages, 2073 KiB  
Article
Estimating the Smart Readiness Indicator in the Italian Residential Building Stock in Different Scenarios
by Laura Canale, Marianna De Monaco, Biagio Di Pietra, Giovanni Puglisi, Giorgio Ficco, Ilaria Bertini and Marco Dell’Isola
Energies 2021, 14(20), 6442; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206442 - 9 Oct 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3441
Abstract
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844/EU introduced the smart readiness indicator (SRI) to provide a framework to evaluate and promote building smartness in Europe. In order to establish a methodological framework for the SRI calculation, two technical studies were launched, at the [...] Read more.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844/EU introduced the smart readiness indicator (SRI) to provide a framework to evaluate and promote building smartness in Europe. In order to establish a methodological framework for the SRI calculation, two technical studies were launched, at the end of which a consolidated methodology to calculate the SRI of a building basing on a flexible and modular multicriteria assessment has been proposed. In this paper the authors applied the above-mentioned methodology to estimate the SRI of the Italian residential building stock in different scenarios. To this end, eight “smart building typologies”, representative of the Italian residential building stock, have been identified. For each smart building typology, the SRI was calculated in three scenarios: (a) base scenario (building stock as it is); (b) an “energy scenario” (simple energy retrofit) and (c) a “smart energy scenario” (energy retrofit from a smart perspective). It was therefore possible to estimate a national average SRI value of 5.0%, 15.7%, and 27.5% in the three above defined scenarios, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector)
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19 pages, 8731 KiB  
Article
On the Use of Base Temperature by Heat Cost Allocation in Buildings
by Paweł Michnikowski and Tomasz Cholewa
Energies 2021, 14(19), 6346; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196346 - 4 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1800
Abstract
Heat cost allocators (HCAs) have a high market share in existing buildings, which may cause problems, especially with variable heat cost allocation due to wrong readings from HCAs and/or the method used in the heat cost allocation process. That is why we proposed [...] Read more.
Heat cost allocators (HCAs) have a high market share in existing buildings, which may cause problems, especially with variable heat cost allocation due to wrong readings from HCAs and/or the method used in the heat cost allocation process. That is why we proposed two easily applicable and clear methods, which may be used with two types of HCAs commonly used in the billing practice. The proposed methods were presented on the example of the actual allocation of variable heating costs for a multi-family building located in Poland, and the results of billing were compared with three other methods of variable heating costs allocation. Owing to the proposed methods, higher (K = 0.5260 for schema A, K = 0.4468 for schema B) values of the correlation coefficient between heating costs and the average indoor temperature were obtained than for the methods commonly used in accounting practice. Additionally, the use of the proposed method allows for the elimination of defective indications of heat cost allocators in the billing process and discrepancies in the indications of HCAs in individual flats, which do not have technical justification and violate the norms of social coexistence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Heat Metering in Smart Buildings for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Residential Sector)
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