scholarly journals University training in energy efficiency to respond to European EPBD objectives. USE Efficiency Project

Author(s):  
Elisa Penalvo-López ◽  
F. Javier Cárcel-Carrasco ◽  
Joaquín Montañana-Romeu ◽  
Vicente León-Martínez

Energy efficiency in buildings is one of the main challenges in EU policy, since it is difficult to find common strategies and policies among Member States.  This article describes the USE Efficiency project, an initiative to create a common training framework for energy efficiency systems in buildings based on the Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD), through university actions. Universities and students are proposed as shining examples both for energy efficiency solutions and for energy efficiency behaviour.  Moreover, involving university students guarantees acting on closest future market players and most convincing actor in diffusion of public opinions. The project aims to improve energy efficiency in university buildings and to establish training program for students around European countries.  In fact, this activity involves 9 Universities (Technology Faculties and Faculties of Engineering) and 4 technological and market players from widespread countries in EU.Initially, a mapping of the methodologies used for evaluating energy efficiency at the different countries is carried out. Students are trained in energy efficiency methods and strategies, having real work experience implementing these Energy Performance Assessment (EPA) methodologies in their own buildings. The wide geographical coverage of the consortium allows an important crossover of methodologies to achieve technical results even to a professional and technological level. Then, the analysed buildings at each university are monitored in order to collect data, which are then used to plan solutions to improve energy performance of the university buildings. This paper describes this innovative training initiative, which involves students as main actors, working and interacting together with professors and technicians in order to improve energy efficiency in their educational centres.

Author(s):  
Álvaro Sicilia ◽  
Gonçal Costa ◽  
Leandro Madrazo

The assessment of building energy performance requires data from multiple domains (energy, architecture, planning, economy) and scales (building, district, city) to be processed with a diversity of applications used by experts from various fields. In order to properly assess the performance of the building stock, and to develop and apply the most effective energy efficiency measures, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive, holistic approach. In this chapter, three research projects are presented which apply Semantic Web technologies to create energy data models from multiple data sources and domains in order to support decision making in energy efficient building renovation projects: SEMANCO, OptEEmAL, and OPTIMUS. A final reflection on the results achieved in these projects and their links to ongoing research on digital twins is presented.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinh Manh Nguyen ◽  
Grace Ding ◽  
Göran Runeson

Over many decades, buildings have been recognised as a significant area contributing to the negative impacts on the environment over their lifecycle, accelerating climate change. In return, climate change also impacts on buildings with extreme heatwaves occurring more frequently and raising the earth’s temperature. The operation phase is the most extended period over a building’s lifespan. In this period, office buildings consume most energy and emit the highest amount of greenhouse gas pollution into the environment. Building upgrading to improve energy efficiency seems to be the best way to cut pollution as the existing building stock is massive. The paper presents an economic analysis of energy efficiency upgrade of buildings with a focus of office buildings. The paper identifies upgrading activities that are commonly undertaken to upgrade energy efficiency of office buildings and a case study of three office buildings in Sydney, Australia has been used to analyse the results. The upgrading activities can improve the energy performance of the case study buildings from 3 stars to 5 stars NABERS energy rating in compliance with the mandatory requirement in the Australian government’s energy policy. With the potential increase in energy price, energy efficiency upgrading will become more affordable, but currently, most of them, except solar panels and motion sensors show a negative return and would not be undertaken if they did not also contribute to higher rental income and an increased life span of the building. The upgrading discussed in the paper represent a potentially attractive alternative to demolition and building anew.


