energy use

Supermarkets are a category of non-domestic buildings with high energy use because of their operation. Recent work indicates that by improvements to the energy delivery systems through which internal environmental conditions are maintained such as thermal properties of external envelope including airtightness, HVAC systems and lighting, substantial energy savings can be achieved. Work to date has focused on typical supermarkets while the present paper examines frozen food supermarkets which include more refrigeration cabinets and therefore result in higher energy use per sales floor area.

Demand controlled ventilation (DCV) considerably reduce the ventilation airflow rates and energy use compared to Constant Air Volume (CAV) systems. DCV in commercial buildings is probably a prerequisite to achieve ambitious energy-goal. However, evaluation of real energy use demonstrates that the energy saving potential is seldom met. DCV-based ventilation systems must become more reliable to close the gap between theoretical and real energy-performance.

The indoor climate system, which serves a building with a proper indoor air quality and thermal comfort, has been predominantly designed based on the initial cost. A life cycle approach could improve both the economic and environmental performance. For example, the energy use could decrease. There has been a lack of knowledge, models and simulation tools for determining the life cycle cost (LCC) for an indoor climate system. The objective of this paper is to present a model for calculating the LCC for indoor climate systems. Focus is on indoor climate systems for premises and dwellings.

Worldwide the food system is responsible for 33% of GHG emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, total food production should be 70% more than current food production levels.   In the UK, food chain is responsible for around 18% of final energy use and 20% of GHG emissions. Estimates indicate that energy savings of the order of 50% are achievable in food chains by appropriate technology changes in food production, processing, packaging, transportation, and consumption.  

The 2012 French thermal regulation will include a minimum requirement for residential buildings envelope airtightness, with two options to justify its treatment: a) measurement at commissioning or b) adoption of an approved quality management approach. This paper describes the qualification process for air-tightness measurement authorized technicians when their results are to be used in the EP-calculation method. Our analyses underline the importance of the qualification process to ensure homogeneous measurement practice among technicians.

It is foreseen that the 2012 version of the French regulation will include a minimum requirement for the envelope airtightness of residential buildings, with two options to justify its treatment: a) measurement at commissioning or b) adoption of an approved quality management approach. This paper describes the qualification process for authorizing technicians to conduct airtightness measurement when the result is to be used in the EP-calculation method. It also discusses the requirements set for approved quality management approaches.

This report provides information and advice to policy and decision makers, researchers, architects, designers, and manufacturers on (i) strategies for achieving a satisfactory balance between good indoor air quality (IAQ) and the rational use of energy, (ii) guidelines on the use of energy in buildings and IAQ currently available, (iii) significant trends in the building sector with implications for IAQ and energy use and (iv) current research concerns.

This work investigates the impact of space planning, interior porosity and variable occupancy on the energy use in offices that is attributable to ventilation/infiltration and air movement. TAS, Lightscape, and Excel software packages were used to simulate and analyse airflow and thermal loads in different office layouts. These layouts were created by varying the internal configurations of a base case shell.

The European Commission has mandated CEN to produce a set of standards to support MemberStates for the national implementation of the EPBD. This paper focuses on one of these standards,EN ISO 13790, "Energy performance of buildings - Calculation of energy use for space heating andcooling". It describes the history of this standard which started with a simplified calculation of the energyuse for heating of residential buildings only.

Ventilation is essential for the maintenance of good indoor air quality, although there is evidence to suggest that energy loss through uncontrolled or unnecessary air infiltration is excessive. In this study; estimates are presented for air change (ventilation and infiltration) energy use in non-industrial buildings for 13 countries. Various methods are used for the estimates, but they are mainly based on calculating the total annual enthalpy change needed for the conditioning of air. The potential for reduced energy use by improved ventilation control is also briefly reviewed.