Modelling energy use in residential buildings: How design decisions influence final energy performance in various Chilean climates

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Simon ◽  
Javier Ordoñez ◽  
Aymeric Girard ◽  
Cristobal Parrado

To reduce the energy consumption in buildings, there is a demand for tools that identify significant parameters of energy performance. The work presents the development and validation of a simulation model, called MEEDI, and graphical figures for the parametric sensitivity investigation of energy performance in different climates in Chile. The MEEDI is based on the ISO 13790 monthly calculation method of building energy use with two improved procedures for the calculation of the heat transfer through the floor and the solar heat gains. The graphical figures illustrate the effects of climate conditions, envelope components and window size and orientation on the energy consumption. The MEEDI program can contribute to find the best solution to increase energy efficiency in residential buildings. It can be adapted for various parameters, making it useful for future projects. The economic viability of specific measures for building envelope materials was analysed. Payback periods range from 5 to 27 years depending on the location and energy scenario. The study illustrates how building design decisions can have a significant impact on final energy performance. With simple envelope components modification, valuable energy gains and carbon emission reductions can be achieved in a cost-effective manner in Chile.

2020 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 02009
Author(s):  
André Badura ◽  
Birgit Mueller ◽  
Ivo Martinac

Large and rapid climatic changes can be uncomfortable and sometimes hazardous to humans. Buildings protect people from external climatic conditions, and also mitigate the impacts of external climate extremes through their design and construction, as well as with the help of dedicated building service and other technical systems. Active space conditioning accounts for more than 30 per cent of the overall final energy use in Germany. In the life cycle of a building, the construction phase (planning and construction) is the phase with the shortest duration. However, the quality applied during this phase has a significant impact on the resources required, as well as the overall building performance during the much longer operational phase. Once built, buildings are often unable to adapt to boundary conditions that were not considered in the original building design. Consequently, changing outdoor climate conditions can result in an uncomfortable indoor climate over the lifetime of a building. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of flexible solutions for reducing winter heating loads and to reducing/avoiding summer cooling loads in nonresidential buildings in Germany. Various external shading scenarios for non-residential buildings were analysed using the IDA ICE indoor climate and energy simulation tool. Key simulation parameters included the orientation and location of the building, as well as the envelope structure. We investigated the impacts of solar shading on heat storage in the building mass and indoor climate and how different types of envelopes affect overall energy use. The result shows that the use of an adaptive building envelope allows a higher reduction of the total energy demand by 7 % to 15 % compared to an increase in insulation thickness only.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 366-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phan Anh Nguyen ◽  
Regina Bokel ◽  
Andy van den Dobbelsteen

Purpose Refurbishing houses is considered a key measure to improve the energy efficiency of the built environment. However, little is known about the implementation and outcome of housing renovation for energy upgrades in the Vietnamese practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the energy performance of the current housing stock in Vietnam and the potential to reduce energy use in households. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a survey with 153 respondents in three major climatic regions of Vietnam. The survey focusses on building characteristics, environmental performance, energy performance and refurbishment activities. Data collected from the survey were statistically analysed to give insight into the current performance of the housing stock and its energy saving potential. Findings This paper concludes that building design and construction, particularly the building envelope, have a significant influence on the occupants’ comfort. However, the energy consumption in houses is not statistically associated with building design and indoor environment. It is suggested that financial status and occupants’ behaviour currently have a strong influence on the household energy use. The survey also showed that refurbishment improves the housing performance, especially if improving the indoor environment was one of the drivers. Originality/value There are very few studies on energy use in households in Vietnam, especially with regards to actual energy consumption. This paper brings insights into the actual energy consumption and reveals the “performance gap” in Vietnamese housing stock.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman Almufarrej ◽  
Tohid Erfani

