Energy Saving Opportunities Using Building Energy Simulation for a Typical Mosque in Kuwait

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adnan Al Anzi ◽  
Basma Al-Shammeri
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Thermal Behavior ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Building Energy Simulation ◽  
The State Of Kuwait

The weather conditions in Kuwait impose a difficult HVAC building operation due to the hot and arid climate. Most of the time, high ambient temperatures in Kuwait exceed 48° C, which result in difficult indoor comfort condition. Mosques are religious buildings with intermittent occupancy, due to their special cultural and religious requirements. In fact, prayers schedule is scattered throughout five daily times, with a maximum use around noon times on Fridays only. In addition, the number of mosques is increasing, due to population growth, and imposes high electrical load requirements on the public authorities in Kuwait. This paper demonstrates and analyzes thermal behavior of a typical mosque in the state of Kuwait. An energy audit is performed using state of the art building energy simulation software (Visual DOE 4.1). The simulation tool is intended to analyze the thermal behavior of the audited mosques and is used to asses potential energy conservation opportunities for future mosque design in Kuwait. Data collection including drawings, site visits and total daily kWh monitoring are performed to carry out the simulation analysis. It is found that an annual energy use savings up to 72% can be achieved through improvements of buildings envelope designs and operating strategies. In addition, life cycle cost LCC analysis is performed to make economical assessment of the energy conservation measures that are evaluated in this study. It was found that a LCC saving around 40% can be achieved with a simple payback period of less than 4 years.

scholarly journals Evaluation of implicit numerical methods for building energy simulation

1998 ◽  
Vol 212 (5) ◽  
pp. 331-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
M E Crowley ◽  
M S J Hashmi
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Methods ◽  
Numerical Method ◽  
Strong Stability ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Computational Effort ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Building Energy Simulation ◽  
Implicit Solvers ◽  
Simulation Problem

The stability of numerical methods used for finite difference thermal modelling of buildings is discussed. A known instability in a commonly used process is described and alternative numerical methods with suitable stability properties are identified. With a view to selecting the optimum numerical method, the building energy simulation problem is characterized mathematically and appropriate implicit solvers are compared on the basis of accuracy and computational effort using a building-related test problem prepared for this purpose. A recently developed numerical method with the necessary strong stability is found to possess higher computational efficiency than methods frequently used in this application and it is recommended for inclusion in building energy simulation software.

FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS OF INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF HEAT RECOVERY COGENERATION LOOP AND ELECTRIC HEAT PUMP WITH DETAILED BUILDING ENERGY SIMULATION

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (01) ◽  
pp. 31-41
Author(s):  
DONG-HYUN SEO ◽  
JAE-YOON KOH ◽  
YOOL PARK
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Heat Pump ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Building Energy Simulation ◽  
Pump System ◽  
Heat Pump System ◽  
Cogeneration System

Recent energy and economic analysis of a cogeneration system has been implemented by a manual calculation that is based on monthly thermal loads of buildings. In this study, a cogeneration system modeling validation with a detail building energy simulation, eQUEST, for a building energy and cost prediction has been implemented. By analyzing the hourly building electricity and thermal loads, it enables designers to decide proper cogeneration system capacity and to estimate more reliable building energy consumption. eQUEST also verified economical and environmental benefits when the heat pump system is integrated with the cogeneration system because the mechanical system configuration benefits from the high efficiency heat pump system while avoiding the building electricity demand increase. Economic analysis such as LCC (Life Cycle Cost) method is carried out to verify economical benefits of the system by applying actual utility rates of KEPCO (Korea Electricity Power COmpany) and KOGAS (KOrea GAS company). As results, the proposed system consumed approximately 40% less energy than the Alt-2 in terms of source energy. LCC analysis results also show that the proposed system could save about 10–14% of energy cost during the life cycle compared to the Alt-1 and Alt-2. It could save 6–7% of the total life cycle cost and it is equivalent to around 1–1.3 billion Won in cost.

The Influence of Street Geometry on Building’s Energy Consumption in Different Climate Zones

2012 ◽  
Vol 178-181 ◽  
pp. 147-150
Author(s):  
Nan Wang ◽  
Mahjoub Elnimeiri
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Community Design ◽  
Building Energy Simulation ◽  
Climate Condition ◽  
Climate Zones

This research explores the influence of different street geometry towards reducing the energy consumption in buildings by utilizing building energy simulation software. In different climate condition, the different street geometry has different influence on building’s energy consumption. This influence is quantified in this research. It is found that in three climate zones – Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the energy consumption of buildings is changed according to different H/W ratio of buildings. This finding determines that the optimum street geometry will be different in these climate zones. The designers should consider such difference before doing architecture or urban planning work. This research will also provide some suggestions and recommendations to the energy-efficient community design based on the findings.

Energy Impacts of Nonlinear Behavior of Phase Change Materials When Applied to Opaque Building Envelopes

2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Cesar Tabares-Velasco
Keyword(s):  
Phase Change ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Peak Load ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Building Energy Simulation ◽  
Peak Reduction ◽  
The Impact

Research on phase change materials (PCM) as a potential technology to reduce peak loads and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) energy use in buildings has been conducted for several decades, resulting in a great deal of literature on PCM properties, temperature, and peak reduction potential. However, there are few building energy simulation programs that include PCM modeling features, and very few of these have been validated. Additionally, there is no previous research that indicates the level of accuracy when modeling PCMs from a building energy simulation perspective. This study analyzes the effects a nonlinear enthalpy profile has on thermal performance and expected energy benefits for PCM-enhanced insulation. The impact of accurately modeling realistic, nonlinear enthalpy profiles for PCMs versus simpler profiles is analyzed based on peak load reduction and energy savings using the conduction finite difference (CondFD) algorithm in EnergyPlus. The PCM and CondFD models used in this study have been previously validated after intensive verification and validation done at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Overall, the results of this study show annual energy savings are not very sensitive to the linearization of enthalpy curve. However, hourly analysis shows that if simpler linear profiles are used, users should try to specify a melting range covering roughly 80% of the latent heat; otherwise, hourly results can differ by up to 20%.

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