A real-time predictive software prototype for simulating urban-scale energy consumption based on surrogate models

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mina Rahimian ◽  
Jose Pinto Duarte ◽  
Lisa Domenica Iulo
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
San Diego ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Surrogate Models ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Simulation Engine ◽  
Spatial Configurations ◽  
Software Prototype

Abstract This paper discusses the development of an experimental software prototype that uses surrogate models for predicting the monthly energy consumption of urban-scale community design scenarios in real time. The surrogate models were prepared by training artificial neural networks on datasets of urban form and monthly energy consumption values of all zip codes in San Diego county. The surrogate models were then used as the simulation engine of a generative urban design tool, which generates hypothetical communities in San Diego following the county's existing urban typologies and then estimates the monthly energy consumption value of each generated design option. This paper and developed software prototype is part of a larger research project that evaluates the energy performance of community microgrids via their urban spatial configurations. This prototype takes the first step in introducing a new set of tools for architects and urban designers with the goal of engaging them in the development process of community microgrids.

Continuous Monitoring, Modeling, and Evaluation of Actual Building Energy Systems

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxim L. Sankey ◽  
Sheldon M. Jeter ◽  
Trevor D. Wolf ◽  
Donald P. Alexander ◽  
Gregory M. Spiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Practical Procedure ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Institute Of Technology

Residential and commercial buildings account for more than 40% of U.S. energy consumption, most of which is related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Consequently, energy conservation is important to building owners and to the economy generally. In this paper we describe a process under development to continuously evaluate a building’s heating and cooling energy performance in near real-time with a procedure we call Continuous Monitoring, Modeling, and Evaluation (CMME). The concept of CMME is to model the expected operation of a building energy system with actual weather and internal load data and then compare modeled energy consumption with actual energy consumption. For this paper we modeled two buildings on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus. After creating our building models, internal lighting loads and equipment plug-loads were collected through electrical sub-metering, while the building occupancy load was recorded using doorway mounted people counters. We also collected on site weather and solar radiation data. All internal loads were input into the models and simulated with the actual weather data. We evaluated the building’s overall performance by comparing the modeled heating and cooling energy consumption with the building’s actual heating and cooling energy consumption. Our results demonstrated generally acceptable energy performance for both buildings; nevertheless, certain specific energy inefficiencies were discovered and corrective actions are being taken. This experience shows that CMME is a practical procedure for improving the performance of actual well performing buildings. With improved techniques, we believe the CMME procedure could be fully automated and notify building owners in real-time of sub-optimal building performance.

Understanding the effects of environmental factors on building energy efficiency designs and credits

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 270-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonghoon Kim ◽  
Jin-Young Hyun ◽  
Wai K. Chong ◽  
Samuel Ariaratnam
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Energy Efficiency ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Time Data

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between environmental factors and building energy consumption of three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings at the Arizona State University, by establishing the relationships of the outside atmospheric temperature and the energy consumed in the building using real-time data generated from different sources. Design/methodology/approach K-means clustering analysis is used to calibrate and eliminate unwanted influences or factors from a set of building consumption real-time data. For further statistical analysis, the chi-square is used to verify if the results are ample to prove the findings. Findings Few studies have addressed building energy consumption real-time data versus LEED Energy and Atmosphere (EA) credits with the data mining technique (k-means clustering) on most of building performance analyses. This study highlighted that the calibrating energy data are a better approach to analyze energy use in buildings and that there is a relationship between LEED credits’ (EA) Optimize Energy Performance scores and building energy efficiency. However, the energy consumption data alone do not yield useful results to establish the cause and effect relationships. Originality/value Although there are several previous research studies regarding LEED building energy performance, this research study focused on the LEED building energy performance versus LEED EA credits versus environmental factors using real-time building energy data and various statistical methods (e.g. K-means clustering and chi-square). The findings provide researchers, engineers and architects with valuable references for building energy analysis methods and supplements in LEED standards.

scholarly journals Low-Energy Architecture for Sustainable Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-92
Author(s):  
Valeria Todeschi ◽  
Simone Beltramino ◽  
Bernadette El Jamous ◽  
Guglielmina Mutani
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Space Heating ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Olympic Village

