English

To produce a realistic building reference’s model, in order to work on a retrofitting project, input data have to be chosen with the field’s information. The present work concerns French residential buildings of the pre-world-war-II family. This category is more and more subject to retrofitting project and represents more than 30% of the French building sector. In addition, the old buildings are characterised by difficulties to collect data.

This article presents a comparison between experimental and numerical results in terms of coupled hygrothermal behavior. The measurements were taken on an experimental wooden-frame house located in France. Several sensors were installed in the room and in several locations inside the walls. The external climate was measured as well. Numerical simulations were performed with the EnergyPlus tool and its algorithm for combined heat and moisture transfer, available since September 2011. First, the simulated and measured values were compared for temperature and humidity in the walls.

The inherent feature of fixed inner volume ratio of the scroll compressor causes large degradation of the compressor’s indicated efficiency when the inner compression ratio mismatches with the system compression ratio under the off-design condition. The inner compression ratio adjustment technology, such as refrigerant injection and refrigerant release, can enhance the seasonal efficiency of the compressor and the air conditioner. An inverter air conditioner with inner compression ratio adjustment is proposed in this paper.

This research focuses on design optimization of horizontal roof apertures known as skylights in office buildings. It is one of the steps towards design, evaluation, and optimization of roof-daylighting systems in office buildings, which will correlate architectural design features and parameters with illumination quality and quantity and overall energy performance. This research builds on previous work published by the authors that addressed daylighting illumination performance and the lighting electricity reductions achieved through the use of skylights.

This research focuses on design optimization of roof daylighting systems in office buildings.  The optimization is based on computer simulation of daylighting and overall energy performance. This research builds on previous work published by the authors that discussed design issues for skylights to increase the potential electric light saving through the use of daylight. This study extends the previous work to investigate roof monitors with vertical apertures facing in two opposite directions (north-south).

Parametric and algorithmic design tools have developed significantly in the last few years with the advent of several commercial and open-source applications and simulation software. These tools have been used extensively in the design and analysis of various building elements such as glazing, screens, massing and shading devices. Typically, ether iterative, parametric or optimization techniques are coupled with simulation software to reach an optimum design for the considered element.

Heat losses in collective heat distribution systems can be reduced significantly in well-insulated and well-controlled low-temperature networks. However, this reduction is not always rewarded for in legislative energy performance of building standards in Europe. In this paper, simplified heat loss calculation methods (SCM) are compared to dynamic simulations for networks that distribute heat for both space heating and domestic hot water to low-energy houses.

This paper describes the California Simulation Engine (CSE), a public domain, multi-zone, short-time step, detailed annual building simulation application developed to support the 2013 California Title 24 residential energy standards.  CSE implements state-of-the-art algorithms including an MRT-based zone representation, a coupled airflow network, and simple HVAC models.  In addition to summarizing CSE modeling methods, the paper presents a preliminary comparison of simulation results to data measured under the Central Valley Research Home project currently underway in California. 

Earth-air heat exchangers can be considered as one of the current responses to the problem of rational use of energy and comfort in buildings. The aim of the Effipuits project is to validate the thermal performance of this solution experimentally and numerically for an oceanic climate. The modelling of an earth-air heat exchanger is considered through a critical review of the various tools. Then, the paper discusses the energy performance of an installation. Based on experimental site characteristics, two simulation tools were used, DesignBuilder / EnergyPlus and Pleiades + Comfie®.