A Study of Hot Climate Low-Cost Low-Energy Eco-Friendly Building Envelope with Embedded Phase Change Material

The generation and use of energy are significant contributors to CO2 emissions. Globally, approximately 30% to 40% of all energy consumption can be directly or indirectly linked to buildings. Nearly half of energy usage in buildings is linked to maintaining the thermal comfort of the inhabitants. Therefore, finding solutions that are not only technically but also economically feasible is of utmost importance. Though much research has been conducted to address this issue, most solutions are still costly for developing countries to implement practically. This study endeavors to find a less expensive yet straightforward methodology to achieve thermal comfort while conserving energy. This study takes a broader view of multiple habitat-related CO2 emission issues in developing regions and describes a hybrid solution to address them. New technologies and innovative concepts are being globally examined to benefit from the considerable potential of PCMs and their role in thermal energy storage (TES) applications for buildings. The current study numerically investigates the thermal response of a hybrid building envelope consisting of PCM and local organic waste materials for low-cost low-energy buildings. The local organic waste materials used are those whose disposal is usually done by burning, resulting in an immense amount of greenhouse gases. In the first phase, different waste materials are characterized to determine their thermophysical properties. In the second phase, a low-cost, commonly available PCM calcium chloride hexahydrate, CaCl2·6H2O, is integrated with a brick and corn husk wall to enhance the thermal storage in the building envelope to minimize energy consumption. Temperature distribution plots are primarily used for analysis. The results show a marked improvement in thermal comfort by maintaining a maximum indoor temperature of 27 °C when construction is performed with a 6% corn husk composite material embedded with the PCM, while under similar conditions, the standard brick construction maintained a 31 °C indoor temperature. It is concluded that the integration of the PCM layer with the corn husk wall provides an adequate solution for low-cost and low-energy buildings.

Download Full-text

ENERGY BALANCE OF A LOW ENERGY HOUSE

Journal of Civil Engineering and Management ◽

10.3846/13923730.2012.691107 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 369-377 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Rasa Džiugaitė-Tumėnienė ◽

Vidmantas Jankauskas ◽

Violeta Motuzienė

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Energy Systems ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Low Energy ◽

The European Union ◽

Consumption Data ◽

Low Energy Buildings

Currently, such topics as improvement of energy efficiency of buildings and energy systems, development of sustainable building concepts, and promotion of renewable energy sources are in the focus of attention. The energy efficiency targets of the European Union are based on information regarding energy consumed by buildings. The amount of energy consumed by buildings depends on the main influencing factors (namely, climate parameters, building envelope, energy systems, building operation and maintenance, activities and behaviour of occupants), which have to be considered in order to identify energy efficiency potentials and opportunities. The article aims to investigate the total amount of energy consumed by a low energy house, built in Lithuania, using a combination of energy consumption data received from a simulation and measured energy consumption data. The energy performance analysis in the low energy house revealed some factors that have the main influence on the total figures of energy consumed by the house. The identified significant factors were used to find the optimal solutions for the design of low energy buildings.

Download Full-text

Online Implementation of a Soft Actor-Critic Agent to Enhance Indoor Temperature Control and Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14040997 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 997

Author(s):

Davide Coraci ◽

Silvio Brandi ◽

Marco Savino Piscitelli ◽

Alfonso Capozzoli

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Temperature Control ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Heating System ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Indoor Temperature ◽

Model Free ◽

Occupancy Patterns ◽

Online Implementation ◽

Indoor Temperature Control

Recently, a growing interest has been observed in HVAC control systems based on Artificial Intelligence, to improve comfort conditions while avoiding unnecessary energy consumption. In this work, a model-free algorithm belonging to the Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) class, Soft Actor-Critic, was implemented to control the supply water temperature to radiant terminal units of a heating system serving an office building. The controller was trained online, and a preliminary sensitivity analysis on hyperparameters was performed to assess their influence on the agent performance. The DRL agent with the best performance was compared to a rule-based controller assumed as a baseline during a three-month heating season. The DRL controller outperformed the baseline after two weeks of deployment, with an overall performance improvement related to control of indoor temperature conditions. Moreover, the adaptability of the DRL agent was tested for various control scenarios, simulating changes of external weather conditions, indoor temperature setpoint, building envelope features and occupancy patterns. The agent dynamically deployed, despite a slight increase in energy consumption, led to an improvement of indoor temperature control, reducing the cumulative sum of temperature violations on average for all scenarios by 75% and 48% compared to the baseline and statically deployed agent respectively.

