scholarly journals A Case Study in Actual Building Performance and Energy Modeling with Real Weather Data

Author(s):  
Cherag Mehta

As part of this study, an issue has been identified with regards to there being a performance gap with energy efficient buildings. This has been validated through literature review in the areas of occupancy behavior, modeling accuracy and reviewing energy consumption of energy efficient buildings. In order to analyze the error generated between predicted and actual energy performance, a case study approach has been adopted. The Ron Joyce Centre is a LEED Gold Certified building that is part of the McMaster University campus in Burlington. Actual energy performance data has been collected along with detailed drawings to analyze its predicted energy performance using real weather data over a two-year period in eQUEST. The results indicate that eQuest is able to predict electrical consumption within 0.72% of actual on an annual basis. However, natural gas consumption is more erratic and inconsistent based on heating degree days and has fluctuating values with differences ranging between 21% to 4.5% on monthly basis. The overall predicted energy consumption for 2012 is 1096133 kWh and 33227 m

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherag Mehta

As part of this study, an issue has been identified with regards to there being a performance gap with energy efficient buildings. This has been validated through literature review in the areas of occupancy behavior, modeling accuracy and reviewing energy consumption of energy efficient buildings. In order to analyze the error generated between predicted and actual energy performance, a case study approach has been adopted. The Ron Joyce Centre is a LEED Gold Certified building that is part of the McMaster University campus in Burlington. Actual energy performance data has been collected along with detailed drawings to analyze its predicted energy performance using real weather data over a two-year period in eQUEST. The results indicate that eQuest is able to predict electrical consumption within 0.72% of actual on an annual basis. However, natural gas consumption is more erratic and inconsistent based on heating degree days and has fluctuating values with differences ranging between 21% to 4.5% on monthly basis. The overall predicted energy consumption for 2012 is 1096133 kWh and 33227 m


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyedeh Samaneh Golzan ◽  
Mina Pouyanmehr ◽  
Hassan Sadeghi Naeini

PurposeThe modular dynamic façade (MDF) concept could be an approach in a comfort-centric design through proper integration with energy-efficient buildings. This study focuses on obtaining and/or calculating an efficient angle of the MDF, which would lead to the optimum performance in daylight availability and energy consumption in a single south-faced official space located in the hot-arid climate of Yazd, Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology consists of three fundamental parts: (1) based on previous related studies, a diamond-based dynamic skin façade was applied to a south-faced office building in a hot-arid climate; (2) the daylighting and energy performance of the model were simulated annually; and (3) the data obtained from the simulation were compared to reach the optimum angle of the MDF.FindingsThe results showed that when the angle of the MDF openings was set at 30°, it could decrease energy consumption by 41.32% annually, while daylight simulation pointed that the space experienced the minimum possible glare at this angle. Therefore, the angle of 30° was established as the optimum angle, which could be the basis for future investment in responsive building envelopes.Originality/valueThis angular study simultaneously assesses the daylight availability, visual comfort and energy consumption on a MDF in a hot-arid climate.


Author(s):  
Paulo Mendonça ◽  
◽  
Monica Macieira ◽  
João Miranda Guedes

This research aims evaluating in what measure the proposed refurbishment solutions with architectural membranes can benefit an existing building and provide an energy efficient alternative to conventional reference building technologies for vertical extensions. In order to do it, an old building from the 19th century, located in Porto (Portugal) is taken as case study. Both solutions are compared regarding thermal comfort, energy consumption for heating/cooling needs using numerical simulation, which allowed evaluating the project from the environmental point of view, based on the energy consumption. The proposed membrane alternatives include conventional and non-conventional thermal/acoustic insulation and a membrane envelope option with vegetation on its external skin. The paper argues that architectural membrane refurbishment solutions can constitute an energy efficient alternative to lightweight conventional ones.


Residential buildings are the significant energy consumer of the India which is about 24% of the total energy consumption. Energy efficient buildings are the ideal solution to reduce energy consumption in the building sector. The energy efficient buildings can be achieved by incorporating passive features or renewable energy systems or both. The current work aims to perform a retrofitting analysis of an existing building into an energy efficient building. For performing the energy analysis REVIT 2017 tool is used. Using the REVIT 2017 tool building model is developed, building information are loaded and energy analyses are performed. The building is analyzed as two cases. The first case is to estimate energy performance of the existing building. The second case is to incorporate passive features and renewable energy system to the building and evaluate the energy performance. Existing building Energy Usage Intensity (EUI) was 193 kWh/m2 /year. When passive features (Insulation, additional window glazing and efficient air conditioning systems) alone incorporated to the building the building EUI is reduced to 138 kWh/m2 /year. Along with Passive features Photovoltaic modules with different efficiencies 16%, 18% and 20% are considered for renewable energy generation. The energy generation for the different PV modules for three different roof area (40%, 60% and 70% of total roof area) is evaluated. The energy usage intensity varies from 11.4 from -150 kWh/m2 /year for the combination of different efficiency of PV module and the different % of roof area covered. The negative sign indicates the energy generation after the required energy usage. The payback period for only incorporating passive features is 6.3 years and while incorporating PV system with passive features is 9 years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 3051-3073
Author(s):  
Whitney Bevan ◽  
Shu-Ling Lu ◽  
Martin Sexton

PurposeThe prevailing literature argues the need for “new” skills to deliver energy-efficient buildings. The concept of new skills, however, has not been subject to empirical investigation. This paper aims to provide insight on the required new skills, and their development and application, for the successful delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings.Design/methodology/approachThe research employed a case study approach of a school retrofit building project in the early stages of the adoption of energy-efficient measures. Through the application of the socio-technical network approach (STNA) as the data collection and analysis framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and a review of relevant organisational documentation and were analysed using thematic coding.FindingsThe findings reveal key actors (i.e. the local authority, energy contractors and school end-users), their principal interests and the required communication, project management, energy management, technical and research skills during their interactions in the successful delivery of the school retrofit building project. The results further reinforce the crucial role of the local authority in driving energy performance improvement of school buildings.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates empirical evidence of the principal actors and skills required for the delivery of energy-efficient school retrofit buildings, contributes to new theoretical insights at the identification of key micro-level development of construction skills through the project network and evidences on how the STNA can be mobilised in construction skills research.