Rivista Tema ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (N.2 (2021)) ◽  
Author(s):  

According to the most recent provisions of the European Union, public buildings should play an exemplary role in sustainable development, adopting accelerated renovation rates aimed at improving their energy performance. Within this category, university buildings are a case study of great interest to experiment with new approaches for energy refurbishment and sustain-able management of architectural assets. The research presents a work-flow that originates from easily available input data, to reach the definition of a multi-scale spatial database, founded on the synergy between GIS (Geographic Information System) and BIM (Building Information Mod-eling) and defined according to standard and shared data models. Tools of this kind are crucial for promoting efficient information management building assets, by organizing data into navigable three-dimensional mod-els. In addition to the clear benefits associated with structured archiving, the provision of a relational database makes it possible to capitalize on the already available knowledge and to activate decision support tools for comparative assessment of transformation scenarios. In particular, the use of the cost-optimal methodology is proposed: it is a multi-criteria assess-ment aimed at identifying a set of optimal energy refurbishment solutions concerning energy consumption and management costs. The paper pres-ents the methodological framework and examines its application at differ-ent scales, from the case of the University of Pavia real estate asset to the application to a single building complex.


Management ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Valeriia Shcherbak

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. The general problem of the research is to define the essence of university energy efficiency as a special type of management of higher educational institution activity, increase of its energy autonomy level, scientific research on economical use of energy resources. University energy efficiency management is a special type of management, which is based on finding new opportunities to save energy resources based on innovations, ability to attract resources from a variety of sources.METHODS. Logic, system and statistical analysis, and multiple regression methods were used to conduct energy monitoring of HUB use of energy efficiency knowledge. The method of cluster analysis was used for energy audit and energy certification of university buildings. The average value, value of mode and median, indicators of variation (variation range, average linear deviation and variation coefficient) of daily electricity consumption of building No.4 of Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design were calculated, statistical analysis of obtained data was made.FINDINGS. Existing automatic energy accounting systems in university buildings were reviewed, a comparative table was compiled and the systems were ranked according to the sum of the scores obtained.The comparative analysis is carried out according to a set of criteria, including the unique features that distinguish these systems from each other. Based on the ranking results, the best model is selected and its advantages and disadvantages are identified. A simplified list of requirements and necessary functionality for the use of energy efficiency knowledge HUB for energy monitoring, energy audits and energy certification of university buildings has been developed.CONCLUSION. The obtained asymmetry coefficient made it possible to conclude that there is a right-hand asymmetry in the amount of energy used in the university. The selected main factors influencing energy consumption allowed to monitor the energy efficiency of the university in 2020. The use of multiple regression equation allowed to take into account the main factors of energy consumption, the extent of their influence, to compare the obtained results with the actual consumption, to build energy profiles and to carry out energy certification of all buildings of Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 115-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kęstutis Valančius ◽  
Rūta Mikučionienė

The paper presents the main ideas of the project considering the programme “Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) / Use Efficiency: Universities and Students for Energy Efficiency”. The article focuses on project goals, outputs, results and work programme. The methods of energy performance analysis and consumption benchmarks are described. Operational Rating method for 1st level analysis is preferred as the most reasonable. The principles of critical buildings, including some examples are identified. The obtained results of the 1st level audit of 9 EU universities are given.


2022 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
IRYNA SHVEDCHYKOVA ◽  
IRYNA SOLOSHYCH ◽  
SERHII SOLOSHYCH

Purpose. Determination of the role of scientific project activity in the formation of professional competencies of applicants for higher education in the field of electrical engineering.Methodology. The method of scientific projects is used to form the professional competencies of applicants for higher education in the specialty “Electricity, electrical engineering and electromechanics”.Findings. The implementation of project scientific activities using the base of engineering and scientific projects to improve energy efficiency motivates applicants for higher education to acquire new knowledge, creates the preconditions for the development and implementation of a modern educational program in the field of electrical engineering, contributes to the integration of a new structure into the university system – an energy-innovative hub of knowledge.Originality. In the work design methods and teaching technologies in the field of electrical engineering were further developed, which provide the use of the university base of scientific and engineering projects on energy efficiency and participation in the implementation of projects of applicants for higher education, which allows to form professional (scientific-research) competencies of applicants and to develop modern educational program.Practical value. The research results can be used to update educational programs in electrical engineering and to support the development of energy efficiency at the university when creating an energy-innovative knowledge hub that will allow organizing a complex interaction of the components “education – science (innovation) – business (entrepreneurship) – state”.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1874
Author(s):  
Rosaura Castrillón-Mendoza ◽  
Paul Andrés Manrique-Castillo ◽  
Javier M. Rey-Hernández ◽  
Francisco J. Rey-Martínez ◽  
Gabriel González-Palomino

