English

The Presentations at the 36th AIVC Conference " Effective ventilation in high performance buildings", held in Madrid, Spain, 23-24 September 2015.

Building performance simulation has the potential to quantitatively evaluate design alternatives and various energy conservation measures for retrofit projects. However before design strategies can be evaluated, accurate modeling of existing conditions is crucial. This paper extends current model calibration practice by presenting a probabilistic method for estimating uncertain parameters in HVAC systems for whole building energy modeling. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, probabilistic estimates of the parameters in two HVAC models were generated for use in EnergyPlus.

The exponential increase of the cooling demand in buildings obliges to find alternatives to the high electricity consumption with air conditioning systems. This work investigates a new cooling system based on evaporation. The key component of this system is a porous tank filled with water. Evaporation process occurs at the outside surface, which cools down water in the tank. Fresh water is then used to meet the cooling demand in the building. To model the impact of this new system, an accurate model of the porous tank is needed.

This paper presents a simulation-based study of a decentralized, „low-exergy‟ (or LowEx) space cooling system for a commercial office currently under construction in Singapore. We used asdesigned building and system characteristics to parametrize a TRNSYS simulation model of the energy supply system. We also compared the performance of the LowEx air-conditioning system against a conventional air handling unit.

In this paper, possibilities of electric peak load reductions in the MENA-Region, using a photovoltaic powered air conditioning system for residential buildings, are considered. For this purpose, a smallscale photovoltaic plant is simulated and compared with the electric power demand of a simulated air conditioning unit. While the demand of the A/C unit is more than three times higher than the yield, the mismatch is used to introduce a possible smaller A/C unit. There, the thermal performance is observed under maximum usage of the solar energy yield.

In some areas of high air condition adoption there is potential for night purge natural ventilation to reduce the number of hours that the air condition system is operated, leading to a reduction in energy usage and associated carbon dioxide emissions. In this study we examine the potential efficacy of such a strategy implemented in an office building located in Pune, India. Using a dynamic thermal model we have demonstrated that around 10% annual cooling load saving can be achieved.

This paper deals with a numerical and experimental study of the thermal performances of an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) connected to a country house in Marrakech (31°37' N latitude and 8°2' W longitude). The EAHX consists of three parallel PVC pipes of 72 m length each and 15 cm inside diameter, buried at 2.2-3.2 m depth. Each pipe is equipped with a fan, which push treated air into the house. The experimental study consists of the monitoring of one pipe via measurement of air temperature and humidity along the pipe as well as at its entrance and exit to the house.

This paper discusses the impact of thermal zone modeling on the thermal comfort prediction during the early design of naturally ventilated buildings within four Brazilian cities. A representative low-cost Brazilian house with four rooms and an area of approximately 51 m2 is simulated. Two zoning approaches are analyzed and the results show small differences between their thermal condition predictions. 

The integration of two technologies - the Airconditioning Duct System and Optical Mirror Duct System - into a new energy-saving system “Integrated Optical Air Duct System” (IOAD) significantly reduces the lighting energy, which accounts for roughly 30% of the energy consumption in large-scale office buildings. The utilization of IOAD in combination with other energy reduction techniques could help these office buildings become Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB).

Occupant behavior is a major contributing factor to building energy consumption. Many models have been developed to simulate occupant behavior including occupancy and operations to get better agreement between simulation and measurement in literature, but often fail to present the typicality of occupant behavior patterns. This paper proposes a method to classify occupant behavior patterns into typical ones by simulation, as well as concludes several typical patterns regarding air-conditioning use as an example.