Download Full-text

Evaluation of a Wireless Sensor Network with Low Cost and Low Energy Consumption for Fire Detection and Monitoring

Fire Technology ◽

10.1007/s10694-014-0439-9 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 51 (4) ◽

pp. 971-993 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Xavier Silvani ◽

Frédéric Morandini ◽

Eric Innocenti ◽

Sylvestre Peres

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Wireless Sensor Network ◽

Sensor Network ◽

Low Cost ◽

Fire Detection ◽

Low Energy ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Low Energy Consumption

Download Full-text

Reducing Energy Consumption Strategies in University Buildings in Egypt

The Academic Research Community Publication ◽

10.21625/archive.v2i3.351 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 112

Author(s):

Amal Ahmed Abdou ◽

Iman Osama Abd El Gwad ◽

Ayman Alsayed Altaher Mahmoud

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

High Performance ◽

Low Cost ◽

Integrated Design ◽

Design Strategy ◽

Low Energy ◽

Main Concern ◽

University Buildings ◽

Low Performance ◽

Consumption Strategies

Egyptian universities had the most powerful buildings that encourage sustainable development. Sustaining university buildings had been the main concern, thus the development focused on different aspects (social, sociological, bio-life, physical, healthy surroundings, etc.). In recent times, the main problem facing university buildings has been the high consumption of energy despite the low performance. This problem affected the interior areas and spaces used by the majority of students. The issue hindered the learning environment—which should be designed to facilitate high academic performance—from achieving its purpose. Fixing the problem required finding the errors applied in the planning policy, in order to integrate low energy consumption with high performance. This paper analyzes the design strategy, low energy design strategy, and its analysis systems in order to integrate them with the analysis of four case studies in comparative methodology. This approach helps in achieving effective observation to implement principles, policy, criteria, and strategies. The method of the paper shall help with coming up with an efficient vision to create the integrated design strategy for constructing university buildings in Egypt. The solution is characterized by low-cost energy consumption that is applicable to the conditions in Egypt and is in synchronization with sustainability as a whole vision.

Download Full-text

Collecting Malware in Swiss German University with Low Energy and Cost Computer

Journal of Applied Information, Communication and Technology ◽

10.33555/ejaict.v5i2.57 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 85-91

Author(s):

Mario Marcello

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Low Cost ◽

Low Energy ◽

Raspberry Pi ◽

Swiss German ◽

Low Energy Consumption

The malware spreads massively in Indonesia. The security in Information Technology doesn’t seem to become a top priority for Indonesian. The use of pirated software is still high, although it is the biggest threat and entrance for the malwares to attacks. This paper shows how to collect a spreading malware in a system to know the malware trends that exist. So, the owner may know the malware trends inside his system and he can countermeasure the attacks. To collect the malwares, I use the Dionaea, the honeypot to collect malware and implement it to Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is a small, low cost and low energy consumption computer. By using Raspberry Pi to collect malware, we can minimize budget, save the energy and space.

Download Full-text

Determination of Optimum Envelope of Religious Buildings in Terms of Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption: Mosque Cases

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14206597 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (20) ◽

pp. 6597

Author(s):

Ahmet Bircan Atmaca ◽

Gülay Zorer Gedik ◽

Andreas Wagner

Keyword(s):

Thermal Properties ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Thermal Comfort ◽

Thermal Insulation ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Gain Factor ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Comfort Level ◽

Humid Climate ◽

Savings Rate

Mosques are quite different from other building types in terms of occupant type and usage schedule. For this reason, they should be evaluated differently from other building types in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption. It is difficult and probably not even necessary to create homogeneous thermal comfort in mosques’ entire usage area, which has large volumes and various areas for different activities. Nevertheless, energy consumption should be at a minimum level. In order to ensure that mosques are minimally affected by outdoor climatic changes, the improvement of the properties of the building envelope should have the highest priority. These optimal properties of the building envelope have to be in line with thermal comfort in mosques. The proposed method will be a guide for designers and occupants in the design process of new mosques or the use of existing mosques. The effect of the thermal properties of the building envelope on energy consumption was investigated to ensure optimum energy consumption together with an acceptable thermal comfort level. For this purpose, a parametric simulation study of the mosques was conducted by varying optical and thermal properties of the building envelope for a temperature humid climate zone. The simulation results were analyzed and evaluated according to current standards, and an appropriate envelope was determined. The results show that thermal insulation improvements in the roof dome of buildings with a large volume contributed more to energy savings than in walls and foundations. The use of double or triple glazing in transparent areas is an issue that should be considered together with the solar energy gain factor. Additionally, an increasing thickness of thermal insulation in the building envelope contributed positively to energy savings. However, the energy savings rate decreased after a certain thickness. The proposed building envelope achieved a 33% energy savings compared to the base scenario.

