Search results for "Building energy"
showing 10 items of 43 documents
Assessment of building energy modelling studies to meet the requirements of the new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
2020
Abstract The cost optimal method (COM) as applied in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) uses “non-calibrated deterministic reference buildings (RBs)”. Such RBs are defined with single envelope and equipment parameter values, for which calibration with actual building stock energy performance (EP) is not undertaken. Thus, it is not possible to visualise the effect of uncertainties or diversity in the input parameters on cost-optimal level benchmarks and to verify the choice of RBs. The paper proposes an update to the COM via use of “Probabilistic Bayesian calibrated RBs” to handle uncertainties and produce more realistic cost optimal levels to support policy makers in devis…
Investigating Potential Alignments between Modelica Standard Library and SAREF Ontologies
2021
International audience; Simulation tools based on the Modelica language provide comprehensive modelling and simulation approaches for building energy systems. However, the simulation and optimisation of such systems are data-driven processes, lacking a common understanding of information structure within the process. This paper investigates the possible semantic alignments of the Smart Appliances REFerence (SAREF) ontology and its extension for building domain, SAREF4BLDG, with the Modelica Standard Library (MSL). Using the MSL, a residential heating system has been modelled in OpenModelica, an open-source modelling and simulation environment. Then, SAREF and its extension SAREF4BLDG semant…
An integrated building energy simulation early—Design tool for future heating and cooling demand assessment
2022
Climate change and its effects are becoming clear on a global scale either from the perspective of global warming and the increase in the rate of occurrence of weather events of extreme magnitude. This has impacts also for sure on the standard building performance analysis approach, since the buildings designed today are supposed to withstand for the following decades climate impacts that may be different than those they were designed for. The paper proposes a simple, easy to use and freely available building simulation utility which performs morphing of existing weather data files and, by connecting to the Energy Plus simulation routine, allows to perform future climate building simulation…
Life-Cycle Assessment of Buildings
2019
The chapter presents a complete overview of LCA applied to buildings. After a brief introduction on the origin and developments of the LCA, it describes four steps of the LCA methodology, according to the framework of the International standards of ISO 14040 series. Then, the authors focus on the LCA applied to the building sector and on the standard EN 15978. They identify the main issues related to the application of the methodology to buildings, such as the selection of the functional unit, the systems boundaries,the environmental indicators, etc. In the context of the sustainability, a brief overview on the economic and social aspects of buildings and on the available building life-cycl…
Implementing the sustainable energy (and climate) action plans: quasi-steady state or dynamic building modeling approach?
2020
Actions contemplated in Sustainable Energy (and Climate) Action Plans (SEAPs), which municipalities adhering to the EU initiative called “The Covenant of Mayors” are required to prepare, regard many sectors, among which are buildings. To implement such plans, it is necessary to make use of methods for predicting energy use in buildings. Technicians involved in this tend to adopt easy-touse simulation models because of the common mid-level expertise of the offices involved. However, such simplified methods could result in a less accurate evaluation of the energy demand of buildings. In this paper the suitability of the quasi-steady state and the dynamic approach, in the frame of these new ur…
An Embedded System for the integration of a Combined Photovoltaic Solar (CPS) system into a ZigBee Home Area Network
2011
In this paper is reported the design and implementation of an electronic system capable of communicating over a standard ZigBee network in order to let a residential gateway collector, named agent, gain access to the parameters of a Combined Photovoltaic and Solar thermal (CPS) plant, thus realizing a networked energy production appliance . The system is made of three parts: a PV metering device, a boiler metering device also capable of controlling a heating resistor embedded within the boiler tank, and a data collector acting as a ZigBee node. The data collector device periodically retrieves the following parameters from the metering devices: instantaneous photovoltaic power production, ac…
The FP7 BeyWatch European scientific project: general features and design criteria of the Combined Photovoltaic Solar (CPS) system within the BEYWATC…
2011
This paper includes the general features and design criteria of a combined photovoltaic solar system (CPS) and its allocation within the entire architecture of the BeyWatch system. The CPS main functionalities and characteristics, the description of the CPS main components and the CPS electronic control and monitoring subsystem, together with the description of the Firmware design and communication protocols are here reported. The Combined Photovoltaic and Solar system (CPS) is a Renewable Energy system that produces thermal and electrical energy and the design has been based on a modular approach.
Old or new occupants of energy rehabilitated buildings. Two different approaches for hierarchizing group of buildings
2017
Abstract Public Administrations are frequently entitled to intervene in building stocks with energy rehabilitation actions. Unfortunately, the monetary budget at their disposal is generally limited and, consequently, a prioritization criterion is needed to optimize its allocation. The classification of the building energy performance is increasingly used by Public Administrations for this purpose. Here we argue that a proper prioritization criterion should depend upon the potential subjects to which the rehabilitated buildings are given back. If the energy rehabilitation is conducted on buildings that will be assigned to new dwellers, it would be preferable to use the energy class – which i…
Sustainable Social Housing in Temperate Areas. Italy and Brazil: the use of vegetation as a retrofit strategy
2014
La tesi si pone come obiettivo l’individuazione di strategie sostenibili per il retrofit del Social Housing in aree a clima temperato, con particolare riferimento all'utilizzo della vegetazione per la riqualificazione degli spazi esterni e per l'incremento delle prestazioni dell'involucro edilizio. La ricerca parte dall’assunto che le regioni del sud Italia e le aree subtropicali del Brasile, accomunati da caratteristiche climatiche affini, si trovano attualmente impegnati nell'identificazione di politiche e soluzioni per la riqualificazione di interi quartieri destinati all'housing sociale, responsabili di elevati consumi energetici e di inadeguate condizioni di comfort abitativo. In quest…
Architectural technologies for life environment: Spent coffee ground reuse in lime-based mortars. A preliminary assessment for innovative green therm…
2022
Spent coffee ground, the residue obtained from the brewing process, is the primary unavoidable (inedible) waste from the coffee consumption. As coffee production and beverage consumption are increasing worldwide, a more sustainable waste management is required since the usual disposal in landfill is a liability to both humans and the environment. This paper is aimed at showing a possible alternative reuse of coffee ground wastes in novel green building materials intended for thermo-plastering applications in construction, in a circular economy context. Coffee waste was used in various percentages (up to 17.5%) to assess the engineering performance of the produced bio-composite mortars. The …