As part of a project financed by the National Foundation for Energy Research (NEFF), the Building Services Section at the EMPA examined the thermal behaviour of one building, with zero energy demands, located in a low energy housing estate in Waedenswil on the border of the lake of Zuerich. The estate was initiated by Dr. R. Kriesi who also made the energy concept. The architect was R. Fraefel and the estate was financed also by the government of Zuerich. The measures taken in order to reach a minimal heating demand in the chosen zero energy test house were as following:
The environmental assessment of buildings is a potentially powerful means of reducing environmental impacts including those arising from energy consumption, writes Josephine Prior, Alan Yates and Paul Bartlett, Building Research Establishment
There are many unanswered questions about the typical effects of duct system operation on the infiltration rates and energy usage of single-family residences with HVAC systems in their basements. In this paper, results from preliminary field studies and computer simulations are used to examine the potential for improvements in efficiency of air distribution systems in such houses. The field studies comprise thermal and flow measurements on four houses in Maryland. The houses were found to have significant envelope leakage, duct leakage, and duct conduction losses.
This paper describes a framework for a figure of merit by which the energy performance of thermal energy distribution systems (e.g., duct systems) in residences could be characterized. The proposed figure of merit is designed to be incorporated into design guides, state energy codes and/or utility DSM programs.
Intermittent heating patterns, characteristic of Israel and other countries with a mild winter enable energy · conservation at the expense of very high peak energy consumption; · very low levels of thermal comfort; and surface condensation and mould growth problems. The paper summarizes a research project which included analysis of total daily energy consumption, partial energy during evening (peak) hours, weighted cost of total energy, improved thermal comfort, internal surface temperatures -of the external envelope, and surface temperatures of partitions.
Login