residential building

Most current building materials are industrially processed, resulting in increased carbon emissions. Global annual carbon emissions due to construction materials reached its peak in 2013, 9.5 gigatons of CO2 were produced. Upcoming circular economies can have a positive impact on the environment since reusing materials can lower carbon emissions. This economy encourages the use of more innovative materials (e.g., textile insulation, cellulose insulation, hemp, and cork) and recycling old materials.

The purpose of this study is to suggest a heat pump-driven liquid desiccant (HPLD) air conditioning system for a residential building and preliminarily evaluate the cooling performance of the suggested system. The suggested HPLD system is composed of a liquid desiccant unit for the humidity control of process air with a liquid desiccant solution, and a heat pump unit for the temperature control of the desiccant solution and the process air.

This paper presents the initial reflections in the frame of Subtask 1 – Setting the Metrics of the IEA EBC Annex 68 – Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings. The first step of IEA Annex 68 aims at summarizing the current knowledge on target pollutants for residential buildings and at evaluating indoor air quality (IAQ), i.e. how to define indices that provide useful information allowing to achieve low risks for health in indoor spaces, and how to enable the comparison of solutions for achieving high IAQ taking into account energy efficiency.

Many post-occupancy comfort studies of energy renovated residential buildings have documented elevated temperatures above comfort levels, not only during the summer period but also during the shoulder months. The main focus in renovation projects is on heat savings while the risk of overheating is not considered.

Buildings constructed before 1979 in Denmark are responsible for 75% of the total energy consumption of the sector. However, many post-occupancy comfort studies of energy renovated dwellings have documented elevated temperatures not only during the summer period but also during the transition months. Ventilative cooling can be an energy-efficient solution to avoid overheating in energy renovated residences.

Upper floors of super-tall residential buildings have different characteristics of the exterior environment as compared to their low floors or low-rise residential buildings due to the high-rise. Upper floors are more affected by direct solar radiation due to the reduced number of adjacent shading buildings and by reflected solar radiation from rooftops. Super-tall buildings also have high level of airtightness because of higher wind speed with high-rise.

The air renovation of a building should be controlled in order to ensure a proper level of indoor air quality while minimize heat losses. It is a crucial point for the future energy efficiency goals. However, air infiltration rate in buildings is a complex parameter which is influenced by several boundary conditions. Although a detailed dynamic analysis could be used to properly characterize the phenomenon, estimated values can be obtained from experimental methods, as Blower Door test and gas concentration-based approaches.

In recent years, PM, which is one of the most important indoor air pollutants, has attracted a great deal of attention. PM is mainly generated by occupant activities. In particular, cooking and smoking are occupant activities that have the greatest effect on the indoor PM concentrations. The objective of this study is to analyse indoior PM concentration and occupant behavior of Korean residential buildings. PM concentration increased rapidly in a short time during the cooking process.

Major and deep energy renovations of single-family houses (more than 60% of the building stock) are expected in Europe over the next several years (Psomas et al., 2016a). A number of research projects have documented and verified overheating risk during the design and operation phase in nearly zero energy or existing renovated single-family houses without mechanical cooling systems in temperate climates. Post occupancy surveys and comfort studies have also monitored high indoor temperatures over 27oC and 28oC even in Northern countries (Psomas et al., 2016a).

This paper describes a pilot study testing the applicability of using building performance simulation (BPS) to quantify the impact of 28 energy saving behaviour changes on the residential space heating demand, based on a mid-terraced house located in the southwest of England. The 28 behaviour change options were collected based on a combination of literature review and expert knowledge. DesignBuilder V3.2, whose thermal dynamic simulation engine is Energyplus 7.2, was used to predict the impact of each behaviour change option on the space heating demand of the case study house.