Describes improvements made in the monitoring of energy consumption in housing in the past decade. Covers the highly instrumented townhouses monitoring of Twin Rivers in the early 1970's, using more than 50 channels of data recording, with appropriate sensors. This has led to simpler systems used to evaluate energy savings following retrofits. In 1977-78, 3-channel utility demand recorders were upgraded to a 12 channel capability, and this worked successfully on more than 30 townhouses.
Reports measurements carried out from summer 1979 to summer 1981 in a well-instrumented unoccupied house, and in a less intensive manner in 60 occupied houses of the same construction.
Gives some conclusions from a detailed computer analysis of the energy consumption of 600 branch bank buildings of The Bank of Novia Scotia, spread across Canada. Divides energy management into 3 categories:
Describes the computerized instrumented residential audit (CIRA), a collection of building energy analysis programs designed for a wide variety of microcomputers. Covers methods and type of input, and types of output produced.
Describes "house doctoring", a combination energy audit and energy-saving retrofit procedure developed at LBL and Princeton University. House doctoring analyzes areas of energy loss, and locates and eliminates air infiltration sites by using special diagnostic equipment, such as the "blower door" forpressurisation tests. The first part of the manual provides an introduction and overview of house doctoring, including the nature of heat loss in buildings and the tools and techniques used to reduce it.
Outlines project where 25 representative dwellings from Birmingham Local Authority Housing stocks were monitored before and after energy retrofitting. Findings are presented as a set of case studies encompassing both fabric and infiltration measures. Suggests that simple energy conservation measures are successful but that more sophisticated combinations tend to under-achieve. Ventilation changes in several cases are impaired by increased use of windows and/or permanent ventilation. Where these effects are'nt operating, reductions of between 0.3 - 0.6 ac/hr appear typical.
Describes a project undertaken for the CEC to build low-energy houses according to a particular design methodology, and to verify the efficiency and practical application of this design. Describes general site layout, climatic effects on the site, and design methodology as applied to the houses. Aims to undertake energy audits in each of the houses,including measurements of air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, "steady state" behaviour and air infiltration.
Gives a brief overview of energy-estimating procedures for energy conservation in buildings. States that most of these procedures are either too simplistic to provide the desired level of accuracy and comprehensiveness or they are too complex to gain widespread usage. Reports on the development of a comprehensive modified bin method for estimating building energy usage, created by the ASHRAE Technical Committee (TC) 4.7 for Energy Calculations. This procedure can lend itself for manual calculations and can be easily programmed into microcomputers.
Investigates the accuracy of the TWOZONE computer auditing program (used in analyzing the energy performances of residences) when used with home-owner supplied data. Compares actual energy consumption data collected from houses in New Mexico with estimates obtained from the TWOZONE model using input data from occupant questionnaires. Finds a high degree of variability between predicted and observed values, and concludes that much of the error introduced into the prediction is attributable to the qualitative nature of the data supplied by the respondents.
Outlines the design of 6 energy efficient houses in Co. Kildare by the Electricity Supply Board, Ireland. The aim of the project is to collect and disseminate information on the costs and benefits of energy efficient houses. The houses will be monitored both occupied and unoccupied over a number of years, using a microcomputer on-site, with the required parameter values eventually being processed on a mainframe computer. Includes a description of the methods to be used in minimizing natural ventilation losses eg improved window joinery, entry point lobbies and appropriate draught sealing.
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