Nowadays, energy consumption in buildings is one of the fundamental drivers to control greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact. In fact, the air quality of urban environments can cause two main phenomena in metropolitan areas: urban heat island and climate changes. The aim of this work is to showcase how different building variables can impact the residential building’s space heating and cooling energy consumption. Buildings energy-related variables can be fundamental viewpoints to improve the energy performance of neighborhoods, especially in future urban planning. This work examines four neighborhoods in the city of Turin (IT): Arquata, Crocetta, Sacchi, and Olympic Village characterized by different morphologies and building typologies. In each neighborhood, residential building was grouped according to orientations and construction periods. A sensitivity analysis was applied by analysing six building variables: infiltration rate, window-to-wall ratio, and windows, walls, roofs, and floor thermal transmittances. The energy consumption for space heating and cooling of residential buildings and local climate conditions were investigated using CitySim Pro tool and ENVI-met. The challenge of this work is to identify the building variables that most influence energy consumption and to understand how to promote high-energy efficiency neighborhoods: the goal is to identify the “ideal” urban form with low consumption and good comfort conditions in outdoor urban environments. The results of this work show a significant connection between the energy consumption and the six analyzed building variables; however, this relationship also depends on the shape and orientation of the neighborhood.

Energetic Efficiency - A New Tool, Methodology of Integrate Design for Buildings' Openings

2014 ◽  
Vol 875-877 ◽  
pp. 1812-1821
Author(s):  
Aurea Lucia Georgi Vendramin ◽  
Carlos Itsuo Yamamoto ◽  
Samuel N. Souza Melegari
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Energetic Efficiency ◽  
Base Temperature ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Degree Days ◽  
Total Heat Loss ◽  
Cooling Degree Days

The Residential sector in Brazil is responsible for 26% of energy consumption for illumination, refrigeration and heating, because of this there is a necessity to project in a correct way the openings and choose better materials for construction, targeting the energy rationalization. This article describes the development of a new model that uses a method where openings are represented by single glass and double glass. The model is based on a healthy balance equations purely theoretical and empirical data. Simplified equations are derived through a synthesis of the measured data obtained from meteorological stations, as well as the literature. The implementation of the model in a design tool integrated naturally lit buildings is discussed in this article, to better punctuate the requirements of comfort and energy efficiency in architecture and engineering. Assumes significant importance in studies of heatstroke buildings, aiming to guide the professionals through the process of architectural design, preliminary study and detail of construction elements. It was used a method of degree-days for an assessment of the energy performance of a building showed that the design of the architectural design should always be considered the materials used and the size of the openings. The energy performance was obtained through the model, considering the location of the building in the city of Curitiba, Foz do Iguaçu, Londrina and Cascavel - PR. Obtained climatic data of these locations and in a second step, it was obtained the coefficient of total heat loss in the building pre-established so evaluating the thermal comfort and energy performance. It was observed that heating degree days in winter are of 77.78 to Curitiba the base temperature of 14 ° C and cooling degree days in winter 30.17. For Curitiba lower air exchange, the lower the energy consumption for heating and thus the higher the intake, the greater exchange of air. This means that the more openings in buildings in Curitiba, and are installed to the east side, they may be higher because the glass added to the geometry of architectural spaces will cause the environment conserve energy.

scholarly journals A Parametric Study Of Window, Orientation And Shading to Minimize Energy Consuption in Mechanically Ventilated High Rise Office Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Md Shajjad Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Parametric Study ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Vertical Surface ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Increase Energy Efficiency ◽  
Save Energy

Vital statistics of a building, meaning geometric attributes, are very important design tool to manipulate energy performance of a building which is often neglected. Though a lot of recent researches focused on increasing capabilities of material and technology to build energy efficient buildings, design elements such as form, shape, window, orientation, etc. can play a very important and effective role to increase energy efficiency. The strategic design decisions about geometric attributes in the design phase costs almost nothing and can save energy bills through lifetime of the building, which is yet be specified in particular climatic region and particular building types where energy consumption matters in national scale. This paper investigates the critical proportion of façade glazing through parametric study by simulation to obtain optimum balance between luminous and thermal behavior as well as energy consumption. The context of the study is Dhaka, with tropical monsoon climate where heat and humidity is a big concern. The experiment is carried out and hence relevant to highrise office building due to its large vertical surface compared to insignificant roof area. The outcomes indicate that significant harvesting of daylight and reduction of total energy consumption by 50% comes with proper shading on large glazing on East and West facade; and 30% on South facade.  

