Heating demand as an energy performance indicator: A case study of buildings built under the passive house standard in Spain

The paper presents the preliminary planning of a demonstration pilot for exemplary renovation of an existing building (“Solar House 1 – Campina”) towards nZEB level using Passive House principles and technologies. The “Solar House” was one of the lighthouses of solar energy developments in the ‘80s in Romania, being built in 1977-1978 in Campina (Centre-South Romania) and represented an experimental building using innovative solar technologies for DHW preparation, active and passive space heating. The decision of transforming the existing building in a demonstration pilot nZEB with green materials was taken and the feasibility study is currently underway. The pilot aims to analyse and test, the cost effectiveness of Passive House (PH) technologies integration in a deep renovation process with the view to achieve the fixed nZEB levels, as an exemplary case study demonstrating the benefits and feasibility of applying PH principles and energy performance evaluation in real context. Both approaches of applying the renovation standard EnerPHit and targeting Passive House criteria are discussed together with the nZEB targets, while the analysis of technical (energy performance) and economic (total costs) feasibility is presented. The proposed building will act as a training and consultancy centre in Campina - created as a model for achieving greater energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in Romania.

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An Investigation into Indoor Radon Concentrations in Certified Passive House Homes

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17114149 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (11) ◽

pp. 4149 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Barry Mc Carron ◽

Xianhai Meng ◽

Shane Colclough

Keyword(s):

Indoor Radon ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Passive House ◽

Gas Detectors ◽

Zero Energy Building ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Zero Carbon ◽

House Standard ◽

Radon Concentrations

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) has introduced the concept of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) specifying that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings must meet the nearly zero- energy standard, the Passive House standard has emerged as a key enabler for the Nearly Zero Energy Building standard. The combination of Passive House with renewables represents a suitable solution to move to low/zero carbon. The hypothesis in this study is that a certified passive house building with high levels of airtightness with a balanced mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) should yield lower indoor radon concentrations. This article presents results and analysis of measured radon levels in a total of 97 certified passive house dwellings using CR-393 alpha track diffusion radon gas detectors. The results support the hypothesis that certified passive house buildings present lower radon levels. A striking observation to emerge from the data shows a difference in radon distribution between upstairs and downstairs when compared against regular housing. The study is a first for Ireland and the United Kingdom and it has relevance to a much wider context with the significant growth of the passive house standard globally.

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An analysis on energy performance indicator and GWP at Airports; a case study

Energy Sources Part A Recovery Utilization and Environmental Effects ◽

10.1080/15567036.2020.1761483 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

Mehmet Kadri Akyüz ◽

Haşim Kafalı ◽

Önder Altuntaş

Keyword(s):

Performance Indicator ◽

Energy Performance

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Portuguese Passive House case study: a comparison between monthly and seasonal energy performance methods

Energy Production and Management in the 21st Century II: The Quest for Sustainable Energy ◽

10.2495/eq160161 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

N. Simões ◽

D. Teles ◽

C. Serra

Keyword(s):

Energy Performance ◽

Passive House

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Neighborhood Energy Modeling and Monitoring: A Case Study

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123716 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3716

Author(s):

Francesco Causone ◽

Rossano Scoccia ◽

Martina Pelle ◽

Paola Colombo ◽

Mario Motta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Early Stage ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Monitoring Plan ◽

Performance Targets ◽

Carrier Energy ◽

Zero Carbon ◽

Energy Grid

Cities and nations worldwide are pledging to energy and carbon neutral objectives that imply a huge contribution from buildings. High-performance targets, either zero energy or zero carbon, are typically difficult to be reached by single buildings, but groups of properly-managed buildings might reach these ambitious goals. For this purpose we need tools and experiences to model, monitor, manage and optimize buildings and their neighborhood-level systems. The paper describes the activities pursued for the deployment of an advanced energy management system for a multi-carrier energy grid of an existing neighborhood in the area of Milan. The activities included: (i) development of a detailed monitoring plan, (ii) deployment of the monitoring plan, (iii) development of a virtual model of the neighborhood and simulation of the energy performance. Comparisons against early-stage energy monitoring data proved promising and the generation system showed high efficiency (EER equal to 5.84), to be further exploited.

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Decision-Making Processes in Controlling Exposure to Sunlight Supported by Simulation Tools: A Case Study in Warm Weather

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14144100 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (14) ◽

pp. 4100

Author(s):

Mariana Huskinson ◽

Antonio Galiano-Garrigós ◽

Ángel Benigno González-Avilés ◽

M. Isabel Pérez-Millán

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Global Analysis ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Information Modeling ◽

The European Union ◽

Evaluation Tool ◽

Simulation Tools ◽

Building Information ◽

The Impact

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is one of the main strategies defined by the European Union to reduce global energy costs. Amongst the actions to be carried out in buildings to achieve this objective is working with passive measures adapted to each type of climate. To assist designers in the process of finding appropriate solutions for each building and location, different tools have been developed and since the implementation of building information modeling (BIM), it has been possible to perform an analysis of a building’s life cycle from an energy perspective and other types of analysis such as a comfort analysis. In the case of Spain, the first BIM environment tool has been implemented that deals with the global analysis of a building’s behavior and serves as an alternative to previous methods characterized by their lack of both flexibility and information offered to designers. This paper evaluates and compares the official Spanish energy performance evaluation tool (Cypetherm) released in 2018 using a case study involving the installation of sunlight control devices as part of a building refurbishment. It is intended to determine how databases and simplifications affect the designer’s decision-making. Additionally, the yielded energy results are complemented by a comfort analysis to explore the impact of these improvements from a users’ wellbeing viewpoint. At the end of the process the yielded results still confirm that the simulation remains far from reality and that simulation tools can indeed influence the decision-making process.

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Mapping the energy poverty: a case study based on the Energy Performance Certificates in the city of Bologna

Energy and Buildings ◽

10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.110718 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 110718

Author(s):

Kristian Fabbri ◽

Jacopo Gaspari

Keyword(s):

Energy Performance ◽

Energy Poverty ◽

The City

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UNDERSTANDING THE EMBEDDED CARBON CHALLENGES OF BUILDING SERVICE SYSTEMS

Proceedings of the Design Society ◽

10.1017/pds.2021.589 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 3279-3288

Author(s):

Maria Hein ◽

Darren Anthony Jones ◽

Claudia Margot Eckert

Keyword(s):

Energy Use ◽

Cooling System ◽

Current System ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Service Systems ◽

Carbon Footprints ◽

Embodied Carbon ◽

Study Results ◽

Operational Energy

AbstractEnergy consumed in buildings is a main contributor to CO2 emissions, there is therefore a need to improve the energy performance of buildings, particularly commercial buildings whereby building service systems are often substantially over-designed due to the application of excess margins during the design process.The cooling system of an NHS Hospital was studied and modelled in order to identify if the system was overdesigned, and to quantify the oversizing impact on the system operational and embodied carbon footprints. Looking at the operational energy use and environmental performance of the current system as well as an alternative optimised system through appropriate modelling and calculation, the case study results indicate significant environmental impacts are caused by the oversizing of cooling system.The study also established that it is currently more difficult to obtain an estimate of the embodied carbon footprint of building service systems. It is therefore the responsibility of the machine builders to provide information and data relating to the embodied carbon of their products, which in the longer term, this is likely to become a standard industry requirement.

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