The Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) improves the thermal condition inside buildings, reducing the electrical energy consumption of standard air conditioning equipment. The general objective of this ...research is to present a complete numerical approach to the study of the EAHE. Three specific objectives were defined: improvement of the computational model, developing the Compact Computational Model (CCM); definition of the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI), dedicated to the analysis of the EAHE; and application of the Constructal Design method, associated with CCM and EPI, in a case study of the Y-shaped EAHE. The results showed that it was possible to validate and verify the CCM, which presents, among other improvements, the decoupled treatment between thermal and fluid-dynamics problems, the reduction of processing time, and the possibility of numerically simulating the EAHE in several regions of the planet. It was also possible to prove the EPI effectiveness, allowing the EAHE performance to be evaluated with a single indicator, concomitantly considering thermal and fluid-dynamic parameters. It was still defined the optimal configuration of the Y-shaped EAHE, generating monthly electricity savings of up to 117.72 kWh (heating) in cold periods, and 74.13 kWh (cooling), in hot periods.
•A novel taxonomy for the monitorization of energy use in the food industry.•Energy end use and CO2 emissions analysis based on the suggested taxonomy.•Potential energy performance indicators are ...suggested for the food industry.•A novel energy planning framework in an industrial context is suggested.
Energy efficiency improvements can enhance industry’s decarbonization. A major challenge however is that the energy efficiency potential often remains untapped, due, among other things, to the lack of information on energy end-use and available energy efficiency measures. Further, this lack of information also makes the deployment of energy efficiency difficult to monitor and evaluate. The creation of a standard or taxonomy on how to categorize energy end-use for major industries would help to close this knowledge gap. This paper presents a novel taxonomy for energy end-use in the food industry, with four hierarchical levels. Further, results show that the production process utilizes two-thirds of the total energy used in the food industry and only one-third is used for support processes. Another result is that heat processing and space heating are the most intensive unit processes in terms of energy and carbon dioxide emissions for production and support processes, respectively. The paper also presents an array of energy performance indicators for the identified energy-intensive processes. The case study was carried out in the Swedish food industry. However, taxonomy and energy performance indicators can be generalized internationally. In addition to the above results, this research presents a novel concept of the energy planning framework, which helps with simple and effective planning of energy improvement activities in an industrial context. The energy planning framework can help in benchmarking, setting targets, and monitoring energy performance in the industry.
•The problems of the current building energy performance indicator (EUI) are addressed.•Four requirements for an energy performance indicator are discussed in terms of a cost-effectiveness.•New ...energy performance indicators for three end uses (heating, cooling, and base-load) are developed using energy disaggregation.•Benchmarks for the developed indicators are made based on 4336 public buildings.
The building sector is the largest energy-consuming sector, accounting for over a third of total global energy consumption. In South Korea, approximately 70% of building stock is more than 15 years old and requires appropriate remodeling and/or retrofitting support. Public buildings in particular are targets of legal control to promote energy conservation and value enhancement as examples of best practices to the private sector. Total energy use intensity (EUI), an energy performance indicator, is commonly used to assess the energy performance of public buildings. However, a considerably negative perception has arisen owing to the shortcomings of EUI itself. This study proposes three cost-effective performance indicators designed to resolve this problem and achieve more objective energy performance benchmarking. The indicators focus more on end uses: “cooling,” “heating,” and “base-load.” They are calculated from monthly energy consumption data using an energy disaggregation technique. Benchmarks for the indicators are made based on the datasets of 4,336 public buildings and a benchmarking database is constructed. The database shows that the most important aspect of energy benchmarking for public buildings is the classification of buildings by their similarity.
The main research question tackled in this work is which energy performance indicator should be used to benchmark energy usage in swimming facilities. After the design and administration of a survey, ...data from 43 Norwegian swimming facilities were collected. A quality assurance process was applied to the collected data, which were than stored in a database, resulting in 176 datasets. A correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were carried out to identify (i) to what extent a number of independent variables characterising swimming facilities are singularly related to energy performance and (ii) to what extent the identified independent variables can together explain the variation in energy performance. Unlike in residential and commercial buildings, climate does not drive the total energy performance of swimming facilities. Instead, overall water usage of the facility was observed to be most strongly correlated with the energy usage, followed by the number of visitors attending in a year, the usable area of the facility and the water surface of the pool(s). It is difficult to obtain accurate values for any of these variables except for the water surface. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that the number of visitors is the variable that explains most of the variation in the energy performance of swimming facilities. Therefore, the authors conclude that, for benchmarking purposes, the energy usage of swimming facilities, shall be preferably normalised with respect to the number of visitors. If no reliable visitor count is available, then water surface can be used.