<p>Increasing buildings energy efficiency is a challenging task. The two main contributing factors that control the overall buildings energy performance are the Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) system and the building envelope design. Our research investigates how three main building envelop design factors (orientation, compactness and window to wall ratio) impact the overall building’s energy consumption. We focus on typical rectangular shaped buildings and vary the geometry between a square to a rectangular floor plan to provide a basis of energy performance in early stage building design guidance. We test the analysis on building’s energy performance specific to the Middle East’s Kuwait climate condition and environment, and discuss the least energy consumption patterns. This is of importance as most of the electricity consumption in Kuwait are due to HVAC use in residential buildings. The major energy consumption factors are broken down to show how the patterns are unique compared to the previously researched efforts and how a regional set of guidance is of need. The results of this study’s implication on energy and resource use in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is discussed, given the high proportion of GHG emission compared to the population within the region.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 174425912110560
Author(s):  
Yassine Chbani Idrissi ◽  
Rafik Belarbi ◽  
Mohammed Yacine Ferroukhi ◽  
M’barek Feddaoui ◽  
Driss Agliz

Hygrothermal properties of building materials, climatic conditions and energy performance are interrelated and have to be considered simultaneously as part of an optimised building design. In this paper, a new approach to evaluate the energy consumption of residential buildings in Morocco is presented. This approach is based on the effect of coupled heat and moisture transfer in typical residential buildings and on their responses to the varied climatic conditions encountered in the country. This approach allows us to evaluate with better accuracy the response of building energy performance and the indoor comfort of building occupants. Annual energy consumption, cooling and heating energy requirements were estimated considering the six climatic zones of Morocco. Based on the results, terms related to coupled heat and moisture transfer can effectively correct the existing energy consumption calculations of the six zones of Morocco, which currently do not consider energy consumption due to coupled heat and moisture transfer.


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 03035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimo Simson ◽  
Endrik Arumägi ◽  
Kalle Kuusk ◽  
Jarek Kurnitski

In the member states of the European Union (EU), nearly-Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) are becoming mandatory building practice in 2021. It is stated, that nZEB should be cost-optimal and the energy performance levels should be re-defined after every five years. We conducted cost-optimality analyses for two detached houses, one terraced house and one apartment building in Estonia. The analysis consisted on actual construction cost data collection based on bids of variable solutions for building envelope, air tightness, windows, heat supply systems and local renewable energy production options. For energy performance analysis we used dynamic simulation software IDA-ICE. To assess cost-effectiveness, we used Net Present Value (NPV) calculations with the assessment period of 30 years. The results for cost-optimal energy performance level for detached house with heated space of ~100 m2 was 79 kWh/(m2 a), for the larger house (~200 m2) 87 kWh/(m2 a), for terraced house with heated space of ~600 m2 71 kWh/(m2 a) and for the apartment building 103 kWh/(m2 a) of primary energy including all energy use with domestic appliances. Thus, the decrease in cost-optimal level in a five-year period was ~60% for the detached house and ~40% for the apartment building, corresponding to a shift in two EPC classes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Ehsan Sharifi ◽  
Ali Soltani

Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Correspondingly, many attempts have been made across the world to minimize energy consumption in this sector via regulations and building codes. The focus of these regulations has mainly been on reducing operational energy use, whereas the impacts of buildings’ embodied energy are frequently excluded. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the energy performance of buildings via a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. The increasing amount of research has however caused the issue of a variation in results presented by LCEA studies, in which apparently similar case studies exhibited different results. This paper aims to identify the main sources of variation in LCEA studies by critically analyzing 26 studies representing 86 cases in 12 countries. The findings indicate that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracy accruing from incomplete definitions of the system boundary, in tandem with the lack of consensus on measurements of operational and embodied energies. The findings call for a comprehensive framework through which system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Ana Vukadinovic ◽  
Jasmina Radosavljevic ◽  
Amelija Djordjevic ◽  
Nemanja Petrovic

