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Energy Sustainability in the Building Sector
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Energy Sustainability in the Building Sector

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2020) | Viewed by 14303

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Hamidreza Najafi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, United States
Interests: energy sustainability; designing and optimization of thermal systems; computational heat transfer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As one of the largest energy consumer sectors, buildings are key to a sustainable future. The research and development of approaches, materials, and tools that can significantly improve building energy efficiency and allow for effective on-site power generation using renewable sources can pave the way for net-zero energy buildings. Although, in recent years, numerous studies have been conducted addressing different aspects of building energy efficiency, there are still many un-answered questions that need to be discussed, particularly for developing cost-effective methods and materials for net-zero energy buildings, optimal whole building efficiency, the effective integration of retrofit options with a quick return on investment and smart building management systems, as well as their interactions with energy end users and grids. The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect research articles with a focus on energy sustainability in the building sector. Special (but not exclusive) focus will be put on the following topics:

  • Energy, environmental, and cost analysis of net-zero energy buildings for different types of buildings and climate zones
  • Innovative and efficient systems for building energy end users, such as HVAC, water heaters, and lighting
  • Energy efficient and innovative building envelopes
  • Whole building efficiency (new or retrofits)
  • Smart building energy management systems

Dr. Hamidreza Najafi
Guest Editor

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • building energy efficiency
  • building energy systems
  • sustainability
  • net-zero energy
  • energy management system and renewable energy

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2082 KiB  
Article
Exergy and Economic Analysis of Energy Consumption in the Residential Sector of the Qassim Region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
by Radwan A. Almasri, A. F. Almarshoud, Hanafy M. Omar, Khaled Khodary Esmaeil and Mohammed Alshitawi
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2606; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072606 - 25 Mar 2020
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4127
Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is considered one of the countries with the highest consumption of electric energy per capita. Moreover, during the period of 2007–2017, the consumption rate increased from 6.9 MWh to 9.6 MWh. On the other hand, the share [...] Read more.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is considered one of the countries with the highest consumption of electric energy per capita. Moreover, during the period of 2007–2017, the consumption rate increased from 6.9 MWh to 9.6 MWh. On the other hand, the share of residential electricity consumption in the KSA constitutes the biggest portion of the total electric consumption, which was about 48% in 2017. The objectives of this work were to analyze the exergy and assess the economic and environmental impacts of energy consumption in the residential sector of the Qassim region to determine potential areas for energy rationalization. The consumption patterns of 100 surveyed dwellings were analyzed to establish energy consumption indicators and conduct exergy analysis. The performances of different consuming domestic items were also examined, and energy efficiency measures are proposed. The average yearly consumption per dwelling was determined, and the total energy and exergy efficiencies are 145% and 11.38%, respectively. The average shares of lighting, domestic appliances, water heaters, and air conditioning from the total yearly energy consumption were determined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Sustainability in the Building Sector)
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15 pages, 6828 KiB  
Article
A Graphical Tool to Estimate the Air Change Efficiency in Rooms with Heat Recovery Systems
by Alberto Meiss, Miguel Ángel Padilla-Marcos, Irene Poza-Casado and Antonio Álvaro-Tordesillas
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1031; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031031 - 31 Jan 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2710
Abstract
Indoor air quality in buildings must be guaranteed for the health and comfort of the occupants. In order to assess the ventilation strategy of a considered room, the parameter of the air change efficiency ( ε a ) can be used. The objective [...] Read more.
Indoor air quality in buildings must be guaranteed for the health and comfort of the occupants. In order to assess the ventilation strategy of a considered room, the parameter of the air change efficiency ( ε a ) can be used. The objective of this work is to provide designers with a graphical tool for a reliable estimate of the value of ε a of a room. The temperature gradient between the outdoor air supply and the indoor air is so low that the ventilation flow can be assumed as isothermal when high-efficiency heat recovery systems are used. By means of charts, the optimal location of the openings for a better ε a can be determined during the design process, in order to subsequently apply them. It is concluded that it is very important to consider the ε a in the case of openings located in facing walls given that its range varies between 40% and 65%. In contrast, its use can be obviated in the case of openings located in non-facing walls, as the value of ε a obtained is close to 50%; this means a perfect mixing air flow pattern, which is the reference value for the estimation of the indoor air quality (IAQ) in the different national regulations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Sustainability in the Building Sector)
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19 pages, 1992 KiB  
Article
Energy-Efficient Window Retrofit for High-Rise Residential Buildings in Different Climatic Zones of China
by Qiong He, S. Thomas Ng, Md. Uzzal Hossain and Martin Skitmore
Sustainability 2019, 11(22), 6473; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226473 - 17 Nov 2019
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 6994
Abstract
The building envelope plays a significant role in the energy performance of buildings and windows are a key element in transmitting heating and cooling between the indoor and outdoor environment, and hence an adequate window system is one of the most important retrofit [...] Read more.
The building envelope plays a significant role in the energy performance of buildings and windows are a key element in transmitting heating and cooling between the indoor and outdoor environment, and hence an adequate window system is one of the most important retrofit strategies of existing buildings for energy conservation. Therefore, this study presents a method with a theoretical case study to examine the improvement of energy efficiency in a typical high-rise residential building through window retrofitting. A building energy design model in Designbuilder along with a building information modeling (BIM) model in Revit are developed, with 20 common potential glazing alternatives being analyzed to predict the potential energy savings in the same case building with identical orientation located in a variety of climate zones in China. Based on different parameters and considerations, the results demonstrated that the currently relatively expensive low-e window glazing has the best energy performance in all climate zones, but is sufficiently close to conventionally glazed windows in its energy efficiency to discourage its adoption at present, and that, instead, a single dark conventional glazed window is preferred in a hot summer/warm winter climate, double dark traditional glazing in a hot summer/cold winter climate, and a double clear conventional window in a cold climate. Based on the simulated results, an indicative suggestion was provided to select an adequate window system for residential building retrofitting in the studied climates or similar climatic regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Sustainability in the Building Sector)
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