Urban Morphology and Energy Consumption

2014 ◽  
pp. 173-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Carneiro ◽  
Virginia Gori ◽  
Gilles Desthieux ◽  
Carla Balocco ◽  
François Golay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Energy Needs ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
European Standards ◽  
Energy Dependent

Urban form matters in assessing the energy consumption of buildings. This chapter introduces three useful tools to assess the environmental impact of the urban form and to define possible energy scenarios. These outcomes can be used to inform the redevelopment or the new design of urban districts, or simply to evaluate the overall energy performance of different urban fabrics. The tools presented comprise: (a) simplified indicators of energy-dependent variables based on morphological information of the urban form; (b) algorithms for the estimation of the heating energy needs of the urban fabric, based on the implementation of European Standards; (c) algorithms for the assessment of the solar potential of the urban form, computing the solar irradiance impacting on different sloped urban surfaces. The techniques introduced are based on an innovative approach that makes use of Digital Urban Surface Models (DUSMs) and Digital Image Processing (DIP) techniques.

scholarly journals A Parametric Study Of Window, Orientation And Shading to Minimize Energy Consuption in Mechanically Ventilated High Rise Office Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-114
Author(s):  
Md Shajjad Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Parametric Study ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Vertical Surface ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Increase Energy Efficiency ◽  
Save Energy

Vital statistics of a building, meaning geometric attributes, are very important design tool to manipulate energy performance of a building which is often neglected. Though a lot of recent researches focused on increasing capabilities of material and technology to build energy efficient buildings, design elements such as form, shape, window, orientation, etc. can play a very important and effective role to increase energy efficiency. The strategic design decisions about geometric attributes in the design phase costs almost nothing and can save energy bills through lifetime of the building, which is yet be specified in particular climatic region and particular building types where energy consumption matters in national scale. This paper investigates the critical proportion of façade glazing through parametric study by simulation to obtain optimum balance between luminous and thermal behavior as well as energy consumption. The context of the study is Dhaka, with tropical monsoon climate where heat and humidity is a big concern. The experiment is carried out and hence relevant to highrise office building due to its large vertical surface compared to insignificant roof area. The outcomes indicate that significant harvesting of daylight and reduction of total energy consumption by 50% comes with proper shading on large glazing on East and West facade; and 30% on South facade.  

Impact of roof shading on building energy performance in warm & humid climatic places of India

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-64
Author(s):  
Kuladeep Kumar Sadevi ◽  
Avlokita Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Passive Cooling ◽  
Base Case ◽  
U Value ◽  
The Impact

With the rise in awareness of energy efficient buildings and adoption of mandatory energy conservation codes across the globe, significant change is being observed in the way the buildings are designed. With the launch of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in India, climate responsive designs and passive cooling techniques are being explored increasingly in building designs. Of all the building envelope components, roof surface has been identified as the most significant with respect to the heat gain due to the incident solar radiation on buildings, especially in tropical climatic conditions. Since ECBC specifies stringent U-Values for roof assembly, use of insulating materials is becoming popular. Along with insulation, the shading of the roof is also observed to be an important strategy for improving thermal performance of the building, especially in Warm and humid climatic conditions. This study intends to assess the impact of roof shading on building’s energy performance in comparison to that of exposed roof with insulation. A typical office building with specific geometry and schedules has been identified as base case model for this study. This building is simulated using energy modelling software ‘Design Builder’ with base case parameters as prescribed in ECBC. Further, the same building has been simulated parametrically adjusting the amount of roof insulation and roof shading simultaneously. The overall energy consumption and the envelope performance of the top floor are extracted for analysis. The results indicate that the roof shading is an effective passive cooling strategy for both naturally ventilated and air conditioned buildings in Warm and humid climates of India. It is also observed that a fully shaded roof outperforms the insulated roof as per ECBC prescription. Provision of shading over roof reduces the annual energy consumption of building in case of both insulated and uninsulated roofs. However, the impact is higher for uninsulated roofs (U-Value of 3.933 W/m2K), being 4.18% as compared to 0.59% for insulated roofs (U-Value of 0.33 W/m2K).While the general assumption is that roof insulation helps in reducing the energy consumption in tropical buildings, it is observed to be the other way when insulation is provided with roof shading. It is due to restricted heat loss during night.

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