This paper aims to identify more simplified and appropriate energy performance indicators (EPIs) for residential buildings during their operational stage. The Spanish Energy Performance Certification ...methodology is used to evaluate the energy performance rate (EPR) of a selected sample of Passive House (PH) buildings. Results of the study indicate: all the certified PH buildings analyzed are nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) under the Spanish certification system; disaggregate indicators (particularly heating and cooling demand), appear to be suitable EPIs for comparing buildings among different certification schemes and labels; the new Technical Building Code (TBC) offers greater flexibility in terms of creating NZEBs than previous laws, having the advantage that it involves very different (albeit closely linked) economic sectors, and represents a step forward in accomplishing the NZEB goal, and a clear boost to the renewable energies and energy efficiency in the Spanish building sector. However, it only states aggregate EPIs as limiting values, which may alter competition between different energy carriers/solutions. On the other part, the requirement level of the new TBC in relation to energy demand still needs to be verified. Moreover, the use of aggregate EPIs does not necessarily pave the way towards the “passive building” concept.
•Harmonized EPIs are needed to compare buildings among different certification schemes or labels.•Disaggregate indicators are fundamental for measuring the energy efficiency of buildings.•The new Spanish TBC represents a step forward in accomplishing the NZEB goal.•The level of requirement of new TBC in relation to energy demand still needs to be verified.•Aggregate indicators do not necessarily pave the way towards the “passive building” concept.
Airports are very important facilities for global transportation. Energy plays a key role for the comfort needs of passengers and the safe operation of aircraft. In airports with high energy ...consumption areas, energy management allows the reduction of both costs and environmental impacts. Therefore, the phenomena that affect energy consumption in airports need to be identified. In this study, the factors affecting energy consumption in airport terminal buildings were determined by regression analysis and mathematically modeling. In addition, energy-induced Global Warming Potential (GWP) was determined and its change was explained mathematically. It was seen that with each change in passenger causes a 1.59 kWh energy and 1.44 kg CO
2 eq
. change. However, each increase in the number of degree days causes a 3468.6kWh energy and 1428 kg CO
2eq.
increase.
•Comparative analyses of design and measured parameters for old and new kindergarten.•New recommended parameters for design and energy audit of kindergartens.•Performing measurements as a mandatory ...for the energy audit of old buildings.•Determining energy performance indicators for kindergartens.•Kindergartens are a specific type of buildings for the energy certification.
Research analyzed the influence of parameters derived from urban planning, architecture, building materials and technology, building physics, users and patterns of use, the measured thermal performance of the envelope and thermal comfort parameters on the energy performance indicators of two representative kindergartens. The paper presents an energy performance indicator through design and measured parameters of representative samples of old and new kindergartens located in the temperate climate zone of Banja Luka (northern Bosnia and Herzegovina). When the data presented in EN 13790 concerning the patterns of use and design temperatures for residential buildings or educational and cultural buildings is compared with the measured, surveyed, analyzed and estimated kindergarten data, the design parameters are found to deviate from the measured parameters.
On the basis of the presented analysis, it is recommended that measurement of the thermal performance of envelopes of old buildings become a mandatory part of energy audit, and that an appropriate set of parameter values be used in the calculation of the energy performance indicator of kindergartens. Kindergartens must be introduced as a specific type of buildings in policies related to the minimum requirements for the energy performance of buildings and rational use of energy, energy audit and certification of buildings.
Residential building energy performance indicators are compared with a different approach for the normalization of the characteristic yearly primary energy use. The purpose is to analyse which ...approach results in a fair assessment of more compact, energy-efficient building geometries, and of smaller building size. A normalization by floor area is shown to result in a poorer energy performance rating for smaller buildings. The notional building approach, as recently introduced in various countries, does not lead to a fair assessment of efficient geometries. Furthermore, the choice of reference characteristics to calculate the energy performance rating has a different impact on buildings with different characteristics. An average building approach is introduced as an improvement of the notional building approach. Form-efficient buildings are found to achieve a lower energy performance rating, but the choice of the reference characteristics is still present to a limited extent. As a second alternative, it is proposed to normalize the energy use by the sphere-area approach: the area of a sphere with the same volume as the rated building. This method leads to a fair assessment of form-efficient buildings and creates an incentive for more efficient building geometries and typologies.
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