Search results for "energy building"

Is the NZEB Benchmarking Approach Suitable for Assessing Energy Retrofit Design?

2013

Currently, many effort have been done to enable energy saving issues in building design and many definitions have been introduced for most performing constructions based on energy balance between energy demand and supply. Recently, the Net Zero Energy Building theory has bypassed old Passive House concept but many questions still remain open. Present work aims to estimate how NZEB requirements matching could be affected by the choice of their definition and the choice of weighting factor system, to be count in the energy balance. NZEB concept is mainly referred to new buildings design. Its application to existing buildings is for sure an hard task provided the architecture and physical cons…

Life cycle energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module

2018

Abstract The paper explores the energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module located in Messina (Sicily, Italy) through an approach that combines both the non-steady state building simulation and the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The building uses renewable energy technologies and is usable in emergency situations or as simply temporary housing. Results show that the building module causes the emission of 1.5 t of CO2eq/m2 and consumes 29.2 GJ/m2 of primary energy during its life cycle. The building achieves the Net Zero Energy Building target even if it has relevant environmental impacts in the materials production stage (72% on average of the total…

Impact of Different Building Materials on Summer Comfort in Low-Energy Buildings

2015

Abstract The aim of the current paper is to analyse thermal comfort and overheating risks in the low-energy buildings in a summer season under Latvian climate conditions both experimentally and numerically. An interior temperature and relative humidity are analysed under free-floating conditions. Two cases are analysed: in one case, the solar influence through the window is taken into account; in the other this influence is omitted. Three different building solutions are observed: two building structures which mainly consist of the mineral wool and wooden materials and one structure from aerated clay bricks and mineral wool. The experiments have been implemented in test stands in Riga, Latv…

Multi-objective optimization of building life cycle performance. A housing renovation case study in Northern Europe

2020

While the operational energy use of buildings is often regulated in current energy saving policies, their embodied greenhouse gas emissions still have a considerable mitigation potential. The study aims at developing a multi-objective optimization method for design and renovation of buildings incorporating the operational and embodied energy demands, global warming potential, and costs as objective functions. The optimization method was tested on the renovation of an apartment building in Denmark, mainly focusing envelope improvements as roof and exterior wall insulation and windows. Cellulose insulation has been the predominant result, together with fiber cement or aluminum-based cladding …

An innovative approach to manage uncertainties and stock diversity in the EPBD cost-optimal methodology

2018

The EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2010/31/EU is a step in the right direction to promote near zero energy buildings (NZEB) in a step-wise manner, starting with minimum energy performance and cost optimal thresholds for “reference buildings” (RBs) for each category. Nevertheless, a standard method for defining RBs does not exist, which led to a great divergence between MS in the level of detail used to define RBs for the EPBD cost-optimal analysis. Such lack of harmonisation between MS is further evident given the resulting large discrepancies in energy performance indicators even between countries having similar climate. Furthermore, discrepancies of 30% or higher betw…

An integrated energy simulation and life cycle assessment to measure the operational and embodied energy of a Mediterranean net zero energy building

2022

Abstract Net Zero Energy Buildings can play a key role in reducing the energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and the use of natural resources associated to the built environment. It is widely recognized that in low energy building a shift in relevance may occur from the operational to the embodied impacts. However, building performance assessment focus mostly on the operational phase and on primary energy consumption. This study aims to assess the energy and environmental impacts of a residential net zero energy building expanding the analysis to the full life cycle and to a wide range of environmental impact categories. The methodological approach integrates a non-steady state building ener…

Battery capacity estimation for building-integrated photovoltaic system: Design study of a Southern Norway ZEB house

2017

Building-integrated Photovoltaic system (BIPV) with energy storage (ES) can help in reducing the peak demand as well as overcoming the intermittency of the load and PV production. In Southern Norway, a Smart Village Skarpnes is developed for zero energy buildings (ZEBs). In this Smart Village, five houses are built with BIPV system. Its important to estimate the appropriate battery sizing with consideration of local PV production and load profile taking into account the battery characteristics with minimization of the annual electricity bill. In this study, real operational results of house (C6) from the Skarpnes Smart Village is used for estimating the capacity of battery energy storage fo…

Challenges in Energy Systems for the Smart-Cities of the Future

2012

In the last years the European Union has actively promoted the renewable energies and the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) also for residential and tertiary buildings. The exploitation of renewable sources and cogeneration seems hampered by the regulatory wall that prohibit for residential, tertiary and commercial buildings the constitution of users clusters. In fact, the unification up to a threshold value of some tens of kVA, at least, can facilitate the installation of renewable energy power plants as solar PV modules or CHP systems (cogeneration) or CCHP systems (tri-generation), overcoming technical and economical barriers and combining several load profiles. The actual distribution syste…

Demand side management and Distributed on Site actions benefits

2013

Global warming and energy demand are nowadays becoming one of the major issues of the third millennium, mainly because human activities seem to have a clear impact on the raise of CO2 emissions as never it has been experienced in the past. Among the different factors affecting CO2 emissions, energy demand from buildings constitutes one of the most important actors. Energy Management (EM) actions can reduce the energy consumption of the system and minimize peaks-level, by using a distributed control over every house. These local actions can greatly contribute to reduce the impact on the global CO2 emissions. An evaluation of the potential energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction on building…

Towards sustainable Net Zero Energy Buildings: life cycle energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module

The impact of prefabrication in the building sector is currently undergoing significant growth. Although prefabricated buildings cannot in any situation replace conventional buildings, they have some characteristics, such as reduced construction time, higher safety during construction if compared to traditional buildings and modularity, that make them competitive in specific applications, that are undergoing substantial increase importance and market relevance. However, in a context where the transition towards a low-carbon energy system is quickly becoming an important target of scientific efforts and research, prefabricated buildings, as well as any other type of building, will have a key…