scholarly journals The State-of-the-Art of Sensors and Environmental Monitoring Technologies in Buildings

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
pp. 3648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Hayat ◽  
Thomas Griffiths ◽  
Desmond Brennan ◽  
Richard P. Lewis ◽  
Michael Barclay ◽  
...  

Building energy consumption accounts for 30%–45% of the global energy demand. With an ever-increasing world population, it has now become essential to minimize the energy consumption for the future of the environment. One of the most crucial aspects in this regard is the utilization of sensing and environmental monitoring technologies in buildings as these technologies provide stakeholders, such as owners, designers, managers, and occupants, with important information regarding the energy performance, safety and cost-effectiveness of the building. With the global sensors market value predicted to exceed $190 billion by 2021 and the number of sensors deployed worldwide forecasted to reach the ‘1 Trillion’ mark by 2025, a state-of-the-art review of various commercially-viable sensor devices and the wide range of communication technologies that complement them is highly desirable. This paper provides an insight into various sensing and environmental monitoring technologies commonly deployed in buildings by surveying different sensor technologies, wired and wireless communication technologies, and the key selection parameters and strategies for optimal sensor placement. In addition, we review the key characteristics and limitations of the most prominent battery technologies in use today, different energy harvesting sources and commercial off-the-shelf solutions, and various challenges and future perspectives associated with the application of sensing and environmental monitoring technologies within buildings.

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Szul ◽  
Stanisław Kokoszka

In many regions, the heat used for space heating is a basic item in the energy balance of a building and significantly affects its operating costs. The accuracy of the assessment of heat consumption in an existing building and the determination of the main components of heat loss depends to a large extent on whether the energy efficiency improvement targets set in the thermal upgrading project are achieved. A frequent problem in the case of energy calculations is the lack of complete architectural and construction documentation of the analyzed objects. Therefore, there is a need to search for methods that will be suitable for a quick technical analysis of measures taken to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings. These methods should have satisfactory results in predicting energy consumption where the input is limited, inaccurate, or uncertain. Therefore, the aim of this work was to test the usefulness of a model based on Rough Set Theory (RST) for estimating the thermal energy consumption of buildings undergoing an energy renovation. The research was carried out on a group of 109 thermally improved residential buildings, for which energy performance was based on actual energy consumption before and after thermal modernization. Specific sets of important variables characterizing the examined buildings were distinguished. The groups of variables were used to estimate energy consumption in such a way as to obtain a compromise between the effort of obtaining them and the quality of the forecast. This has allowed the construction of a prediction model that allows the use of a fast, relatively simple procedure to estimate the final energy demand rate for heating buildings.


Author(s):  
Jian Cao ◽  
Zhong Wang ◽  
Neil Krishnan ◽  
Anthony Michael Swanson

In the last ten years, miniaturization technologies have revolutionized product design and have lead to many innovative applications in the automotive industry, healthcare, environmental monitoring, industrial processing, energy consumption, defense, etc. Here, the current state-of-the-art in mesoforming (forming of metals in the scale of 0.1 mm to several millimeters) is reviewed, followed by our preliminary investigation of one mesoforming example.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-268
Author(s):  
Guillermo Valencia ◽  
Katherin Nahomy Rodriguez ◽  
Gloria Raquel Torregroza Matos ◽  
Carlos Acevedo ◽  
Jorge Duarte Forero

Given the growth in energy demand, the limited energy resources, and the high environmental impact of energy generation from fossil fuels, it is vital to find methods to obtain save energy costs in different sectors, such as residential, industrial, transportation sector, and domestic. This paper presents a methodology that allows the implementation of an energy management system following the guidelines of the ISO 50001 standard. A gap analysis was performed to determine the position of the organization with respect to the requirements of the standard, and the next step was the inspection of the plant to find opportunities for improvement that would lead to energy optimization. From the results, six equipment was the cause of the 82% of the energy consumption in the production process, and some recommendation was proposed with the aim to optimize energy consumption. A methodology is proposed for the standard implementation, which can be implemented by different organizations from different fields to achieve savings in energy costs in the plant. Some relevant actions to improve the energy performance of the plant were proposed, such as the optimization of the compressed air system, the reduction of potential numbers of leakage, and the reduction of the working pressure of the system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Kawar T. Salih

The power shortage is one of the major problems in developing countries. Kurdistan Region of Iraq suffers from this issue, like other developing countries. Especially, after the economy crises that has started in 2014. However, all its efforts for tackling this challenge has been in providing more energy supply stations and more fuel provision. Few studies have been found in the region that seek the relation between the quality of buildings and energy consumption. It is questioned if the building sector in Kurdistan is well managed and environmentally sufficient to consume minimum amount of energy since it is the largest energy consuming sector. This research will seek an alternative to decrease the energy demand in buildings instead of expanding the energy sector. This could be achieved by evaluating the quality of building sector environmentally and improving it. Providing guidelines for building’s thermal regulations, passive building design and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings by renewal means could be alternative strategies for lowering the energy consumption. Theoretical and numerical research approach have been taken in to account for finding the answer through a case study and comparative analysis. A variation of 21-29% of power consumption can be observed between buildings that have not considered energy efficiency criteria in their design and those who reflected them more in the design.


