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(UFADS) or a stratified atria involve special thermal exchange processes that require special load calculation procedures. This paper introduces an infrared transparent (IRT) surface that enables adjacent zones to exchange thermal radiation while maintaining separate air temperatures. This paper describes the development of the IRT surface and presents a comparison of a UFADS room using the IRT model and a room with conventional air flow configuration.

ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) is a lightweight material increasingly used in building applications. It has gained popularity mainly due to its daylight transmittance and the potential for energy savings. When used as cladding ETFE sheets are usually assembled into cushions, which are inflated for structural reasons. ETFE cushions can provide thermal insulation with reduced initial costs and less structural supports as compared with a conventional glazed roof.

The description of the thermal behaviour of radiant systems is complex due to the 3D heat transfer and the relevant thermal inertia characterising the active surface.

Grey water heat exchangers (GWHE) are used to recuperate part of the energy contained in grey waters. The configuration used in this study recuperates part of the energy contained in the grey water from showers to pre-heat domestic hot water. Previous simulations studies have shown that this configuration can recuperate part of the energy that would otherwise be lost and allow the use of smaller electric domestic hot water (DHW) tanks. This paper focuses on the impact that GWHE have on peak electrical demand from electric DHW tanks.

The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of insulation of various parts of building envelopes on building energy consumption. Using eQUEST, a series of parametric simulation was conducted to acquire building energy consumption data for a range of R-values of walls, roof, and windows of a typical two-story single-family home in the U.S. Two climatic zones were applied in simulation: Detroit, Michigan and Miami, Florida. Analysis was conducted for annual heat gain and loss, and benefits of insulation value of walls, roof and windows respectively.

Computer modelling at the urban scale is an increasingly vibrant area of research activity which  aims to support designers to optimise the performance of new and existing urban developments. But the parameter space of an urban development is infinitely large, so that the probability of identifying an optimal configuration of urban design variables with say energy minimisation as a goal function is correspondingly small.

Two years after the implementation of the Flemish energy performance regulation, the Flemish government has to consider the opportunities for strengthening the minimal energy performance requirements. In this frame, a technical-economical study on the cost-effectiveness of different energysaving measures is executed for the residential sector, considering the current technologies and their costs. For each measure, the characteristic parameters, the investment costs and the grey energy content are defined.

This paper describes an open-source library with component models for building energy and control systems that is based onModelica, an equation-based object-oriented language that is well positioned to become the standard for modeling of dynamic systems in various industrial sectors. The library is currently developed to support computational science and engineering for innovative building energy and control systems.

The simulation of the energy performance of buildings has historically been compartmentalized along the lines separating different disciplines or different analysis tools, despite their interrelations. These interrelations motivate the development of integrated analyses, which has often focused on linking preexisting and independent simulation software together. This paper reports on initial work using a different integration strategy in which the ‘pre-existing and independent software’ all exist in the universe of the model description language Modelica.

Over the past 30 years numerous Building Simulation Codes (BSC) have been developed. Nevertheless, none of them has yet become a “standard”. Focusing the attention on the use of advanced Object-Oriented Modelling, a review of the most used BSC is here carried out. First, new requirements have been investigated.