Utilising Time of Use Surveys to Predict Domestic Hot Water Consumption and Heat Demand Profiles of Residential Building Stocks

Electric water heaters are responsible for a large portion of electricity consumption and water usage in the domestic sector. Smart water heaters alleviate the strain on the electricity supply grid and reduce water consumption through behavioural change, but the installation of in-line flow meters is inconvenient and expensive. A non-invasive water flow meter is proposed as an alternative. Non-invasive flow measurement is more common for high flow rates in the industrial sector than for domestic applications. Various non-invasive water measurement methods are investigated in the context of domestic hot water, and a combination of thermal- and vibration-sensing is proposed. The proposed solution uses inexpensive, easily installable, non-invasive sensors and a novel algorithm to provide the same flow measurement accuracy as existing in-line meters. The algorithm detects the beginning and end of water consumption events with an accuracy of 95.6%. Quantitative flow rate estimation was possible for flow rates greater than 5 L min⁻¹ with an accuracy of 89%, while volumetric usage estimation had an accuracy of more than 93%. The algorithm limitations were applied to field data, revealing that water consumption could be detected with an error of less than 12% within the limitations of the proposed algorithm. The paper presents a successful proof of concept for a non-invasive alternative to domestic hot water flow rate measurement.

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Comparative Analysis of Energy Demand and CO2 Emissions on Different Typologies of Residential Buildings in Europe

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12122436 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 2436 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Julià Coma ◽

José Miguel Maldonado ◽

Alvaro de Gracia ◽

Toni Gimbernat ◽

Teresa Botargues ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Residential Building ◽

Cold Climate ◽

Hot Water ◽

Data Sources ◽

Building Sector ◽

Domestic Hot Water

The building sector accounts for one third of the global energy consumption and it is expected to grow in the next decades. This evidence leads researchers, engineers and architects to develop innovative technologies based on renewable energies and to enhance the thermal performance of building envelopes. In this context, the potential applicability and further energy performance analysis of these technologies when implemented into different building typologies and climate conditions are not easily comparable. Although massive information is available in data sources, the lack of standardized methods for data gathering and the non-public availability makes the comparative analyses more difficult. These facts limit the benchmarking of different building energy demand parameters such as space heating, cooling, air conditioning, domestic hot water, lighting and electric appliances. Therefore, the first objective of this study consists in providing a review about the common typologies of residential buildings in Europe from the main data sources. This study contains specific details on their architecture, building envelope, floor space and insulation properties. The second objective consists in performing a cross-country comparison in terms of energy demand for the applications with higher energy requirements in the residential building sector (heating and domestic hot water), as well as their related CO2 emissions. The approach of this comparative analysis is based on the residential building typology developed in TABULA/EPISCOPE projects. This comparative study provides a reference scenario in terms of energy demand and CO2 emissions for residential buildings and allows to evaluate the potential implementation of new supply energy technologies in hot, temperate and cold climate regions. From this study it was also concluded that there is a necessity of a free access database which could gather and classify reliable energy data in buildings.

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Integrated System for Producing, Transporting and Consuming the Unconventional Energy for a Residential Building

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.659.425 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 659 ◽

pp. 425-430 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cătălin George Popovici ◽

Marius Costel Balan ◽

Marina Verdeș ◽

Vasilică Ciocan ◽

Andrei Burlacu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inflation Rate ◽

Residential Building ◽

Integrated System ◽

Economic Effects ◽

Hot Water ◽

Domestic Hot Water ◽

Natural Gases ◽

In Series ◽

The Cost ◽

Service Duration

The possibility of incorporating several subsystems using successive, in parallel or combined links, in a complex system with a well-defined goal, has given the possibility of proposing a new model for the integrated system - in series – in order to assure the heating and domestic hot water independence of a residential building, and in order to use the Retscreen International software, to simulate its functioning. An integrated system, can be conformed in several ways, each scheme having some technological, organizatorical variants, but with different economic effects. In choosing the optimal variant of a category of installations, there are used some techniques of analysis the economic performance. In the simulation of the functioning of the integrated system which assures the heating and the domestic hot water there have been proposed a series of work parameters, namely: the destination of the building, the climatically zone, the demand of hot water, the medium demand of thermal energy concordant to the climatically zones, the cost of natural gases, the price of the wooden fuel, the inflation rate, the service duration of the equipment, the cost of system’s maintenance, etc.

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Analysis and simulation of the circulation pump operation

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/201911600022 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 ◽

pp. 00022

Author(s):

Michał Fijewski ◽

Iwona Polarczyk ◽

Joanna Paduchowska

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Measurement Data ◽

Residential Building ◽

Hot Water ◽

Operation System ◽

Actual Measurement ◽

Pump Operation ◽

Domestic Hot Water ◽

Circulation Pump

The operation of the circulation installation has a significant impact on the energy efficiency of the building and it contributes to its reduction. The article refers to the actual measurement data obtained from the measurements of the domestic hot water (DHW) preparation system in a multi-family residential building in Wroclaw. On their basis, various possibilities of controlling the operation of the circulation installation without reducing the comfort of DHW operation system were presented and simulated. The results are illustrated in the form of measurable savings in energy consumption and related costs.

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