ICR Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-422
Author(s):  
Shahino Mah Abdullah

Energy plays an important role in our lives. It comes in several forms which can be utilised to keep people warm during cold weather, provide foods, improve transportation, and increase productivity. When energy is utilised efficiently, it brings great comfort to our lives. However, energy consumption has been increasing in recent decades as the world population keeps growing. According to a United Nation (UN) report, the current world population of 7.4 billion is projected to increase by 1 billion over the next 10 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Besides population, the standards of living for many people in developing countries is increasing, which in turn results in growing energy demand.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Borowski ◽  
Piotr Mazur ◽  
Sławosz Kleszcz ◽  
Klaudia Zwolińska

The energy consumption of buildings is very important for both economic and environmental reasons. Newly built buildings are characterized by higher insulation and airtightness of the building envelope, and are additionally equipped with technologies that minimize energy consumption in order to meet legal requirements. In existing buildings, the modernization process should be properly planned, taking into account available technologies and implementation possibilities. Hotel buildings are characterized by a large variability of energy demand, both on a daily and a yearly basis. Monitoring systems, therefore, provide the necessary information needed for proper energy management in the building. This article presents an energy analysis of the Turówka hotel located in Wieliczka (southern Poland). The historical hotel facility is being modernized as part of the project to adapt the building to the requirements of a sustainable building. The modernization proposal includes a trigeneration system with a multifunctional reverse regenerator and control module using neural algorithms. The main purpose is to improve the energy efficiency of the building and adapt it to the requirements of low-energy buildings. The implementation of a monitoring system enables energy consumption to be reduced and improves the energy performance of the building, especially through using energy management systems and control modules. The proposed retrofit solution considers the high energy consumption, structure of the energy demand, and limits of retrofit intervention on façades.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cirrincione ◽  
Maria La Gennusa ◽  
Giorgia Peri ◽  
Gianfranco Rizzo ◽  
Gianluca Scaccianoce ◽  
...  

In the line of pursuing better energy efficiency in human activities that would result in a more sustainable utilization of resources, the building sector plays a relevant role, being responsible for almost 40% of both energy consumption and the release of pollutant substances in the atmosphere. For this purpose, techniques aimed at improving the energy performances of buildings’ envelopes are of paramount importance. Among them, green roofs are becoming increasingly popular due to their capability of reducing the (electric) energy needs for (summer) climatization of buildings, hence also positively affecting the indoor comfort levels for the occupants. Clearly, reliable tools for the modelling of these envelope components are needed, requiring the availability of suitable field data. Starting with the results of a case study designed to estimate how the adoption of green roofs on a Sicilian building could positively affect its energy performance, this paper shows the impact of this technology on indoor comfort and energy consumption, as well as on the reduction of direct and indirect CO2 emissions related to the climatization of the building. Specifically, the ceiling surface temperatures of some rooms located underneath six different types of green roofs were monitored. Subsequently, the obtained data were used as input for one of the most widely used simulation models, i.e., EnergyPlus, to evaluate the indoor comfort levels and the achievable energy demand savings of the building involved. From these field analyses, green roofs were shown to contribute to the mitigation of the indoor air temperatures, thus producing an improvement of the comfort conditions, especially in summer conditions, despite some worsening during transition periods seeming to arise.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5347
Author(s):  
José Luis Fuentes-Bargues ◽  
José-Luis Vivancos ◽  
Pablo Ferrer-Gisbert ◽  
Miguel Ángel Gimeno-Guillem

The design of near zero energy offices is a priority, which involves looking to achieve designs which minimise energy consumption and balance energy requirements with an increase in the installation and consumption of renewable energy. In light of this, some authors have used computer software to achieve simulations of the energy behaviour of buildings. Other studies based on regulatory systems which classify and label energy use also generally make their assessments through the use of software. In Spain, there is an authorised procedure for certifying the energy performance of buildings, and software (LIDER-CALENER unified tool) which is used to demonstrate compliance of the performance of buildings both from the point of view of energy demand and energy consumption. The aim of this study is to analyse the energy behaviour of an office building and the variability of the same using the software in terms of the following variables: climate zone, building orientation and certain surrounding wall types and encasements typical of this type of construction.


Author(s):  
Franklin Chiu ◽  
Moncef Krarti

Abstract The paper summarizes the results of a systematic and comprehensive analysis to investigate the impacts of inadequate sizing air conditioning (AC) systems on the overall energy consumption of medium and large office buildings located in representative US cities. The effects of proper sizing on the overall and disaggregated AC systems are evaluated in terms of energy consumption, peak demand, equipment run-time, and indoor thermal comfort. The presented analysis covers the performance a wide range of AC equipment components that serve US office buildings including packaged rooftop units as well as central cooling plants. The analysis results indicate that oversizing penalties can be significant on the annual energy consumption and electrical peak demand as well as capital costs for both medium and large office buildings. In particular, the reliance on simplified calculation methods and rules-of-thumb to determine equipment capacities can lead to significantly oversizing AC systems for office buildings in the vast majority of US climates and can result in increases of annual energy consumption and electrical peak demand of up to 29%. Moreover, oversizing increases capital costs required for air conditioning office buildings and extends cycling periods and associated structural stresses and failures of AC equipment.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Artur Miszczuk ◽  
Dariusz Heim

Airtightness is nowadays one of the physical parameters which determine overall building energy performance. In a wide range of states, the upper limit for air change rate at a Pa (na), air permeability rate at a Pa (qa), or specific leakage rate at a Pa (wa) is determined by the formal regulations. It should be highlighted that airtightness requirements are mainly the same around the world, disregarding any site and climatic conditions. The main goal of the presented work was to reveal the effect of individual location and surrounding infiltration rate and heat demand. The analyses were done using numerical techniques and computational models of the three buildings developed and calibrated based on the blower door test results. The compared buildings characterize by a similar geometry but differ in the air change rate at 50 Pa (n50). Analyses done for different locations and levels of sheltering by surrounding elements allow the determination of the real effect of local conditions. The obtained differences in energy demand between two locations from the same climatic zone were from 70% to 90%, depending on the airtightness of the buildings. Considering different sheltered conditions, the differences for the same location can be even 200%. The obtained results allowed for the formulation of the general conclusion that building location and level of exposure could be considered in future airtightness regulations.


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