scholarly journals ENERGY BALANCE OF A LOW ENERGY HOUSE

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Džiugaitė-Tumėnienė ◽  
Vidmantas Jankauskas ◽  
Violeta Motuzienė

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.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4209
Author(s):  
Rita Remeikienė ◽  
Ligita Gasparėnienė ◽  
Aleksandra Fedajev ◽  
Marek Szarucki ◽  
Marija Đekić ◽  
...  

The main goal of setting energy efficiency priorities is to find ways to reduce energy consumption without harming consumers and the environment. The renovation of buildings can be considered one of the main aspects of energy efficiency in the European Union (EU). In the EU, only 5% of the renovation projects have been able to yield energy-saving at the deep renovation level. No other study has thus far ranked the EU member states according to achieved results in terms of increased usage in renewable sources, a decrease in energy usage and import, and reduction in harmful gas emissions due to energy usage. The main purpose of this article is to perform a comparative analysis of EU economies according to selected indicators related to the usage of renewable resources, energy efficiency, and emissions of harmful gasses as a result of energy usage. The methodological contribution of our study is related to developing a complex and robust research method for investment efficiency assessment allowing the study of three groups of indicators related to the usage of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and ecological aspects of energy. It was based on the PROMETHEE II method and allows testing it in other time periods, as well as modifying it for research purposes. The EU member states were categorized by such criteria as energy from renewables and biofuels, final energy consumption from renewables and biofuels, gross electricity generation from renewables and biofuels and import dependency, and usage of renewables and biofuels for heating and cooling. The results of energy per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions per million inhabitants (ECO2), energy per capita, the share of CO2 emissions from public electricity, and heat production from total CO2 emissions revealed that Latvia, Sweden, Portugal, Croatia, Austria, Lithuania, Romania, Denmark, and Finland are the nine most advanced countries in the area under consideration. In the group of the most advanced countries, energy consumption from renewables and biofuels is higher than the EU average.


2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 02010
Author(s):  
Giada Romano ◽  
Elisa Pennacchia ◽  
Sofia Agostinelli

Buildings with architectural constraints and recognized historical values require a careful design process, aiming to combine the needs of conservation and the adaptation of the buildings to the modern use and its accessibility. The feasible interventions consist in improving the energy performance of the building envelope, in inserting efficient technological systems and using renewable energy sources where possible. The compatibility between the architectural constraints of the building and its more sustainable future use represents a crucial challenge. This work presents the interventions designed and realized on a small villa located in the Prati district, in Rome. Starting from the requests of the client, the primary objective was to create a comfortable house both in the winter and in the summer season, with widespread use of automation systems for managing the utilities. In line with the current energy scenario, the interventions were oriented to energy efficiency, the reduction of polluting emissions, the electrification of utilities and the use of renewable energy sources. The proposed solutions showed high gains in terms of energy saving even if the changes to the building envelope were limited by the desire to preserve the values of the cultural heritage. Therefore, a virtuous refurbishment can effectively respond to current energy efficiency goals.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2817
Author(s):  
Valeria Annibaldi ◽  
Federica Cucchiella ◽  
Marianna Rotilio

In the European Union, about 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions come from buildings; therefore, the improvement of their energy performance is a strongly focused issue. In particular, the energy efficiency of the building envelope is a very important element to pay attention to. Many studies have been conducted on this field of research, and the study illustrated in this paper also belongs to this topic. In particular, this article presents a multidisciplinary method to find sustainable solutions for energy efficiency in Italian climatic contexts using the Life Cycle Cost Analysis approach. In detail, this paper defines the reference scenario and then deepens the methodology used to determine the economically optimal thickness of a specific insulating material—hemp fiber—applied to a specific type of wall—uninsulated cavity walls made of hollow bricks, which are very widespread in Italy. The analysis is developed in relation to three different regions—Piedmont, Abruzzo, and Campania. The results show that the economically optimal thickness is different for each region analyzed and demonstrates how energy efficiency strategies must be carefully weighed according to the specific conditions of the site.


2014 ◽  
Vol 899 ◽  
pp. 62-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rastislav Ingeli ◽  
Boris Vavrovič ◽  
Miroslav Čekon

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-105
Author(s):  
Marcin Wysokiński ◽  
Magdalena Golonko ◽  
Paulina Trębska ◽  
Arkadiusz Gromada ◽  
Qi Jun Jiang

Modern agriculture is dependent on external energy sources. Non-renewable energy sources play a dominant role, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and, as a consequence, to environmental degradation. Therefore, it becomes obvious to strive to improve energy efficiency and change the structure of its sources. One of the main research goals was to determine the economic and energy efficiency of agriculture in EU countries and assess its energy consumption by analysing energy consumption per employee or 1 ha of utilized agricultural area. The work analyses changes in energy consumption in agriculture of the European Union and its members. Eurostat data was used for the analysis.