The challenge of photovoltaic integration as the basis of an energy generation system has been achieved and carried out by the University Autónoma de Cali, Colombia, using an avant-garde energy technology model. This innovative sustainable campus not only fulfills its purpose as an advanced model of a renewable energy integration system, it also aims at environmental research, e-mobility, and energy efficiency. This paper describes how the university implements the technological innovation of integrating the photovoltaic system installation in a university campus, showing its relevant contribution to the electricity generation in the campus buildings by analyzing the different electrical parameters together with the system performance indicators. The implementation of technological solutions has allowed the generation of a quantity of renewable energy within the campus, supplying a sustainable energy response based on energy efficiency and carbon emissions savings. This innovation has been applied following the international standards for the evaluation of the energy performance of photovoltaic systems (IEC 61724), reaching very optimal values for this type of renewable solution. In this paper, the dynamic monitoring of several parameters has been carried out in order to analyze the energy performance, and an energy simulation has been used to achieve optimal solutions and to obtain the perfect modeling of the system. This study shows how to evaluate the performance of an integration of a photovoltaic system in a smart university campus, according to international standards. It achieves complete viability due to its economic savings, energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emission.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5843
Author(s):  
Mehdi Chihib ◽  
Esther Salmerón-Manzano ◽  
Mimoun Chourak ◽  
Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno ◽  
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos in many sectors and industries. In the energy sector, the demand has fallen drastically during the first quarter of 2020. The University of Almeria campus also declined the energy consumption in 2020, and through this study, we aimed to measure the impact of closing the campus on the energy use of its different facilities. We built our analysis based upon the dataset collected during the year 2020 and previous years; the patterns evolution through time allowed us to better understand the energy performance of each facility during this exceptional year. We rearranged the university buildings into categories, and all the categories reduced their electricity consumption share in comparison with the previous year of 2019. Furthermore, the portfolio of categories presented a wide range of ratios that varied from 56% to 98%, the library category was found to be the most influenced, and the research category was found to be the least influenced. This opened questions like why some facilities were influenced more than others? What can we do to reduce the energy use even more when the facilities are closed? The university buildings presented diverse structures that revealed differences in energy performance, which explained why the impact of such an event (COVID-19 pandemic) is not necessarily relevant to have equivalent variations. Nevertheless, some management deficiencies were detected, and some energy savings measures were proposed to achieve a minimum waste of energy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 265-279
Author(s):  
Marcos Antonio Leite Frandoloso ◽  
Eduardo Grala da Cunha ◽  
Albert Cuchí i Burgos

Sustainability has been increasingly incorporated as an essential life perspective into educational institutions as well as local communities. Universities play an important role into the society by debating theoretical contributions and implementing concrete actions. The present research was developed to evaluate a university’s energy efficiency by using the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain as a reference for University of Passo Fundo, Brazil. The reference values and index ratings obtained for energy performance, in the Universities’ building stock, were evaluated based on positive and negative features. The study identifies and assesses the evolution of incident factors towards energy consumption and its impacts on the hidropower generation, the main energy resource in Brazilian. Hence, the university can promote a reflection about its practices to develop feasible tools that contribute to sustainable measures. As a result, guidelines and strategies were proposed, not only on targeted evaluated buildings but also on the entire building stock. The research indicates the importance to follow well-defined guidelines in the decision-making process by institutions of higher education, in order to consider integrated sustainable practices. The methodology and findings contribute to improve and promote Education for Sustainability, which should encourage other similar universities to put sustainable projects into practice and encourage the whole society to face the inevitable change of paradigms for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


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