The increase in energy consumption in building design and construction and the issues related to environmental protection have steered many current researchers toward examining the ways to reduce total CO2 emissions, which resulted in the development of various measures to increase energy efficiency. One measure for more cost-efficient and rational use of energy resources in individual residential buildings is the application of passive solar systems with a sunspace. This paper presents the effects of the shape factor of a residential building with a passive sunspace on the total consumption of heating and cooling energy. The total amount of energy required for building heating and cooling was calculated by means of dynamic modelling using EnergyPlus software. The simulations were run according to the meteorological parameters for the city of Nis. For simulation purposes, models of residential buildings with a passive sunspace and square- and rectangle-shaped floors were designed. The variations between the models include different building shape factor, floor geometry, surface area of the southern fa?ade, and glazing percentage, i.e. window-to-wall ratio (WWR). Examination of the models with WWR=20%, WWR=40%, and WWR=60% revealed that the elongated shape of a building with the aspect ratio of 2.25:1, with the longer side of the fa?ade facing south, is the most favourable in terms of heating energy consumption. For the same WWRs, the elongated shape of a building with the aspect ratio of 1.56:1, with the longer side of the fa?ade facing south, is the most favourable in terms of cooling energy consumption. As WWR increases, so does the amount of energy required to cool the building. The biggest increase in heating energy consumption was observed in buildings with the aspect ratio 1:2.25, with the shorter side facing south.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (6 Part A) ◽  
pp. 2355-2365
Author(s):  
Veliborka Bogdanovic ◽  
Dusan Randjelovic ◽  
Miomir Vasov ◽  
Marko Ignjatovic ◽  
Jelena Stevanovic

This paper analyzes the impact of Trombe wall construction on heating and cooling demands of building with form (rectangular single-store building of about one hundred square meters area) which is common for individual residential buildings in the Republic of Serbia. Trombe wall, as a representative of a passive solar design, was installed on the south wall of the building. Model of the building was made in the Google SketchUp software, while the results of energy performance were obtained using EnergyPlus and jEplus. Parameters of thermal comfort and climatic data for the area of city of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia, were taken into account. Coverage of the south fa?ade was varied, as well as the thickness of the thermal mass and orientation. Energy consumption of the object is discussed, based on obtained results of the analysis. According to comparative analysis of the above mentioned models it can be concluded that the application of the Trombe wall structure on south side may lead to savings of 33% on heating, but also the higher energy consumption for cooling. Total energy consumption on an annual basis is reduced by using this system.


2020 ◽  
pp. 014459872097514
Author(s):  
AbdulRahman S Almushaikah ◽  
Radwan A Almasri

Lately, with the growth in energy consumption worldwide to support global efforts to improve the climate, developing nations have to take significant measures. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) implemented meaningful policy actions towards promoting energy efficiency (EE) in several sectors, especially in the building sector, to be more sustainable. In this paper, various EE measures and solar energy prospects are investigated for the residential sector, in two locations in the middle region of the KSA. An energy performance analysis of pre-existing residential buildings with an overall design is performed using simulation programs. However, installing EE measures in the building envelope is important to achieve an efficient sector regarding its energy consumption. The findings showed that applying EE measures for the building envelope, walls, roof, and windows should be considered first that makes the energy conservation possible. In Riyadh, EE measures are responsible for reducing energy consumption by 27% for walls, 14% for roof, and 6% for window, and by 29%, 13%, and 6% for walls, roof, and windows, respectively, for Qassim. However, the most impactful EE solution was selecting a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system with a high energy efficiency rate (EER), which can minimize the energy consumption by 33% and 32% for Riyadh and Qassim, respectively. The study's feasibility showed that the number of years needed to offset the initial investment for a proposed roof PV system exceeds the project's life, if the energy produced is exported to the grid at the official export tariff of 0.019 $/kWh. However, the simple payback time was 13.42 years if the energy produced is exported to the grid at a rate of 0.048 $/kWh, reflecting the project's economic feasibility.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5836
Author(s):  
Ali Mohammed AL-Dossary ◽  
Daeung Danny Kim

In Saudi Arabia, residential buildings are one of the major contributors to total energy consumption. Even though there are abundant natural resources, it is somewhat difficult to apply them to building designs, as design variables, due to slow progress and private issues in Saudi Arabia. Thus, the present study demonstrated the development of sustainable residential building design by examining the daylighting and energy performance with design variables. Focusing on the daylighting system, the design variables were chosen, including window-to-wall ratios (WWR), external shading devices, and types of glazing. The illuminance level by these design variables in a building was evaluated by using daylight metrics, such as spatial daylight autonomy and annual sunlight exposure. Moreover, the building energy consumption with these design variables was analyzed by using energy simulation. As a result, the daylighting was improved with the increase in WWRs and the tinted double glazing, while these design options can cause overheating in a residential building. Among types of glazing, the double pane windows with a low-E coating showed better energy performance. Based on the results, it is necessary to find the proper design variables that can balance the daylighting and energy performance in residential buildings in hot climates.


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