Improving Energy Savings of a Library Building through Mixed Mode Hybrid Ventilation

In Canada both residential and commercial buildings often require intensive ventilation and air-conditioning to maintain occupant’s thermal comfort and indoor air quality during the operational hours in cooling season. One way to reduce the cooling load consumption is utilizing mixed-mode cooling approach for space conditioning through natural ventilation. This paper presents the potential of control strategies for motorized window opening schedules to reduce the cooling load for a library building that was designed to be net-zero in terms of annual energy consumption (Canada’s first institutional net-zero energy building in Varennes (near Montreal), Québec, Canada). Even though the building is located in cold climate zone, the performance study shows that the building is cooling dominated i.e., it has more cooling load than heating load. To achieve net-zero energy building status, the potential of mixed-mode cooling approach (natural ventilation combined with mechanical ventilation) during the cooling season needs to be investigated. Preliminary simulation results show that the mixed-mode cooling could achieve 10 to 20% energy savings based on hybrid ventilation (HV) with fixed schedules, whereas 65% savings based on HV with variable schedules. This paper also shows 47% reduction of cooling load could be achieved by applying shading control strategies over without shading control strategies.

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The Use of Ground Source Heat Pump to Achieve a Net Zero Energy Building

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13133450 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 3450 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Diana D’Agostino ◽

Luigi Mele ◽

Francesco Minichiello ◽

Carlo Renno

Keyword(s):

Renewable Energy ◽

Heat Pump ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Ground Source Heat Pump ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Zero Energy Building ◽

Net Zero Energy ◽

Ground Source ◽

Net Zero Energy Building ◽

Net Zero

Currently, ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology is being studied, as the use of the ground as a source of renewable energy allows significant energy savings to be obtained. Therefore, it is useful to quantify how these savings help to achieve the energy balance of a Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) compared to an air source heat pump or a condensing boiler coupled to a chiller. This paper assesses how these savings affect the number of photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of a building to obtain the NZEB target. The study is conducted by dynamic simulation for a building used as a bed and breakfast, virtually placed in two Italian towns. The energy savings and reduction of CO2 emissions, the percentage of renewable energy used, and the photovoltaic surface needed are assessed. Finally, the discounted payback period is calculated. The results show that the GSHP, unlike the systems to which it is compared, allows an NZEB to be obtained by balancing yearly energy consumption with energy production systems which only use on-site renewable energy sources (by exploiting the surface available on the roof) for both of the climatic conditions considered. GSHP also allows primary energy requests equal to or less than 57 kWh/m2 to be obtained.

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