energy consumption

This study copes with the problem of ventilation in existing educational environments in terms of indoor air quality (AIQ), comfort and energy consumption. In accordance with international regulations, densely occupied environments such as school classrooms need high air change rates in order to provide sufficient fresh air. Nevertheless, in Italian schools, it is rare to see mechanical ventilation systems or natural systems that are mechanically controlled. This means that it is necessary for the users to control air changes by opening or closing the windows.

This paper presents an investigation into solutions for the system design of a centralized DCV system in multi-family dwellings. The design focused on simple and inexpensive solutions. A cost benefit estimate showed that the initial cost of implementing DCV in a system with an efficient heat exchanger should not exceed 3400 DKK per dwelling in regions with weather conditions similar to the Danish climate. A design expected to fulfil this requirement was investigated in detail with regard to its electricity consumption by evaluation of different control strategies.

Ventilation systems are primarily designed for ensuring good indoor air quality (IAQ). However, building energy requirements tend to put demand on reducing air change rates. The assessment of the performance of ventilation systems over long periods has thus become a subject of importance. In this framework, five ventilation systems were investigated for a heating period in a single-family house using a representative occupancy and pollution schedule. This was undertaken using SIMBAD, a combined mass and heat transfer toolbox. This paper compares the different results.

The reduction of carbon dioxide emission due to energy consumption in the household sector is an urgent task, worldwide. As a measure to respond to the task, a new regulation has just been enforced since April 2009, in Japan. This regulation evaluates the energy performance of detached houses by estimating the primary energy consumption for different uses, namely, heating, cooling, ventilation, domestic hot water and lighting.

A life-cycle inventory model for the office buildings is developed in this paper. The environmental effectsof two different building structures, steel and concrete, are intercompared. The results show that thesteel-framed building is superior to the concrete-framed building on the following two indexes, thelife-cycle energy consumption and environmental emissions of building materials.

Rapidly growing electricity demand brings into question the ability of traditional grids to expandcorrespondingly while providing reliable service. To solve such as these problems, this paperinvestigates current status of energy conservation and its systems in a complex hospital of Kitakyushu.Simultaneously, operation condition of energy-saving system and available strategy and prospectsabout improving system's effects, are discussed.

In order to clarify determine the energy consumption and the indoor environment of an experimentalhouse with energy efficient design, measurements were taken since January 2006. The house isoccupied twice a year, for a week each in summer and winter. Simulation was used to predict theenergy consumption and indoor environment of the experimental house with a typical four-personfamily. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of energy efficient building design on energyconsumption and indoor environment.

With radiant heating, it is possible to set room air temperature lower than when heating withair-conditioning because the human body is heated by a radiation. As room air temperature decreases,heat loss from walls and windows decreases, and so does the ventilation load. It is often said that theradiant heating, such as floor heating saves energy. This study calculates heat flow at the windows andthe walls of a living-room using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Indoor thermal environment is much affected by characteristics of an equipped heating system. Suchthermal environmental factors as temperature, air velocity, radiant temperature and their distributionscan influence the thermal sensation and the energy consumption of a heating system.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ), subjective satisfaction of occupants and energy conservation ofbuildings are usually determined separately. Since the energy crisis in 1973, engineers haveendeavored to implement energy conservation in buildings. Unfortunately, the effort resulted in energysavings without the fundamental delivery of indoor satisfaction in many cases. It is worthwhile todetermine a balance strategy between the potential energy saving and occupants satisfaction inworkplaces.