Search results for " SAVING"

FEM Analysis: A Review of the Most Common Thermal Bridges and Their Mitigation

2022

The necessity to improve the energy saving potential of buildings is now a duty. European and national policies are being implemented to address the important decisions being made on this subject. For these reasons, several studies focus on this relevant topic. This paper review not only focusses on it but studies it in-depth. A commercial 3D simulation software was used to design a building sited in Palermo estimating the thermal losses before and after external envelope insulation. In particular, all the thermal bridges (TBs) were analysed with the finite element method (FEM) and mitigated with rock wool insulation. The paper shows the linear thermal transmittance difference and heat flux…

Smart-City Citizen Engagement: The Answer to Energy Savings in an Economic Crisis?

2022

As the populations of cities grow, it is obvious that they need more and more resources. Energy is currently one of the most desirable resources due to the economic and energy crisis, but it needs to be used in a sustainable manner. There are cities that achieve smart city (SC) status that provide smart policies towards sustainable development. The aim of the present paper is to determine whether citizen engagement in SC can contribute to reduced energy consumption in the current economic crisis. The paper presents an original survey intended to collect primary data and a study conducted based exclusively on qualitative methods. The results concern a broad and multifaceted review of literat…

Controlling Thermal Flows through Natural Materials in Building Construction Sector

2019

Nowadays, the attention about the building sustainability is increasingly emerging, because of the major responsibility of the building field on the environmental degradation: both in terms of energy consumption from non-renewable sources and the raw materials impoverishment. In addition, the level of comfort required by users is growing and the thermal insulation of buildings becomes the key element for the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, both in the case of new construction and of the existing ones. The heat load of a building depends on the presence of insulating material which defines the performance of the building envelope. The main purpose of this work is both to i…

Cross-flow Turbine Design for Variable Operating Conditions

2014

Abstract The potential energy hidden in water resources is becoming more and more a significant economic value. The value of the hydroelectric energy is often magnified by the proximity of the turbine to pumps or other energy sinks owned by the same water manager. Cross-flow or Banki-Michel turbines are a very efficient and economic choice that allows a very good cost/benefit ratio for energy production located at the end of conduits carrying water from a water source to a tank. In the paper the optimum design of a cross-flow turbine is sought after, assuming a flow rate variable in time. Regulation of the discharge entering in the turbine is a key issue, which is faced adopting a shaped se…

Zooming on the exergetic cost formation process of a Multiple-Effects-Evaporation (MEE) desalination plant

2009

In this paper an advanced energetic and thermoeconomic analysis of a Multiple Effect Evaporation (MEE) process is proposed. Starting from the thermochemical fundamentals of desalination processes, a minimum theoretical work of separation is introduced, to be used as reference condition to assess the efficiency of desalination units. The attention is then focused on a forward feed MEE configuration; by abandoning the usual perspective oriented to analyse the system at an “overall plant” level, a zooming strategy is proposed to understand in depth the margins for systems’ improvement. Focusing on a single effect, different subprocesses and their mutual interactions are correctly recognized to…

Indagine tecnica ed economica per lo sfruttamento ai fini energetici dei tralci di potatura della vite

2008

Why do financial inclusion policies fail in mobilizing savings from the poor ? Lessons from rural south India

2017

© The Authors 2017. Development Policy Review © 2017 Overseas Development Institute Combining multivariate and qualitative analyses, this micro-level study suggests an explanation for the persistence of informal savings in rural south India despite publicly run large-scale programmes to promote bank savings. Gold, in particular, but also Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and private lending, remain the dominant forms of savings. We argue that cultural norms and social institutions, such as social class and caste, shape the nature of savings, and also the propensity and opportunities to save. Gold serves multiple purposes, financial, economic, socio-cultural and political. Fur…

Saving Technologies that are not Used to Save Lives

2021

A hundred years ago in July, thanks to the advancement of medical technology, the first human received the vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin—or BCG—to prevent tuberculosis (TB), a disease that killed at least 20% of the European population during the 19th century. Since then, hundreds of millions of lives have been saved by BCG, as well as other vaccinations for dangerous diseases. However, although TB is quite preventable and curable, it remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent in the world. It is an example of how humans can invent technologies to improve and save lives but fail to do so because of unevenly distributed resources, lack of media coverage, and other ec…

The rationality of rainy day savers: objective and subjective determinants of individual savings in Britain

2022

Using the largest and richest data on savings in Great Britain, six waves of the Wealth and Assets Survey from the Office for National Statistics, we compare standard life cycle models of saving with models using more 'subjective' measures, and the added dimension of longitudinal data. Whilst the life cycle model provides a benchmark, regular criticisms remain, particularly people's propensity to continue saving at older ages. Data on attitudes attenuate that issue, and panel data largely eliminate it. Our results confirm empirically, for Great Britain, the importance of some of the objective determinants of savings included in life cycle theory. When we look at more subjective ones, we sho…

Technology and Labor Regulations: Theory and Evidence

2015

This paper shows that different labor market policies can lead to differences in technology across sectors in a model of labor saving technologies. Labor market regulations reduce the skill premium and as a result, if technologies are labor saving, countries with more stringent labor regulation, which bind more for low skilled workers, become less technolog- ically advanced in their high skill sectors, but more technologically advanced in their low skill sectors. We then present data on capital-output ratios, on estimated productivity levels and on patent creation, which tend to support the predictions of our model.