Author(s):  
Marta Skiba ◽  
Natalia Rzeszowska

Climate change and sustainable energy use is one of the five long-term objectives of the European Union. The first stage of the activities involving the implementation of this task is to reduce energy consumption of buildings to a minimum by 2020 and, in the case of public buildings by 2019. The purpose of this article is a search for the optimal way of bringing the energy performance of an existing school to a level that enables implementation of the objectives of the European Union energy policy. An analysis of the current condition of the existing school building has been carried out and options of its deep thermal upgrading has been proposed to adjust each parameter the energy performance to current guidelines specified in the technical conditions. One of the possible ways to improve the energy efficiency of the school is the use of renewable energy sources as a means of improving energy characteristics in terms of primary energy PE, the other one - optimization of renovation spending.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Álvarez ◽  
Juan Ramón Rabuñal ◽  
Dolores García-Vidaurrázaga ◽  
Alberto Alvarellos ◽  
Alejandro Pazos

Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings is a strategic objective in the European Union, and it is the main reason why numerous studies have been carried out to evaluate and reduce energy consumption in the residential sector. The process of evaluation and qualification of the energy efficiency in existing buildings should contain an analysis of the thermal behavior of the building envelope. To determine this thermal behavior and its representative parameters, we usually have to use destructive auscultation techniques in order to determine the composition of the different layers of the envelope. In this work, we present a nondestructive, fast, and cheap technique based on artificial neural network (ANN) models that predict the energy performance of a house, given some of its characteristics. The models were created using a dataset of buildings of different typologies and uses, located in the northern area of Spain. In this dataset, the models are able to predict the U-opaque value of a building with a correlation coefficient of 0.967 with the real U-opaque measured value for the same building.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 03052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Khalaf ◽  
Touraj Ashrafian ◽  
Cem Demirci

The energy conversations methods and techniques take a significant role in the energy performance of the buildings. Façade and shading systems are in continuous development, and recent studies are showing the importance of implementation of such systems to reduce energy consumption and enhance the effectiveness of the building performance. School buildings are mostly being used during daytime, hence, require active use of sunlight. A measure that is taken on a school building envelope can prevent overheating and overcooling and reduce the heating and cooling energy consumption but at the same time can increase the lighting energy consumption vice versa. Thus, it is necessary to optimise the energy required for climatisation of a building with lighting energy demand. The main aim of the paper is to provide analysis for façade and shading systems applied to a school building and study the effectiveness of it on energy consumption and conservation. The case study for this paper is a typical building project designed to be located in Istanbul, Turkey and has a traditional façade system which is clear double layer windows without any shading devices. The analyses of the energy efficiency of these systems will be presented. The different glazing types and shading systems alternatives will show the most efficient one to be used as some optimised alternatives for the systems. Findings indicate that proper glazing and shading systems can reduce the needed energy for heating and lightening and thus total energy consumption of a school building significantly.


2019 ◽  
Vol 887 ◽  
pp. 335-343
Author(s):  
Nazanin Moazzen ◽  
Mustafa Erkan Karaguler ◽  
Touraj Ashrafian

Energy efficiency has become a crucial part of human life, which has an adverse impact on the social and economic development of any country. In Turkey, it is a critical issue especially in the construction sector due to increase in the dependency on the fuel demands. The energy consumption, which is used during the life cycle of a building, is a huge amount affected by the energy demand for material and building construction, HVAC and lighting systems, maintenance, equipment, and demolition. In general, the Life Cycle Energy (LCE) needs of the building can be summarised as the operational and embodied energy together with the energy use for demolition and recycling processes.Besides, schools alone are responsible for about 15% of the total energy consumption of the commercial building sector. To reduce the energy use and CO2 emission, the operational and embodied energy of the buildings must be minimised. Overall, it seems that choosing proper architectural measures for the envelope and using low emitting material can be a logical step for reducing operational and embodied energy consumptions.This paper is concentrated on the operating and embodied energy consumptions resulting from the application of different architectural measures through the building envelope. It proposes an educational building with low CO2 emission and proper energy performance in Turkey. To illustrate the method of the approach, this contribution illustrates a case study, which was performed on a representative schoold building in Istanbul, Turkey. Energy used for HVAC and lighting in the operating phase and the energy used for the manufacture of the materials are the most significant parts of embodied energy in the LCE analyses. This case study building’s primary energy consumption was calculated with the help of dynamic simulation tools, EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder. Then, different architectural energy efficiency measures were applied to the envelope of the case study building. Then, the influence of proposed actions on LCE consumption and Life Cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emissions were assessed according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method.


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