Download Full-text

Physical Wellbeing Monitoring Employing Non-Invasive Low-Cost and Low-Energy Sensor Socks

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18092822 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 2822 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Laura García ◽

Lorena Parra ◽

Jose Jimenez ◽

Jaime Lloret

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Monitoring System ◽

Low Cost ◽

Wearable Devices ◽

Initial Energy ◽

Low Energy ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Energy Sensor ◽

Physical Wellbeing ◽

Evaluation Module

Determining and improving the wellbeing of people is one of the priorities of the OECD countries. Nowadays many sensors allow monitoring different parameters in regard to the wellbeing of people. These sensors can be deployed in smartphones, clothes or accessories like watches. Many studies have been performed on wearable devices that monitor certain aspects of the health of people, especially for specific diseases. In this paper, we propose a non-invasive low-cost and low-energy physical wellbeing monitoring system that provides a wellness score based on the obtained data. We present the architecture of the system and the disposition of the sensors on the sock. The algorithm of the system is presented as well. The wellness threshold evaluation module allows determining if the monitored parameter is within healthy ranges. The message forwarding module allows decreasing the energy consumption of the system by detecting the presence of alerts or changes in the data. Finally, a simulation was performed in order to determine the energy consumption of the system. Results show that our algorithm allows saving 44.9% of the initial energy in 10,000 min for healthy people.

Download Full-text

Thermal Bridges Minimizing through Typical Details in Low Energy Designing

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.899.62 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 899 ◽

pp. 62-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rastislav Ingeli ◽

Boris Vavrovič ◽

Miroslav Čekon

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Thermal Insulation ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Building Energy ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Low Energy ◽

Building Energy Efficiency ◽

Low Energy Buildings ◽

Thermal Bridges ◽

The Impact

Energy demand reduction in buildings is an important measure to achieve climate change mitigation. It is essential to minimize heat losses in designing phase in accordance of building energy efficiency. For building energy efficiency in a mild climate zone, a large part of the heating demand is caused by transmission losses through the building envelope. Building envelopes with high thermal resistance are typical for low-energy buildings in general. In this sense thermal bridges impact increases by using of greater thickness of thermal insulation. This paper is focused on thermal bridges minimizing through typical system details in buildings. The impact of thermal bridges was studied by comparative calculations for a case study of building with different amounts of thermal insulation. The calculated results represent a percentage distribution of heat loss through typical building components in correlation of various thicknesses of their thermal insulations.

Download Full-text

Technical Principle and Working Properties of Sludge Dredging by Airlift Water Jet

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.683.585 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 683 ◽

pp. 585-588

Author(s):

Xiao Feng Yang ◽

Yong Kang ◽

Xiao Chuan Wang ◽

Deng Li ◽

Zhen Fang Liao

Keyword(s):

Numerical Simulation ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Structure Analysis ◽

Low Cost ◽

Volume Ratio ◽

Water Jet ◽

Low Energy ◽

Transport Capacity ◽

Bubble Volume ◽

Low Energy Consumption

The sludge in rivers, dams and municipal facilities have caused increasing attentions. The airlift water jet can make density difference between sludge and the environment, and make the sludge float automatically. A kind of airlift water jet dredging system is designed and its work properties are analyzed. Mechanical structure analysis shows that the airlift water jet dredging device is low energy consumption and easy of maintenance with low cost. Numerical Simulation shows that the bubble volume ratio will affect the flow performance: the bigger bubble volume ratio will generate higher transport capacity.

Download Full-text

Indoor Air Quality Campaign in an Occupied Low-Energy House with a High Level of Spatial and Temporal Discretization

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app112411789 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (24) ◽

pp. 11789

Author(s):

Najwa Kanama ◽

Michel Ondarts ◽

Gaëlle Guyot ◽

Jonathan Outin ◽

Evelyne Gonze

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Low Cost ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Low Energy ◽

Health Impacts ◽

Cumulative Exposure ◽

Temporal Discretization ◽

Low Energy Buildings

Background and gaps. The topic of indoor air quality (IAQ) in low-energy buildings has received increasing interest over the past few years. Often based on two measurement points and on passive measurements over one week, IAQ studies are struggling to allow the calculation of pollutants exposure. Objectives. We would like to improve the evaluation of the health impacts, through measurements able to estimate the exposure of the occupants. Methodology. This article presents detailed IAQ measurements taken in an energy-efficient occupied house in France. Two campaigns were conducted in winter and spring. Total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), formaldehyde, the particle numbers and PM2.5, carbon dioxide (CO2), relative humidity (RH), temperature (T), ventilation airflows, and weather conditions were dynamically measured in several points. Laboratory and low-cost devices were used, and an inter-comparison was carried out for them. A survey was conducted to record all the daily activities of the inhabitants. IAQ performance indicators based on the different pollutants were calculated. Results. PM2.5 cumulative exposure did not exceed the threshold available in the literature. Formaldehyde concentrations were high, in the kitchen, where the average concentrations exceeded the threshold. However, the formaldehyde cumulative exposure of the occupants did not exceed the threshold. TVOC concentrations were found to reach the threshold. With these measurements performed with high spatial and temporal discretization, we showed that such detailed data allow for a better-quality health impacts assessment and for a better understanding of the transport of pollutants between rooms.

Download Full-text