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19 pages, 7924 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Traditional Town Houses in Kyoto, Japan: Present and Future

by Chiemi Iba and Shuichi Hokoi

Energies 2022, 15(5), 1913; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15051913 - 5 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6076

Climate change is an important issue that affects energy consumption, causes health problems, such as heat stroke, and requires urgent countermeasures. Serious health problems, including cardiac arrest, often occur in winter in traditional residences in Japan. Cooling-heating energy is required to maintain a healthy thermal environment. Although energy efficiency standards for buildings have been introduced worldwide to reduce energy consumption and various passive energy-saving methods are being investigated, traditional residences still face difficulties in conducting renovations because of various restrictions, such as the conservation of historical or aesthetic values. In this study, these issues and their appropriate countermeasures were investigated for a traditional townhouse in Kyoto, Japan, “Kyo-machiya” (including its new form “Heisei-no-Kyo-machiya”). The potential of reducing heating and cooling loads was examined by conducting numerical analysis considering residents’ lifestyles. Field surveys of the indoor environment were conducted in both summer and winter. It was revealed that by optimizing the times and positions of opening and closing the windows and indoor partitions, the indoor air flow could be adjusted from both thermal comfort (cooling in summer) and discomfort (cold drafts in winter) perspectives, leading to improving the indoor environment without using energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Energy Building Design That Ensures High Quality of Internal Environment)

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13 pages, 5763 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Experiment on Heat Recovery Performance Improvements in Well-Water Heat-Pump Systems for a Traditional Japanese House

by Chiemi Iba, Shun Takano and Shuichi Hokoi

Energies 2018, 11(5), 1023; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11051023 - 24 Apr 2018

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6525

Abstract

Concerns about resource depletion have prompted several countries to promote the usage of renewable energy, such as underground heat. In Japan, underground heat-pump technology has begun to be utilized in large-scale office buildings; however, several economic problems are observed to still exist, such as high initial costs that include drilling requirements. Further, most of the traditional dwellings “Kyo-machiya” in Kyoto, Japan have a shallow well. This study intends to propose an effective ground-source heat-pump system using the well water from a “Kyo-machiya” home that does not contain any drilling works. In previous research, it was depicted that the well-water temperature decreases as the heat pump (HP) is operated and that the heat extraction efficiency steadily becomes lower. In this study, an experiment is conducted to improve efficiency using a drainage pump. Based on the experimental results, the effect of efficiency improvement and the increase in the electric power consumption of the drainage pump are examined. It is indicated that short-time drainage could help to improve efficiency without consuming excessive energy. Thus, continuous use of the heat pump becomes possible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geothermal Energy: Utilization and Technology 2018)

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