Author(s):  
Hadi Abbas ◽  
Youngki Kim ◽  
Jason B. Siegel ◽  
Denise M. Rizzo

This paper presents a study of energy-efficient operation of vehicles with electrified powertrains leveraging route information, such as road grades, to adjust the speed trajectory. First, Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle (PMP) is applied to derive necessary conditions and to determine the possible operating modes. The analysis shows that only 5 modes are required to achieve minimum energy consumption; full propulsion, cruising, coasting, full regeneration, and full regeneration with conventional braking. The minimum energy consumption problem is reformulated and solved in the distance domain using Dynamic Programming to optimize speed profiles. A case study is shown for a light weight military robot including road grades. For this system, a tradeoff between energy consumption and trip time was found. The optimal cycle uses 20% less energy for the same trip duration, or could reduce the travel time by 14% with the same energy consumption compared to the baseline operation.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 491
Author(s):  
Jorge González ◽  
Carlos Alberto Pereira Soares ◽  
Mohammad Najjar ◽  
Assed N. Haddad

Linking Building Information Modelling and Building Energy Modelling methodologies appear as a tool for the energy performance analysis of a dwelling, being able to build the physical model via Autodesk Revit and simulating the energy modeling with its complement Autodesk Insight. A residential two-story house was evaluated in five different locations within distinct climatic zones to reduce its electricity demand. Experimental Design is used as a methodological tool to define the possible arrangement of results emitted via Autodesk Insight that exhibits the minor electric demand, considering three variables: Lighting efficiency, Plug-Load Efficiency, and HVAC systems. The analysis concluded that while the higher the efficiency of lighting and applications, the lower the electric demand. In addition, the type of climate and thermal characteristics of the materials that conform to the building envelope have significant effects on the energetic performance. The adjustment of different energetic measures and its comparison with other climatic zones enable decision-makers to choose the best combination of variables for developing strategies to lower the electric demand towards energy-efficient buildings.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6178
Author(s):  
Pierryves Padey ◽  
Kyriaki Goulouti ◽  
Guy Wagner ◽  
Blaise Périsset ◽  
Sébastien Lasvaux

The performance gap, defined as the difference between the measured and the calculated performance of energy-efficient buildings, has long been identified as a major issue in the building domain. The present study aims to better understand the performance gap in high-energy performance buildings in Switzerland, in an ex-post evaluation. For an energy-efficient building, the measured heating demand, collected through a four-year measurement campaign was compared to the calculated one and the results showed that the latter underestimates the real heating demand by a factor of two. As a way to reduce the performance gap, a probabilistic framework was proposed so that the different uncertainties of the model could be considered. By comparing the mean of the probabilistic heating demand to the measured one, it was shown that the performance gap was between 20–30% for the examined period. Through a sensitivity analysis, the active air flow and the shading factor were identified as the most influential parameters on the uncertainty of the heating demand, meaning that their wrong adjustment, in reality, or in the simulations, would increase the performance gap.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qadeer Ali ◽  
Muhammad Jamaluddin Thaheem ◽  
Fahim Ullah ◽  
Samad M. E. Sepasgozar

Rising demand and limited production of electricity are instrumental in spreading the awareness of cautious energy use, leading to the global demand for energy-efficient buildings. This compels the construction industry to smartly design and effectively construct these buildings to ensure energy performance as per design expectations. However, the research tells a different tale: energy-efficient buildings have performance issues. Among several reasons behind the energy performance gap, occupant behavior is critical. The occupant behavior is dynamic and changes over time under formal and informal influences, but the traditional energy simulation programs assume it as static throughout the occupancy. Effective behavioral interventions can lead to optimized energy use. To find out the energy-saving potential based on simulated modified behavior, this study gathers primary building and occupant data from three energy-efficient office buildings in major cities of Pakistan and categorizes the occupants into high, medium, and low energy consumers. Additionally, agent-based modeling simulates the change in occupant behavior under the direct and indirect interventions over a three-year period. Finally, energy savings are quantified to highlight a 25.4% potential over the simulation period. This is a unique attempt at quantifying the potential impact on energy usage due to behavior modification which will help facility managers to plan and execute necessary interventions and software experts to develop effective tools to model the dynamic usage behavior. This will also help policymakers in devising subtle but effective behavior training strategies to reduce energy usage. Such behavioral retrofitting comes at a much lower cost than the physical or technological retrofit options to achieve the same purpose and this study establishes the foundation for it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 119-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Tomczak ◽  
O. Kinash

AbstractThe article raised issues related to the design and execution of low-energy objects in Polish conditions. Based on the designed single-family house, adapted to the requirements of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (“NF40” standard), the tools to assist investment decisions by investors were shown. An economic analysis and a multi-criteria analysis were performed using AHP method which had provided an answer to the question whether it is worthwhile to bear higher investment costs in order to adjust to the standards of energy-efficient buildings that fulfil a minimal energy consumption's requirements contained in Polish law. In addition, the variant of object that had optimal characteristics due to the different preferences of investors was indicated. This paper includes analysis and observations on the attempts to unify that part of the building sector, which so far is considered to be personalized, and objects in accordance with the corresponding idea are designed as “custom-made”.


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