Energy-Efficient Retrofit Measures to Achieve Nearly Zero Energy Buildings

Considering the 2021 IPCC report that justly attributes our deteriorating climatic condition to human doing, the need to develop nearly zero energy building (nZEB) practices is gaining urgency. However, rather than the typical focus on developing greenfield net-zero initiatives, retrofitting underperforming buildings could create significant scale climate positive impacts faster. The chapter accordingly discusses energy-efficient retrofitting methods under three categorical sectors—visual comfort (daylight-based zoning, shadings); thermal comfort and ventilation (solar radiation-based zoning, central atrium plus interior openings, insulation, and window replacement); energy consumption (efficient lighting system, and controllers, material and HVAC system optimization, PV panels as the renewable energy source). This chapter further substantiates these theoretical underpinnings with an implemented design scheme—an educational building within a cold semiarid climatic condition—to showcase the on-ground impact of these retrofitting strategies in reducing the energy used for heating and cooling and lighting purposes.

Industrial Buildings with Zero Energy Consumption: Cathedral Warehouse for Sherry Wines

The industrial sector needs solutions and strategies that allow buildings to reduce their energy consumption and develop their daily business activities. This paper discusses the long-term monitoring measures of indoor thermal conditions in a warehouse with zero energy consumption. The objective is to promote the use of passive design strategies within the industrial sector by analyzing an example of the feasibility of achieving controlled environmental conditions with zero energy consumption. In total, more than a million data points were processed and analyzed in different periods of the year. Experimental measurements showed strong gradients in the vertical distribution of temperature, this being a key aspect of the general behavior of the indoor environment of the warehouse. A standard comparison variable was developed to quantify the monthly and daily evolution of vertical stratification of the air to explain in detail the thermal behavior of the warehouse throughout the year. The results showed the efficacy of the design of these constructions to mitigate the high temperatures typical in a Mediterranean-Oceanic climate. This example of ingenuity in passive design demonstrates how, by combining the right strategies, the desired conditions can be obtained without any energy consumption.

Anomalous Josephson current through a topological noncoplanar ferromagnetic trilayer

We present an anomalous Josephson effect in a TI-based Josephson junction with a ferromagnetic insulator (FI) trilayer which has noncoplanar magnetizations. It is shown that there exist equal spin-singlet and -triplet correlations due to the magnetism-tuning chiral Dirac energy band structure combined with the spin precession and selective equal spin Andreev reflection by chiral Majorana modes (CMMs). The consequent anomalous Josephson supercurrent is exhibited, in which a 0-π or similar 0 - π state transition through phase shift is induced only by exchange field strengths of the first FI region, while the ϕ0 supercurrent and the maximum one gradually drop with the increase of exchange field strengths of the second and third FI regions without relative state transitions. The much different features are found by varying the lengths of trilayer. The Andreev bound states without hybridization for the CMM administrate these features, which could be used to probe and confirm the zero energy CMM. In addition, the corresponding free energies are presented and discussed.

Radiative capture of proton by 9Be(p, γ)10B at low energy.

Radiative capture p+9Be → 10B+γ at energies bearing astrophysical importance is a key process for the spectroscopic study of 10B. In this work, we consider the radiative capture cross-section for the 9Be(p, γ)10B within the framework of the potential model and the R-matrix method for the multi-entrance channel cases. In certain cases, when the potential fails, therefore, the R-matrix approach is better to use for the description of partial components of the cross-section that have sharp or broad resonances. For all possible electric and magnetic dipole transitions, partial components of the astrophysical S-factor are computed. The computed value of the total S-factor at zero energy is consistent with the reported results.

Wooden Facade Renovation and Additional Floor Construction for Suburban Development in Finland

Finnish urban settlements are in the age of restoration, and the suburbs need improvements in Finland. In this sense, wooden facade renovation and additional floor construction are viable and sustainable solutions for this development in the Finnish context. This chapter focuses on these important applications from the Finnish residents’ perspective as ecologically sound engineering solutions through a survey. In doing so, the challenges of facade renovation, as well as the benefits of additional floor construction, were presented. The main purpose of the survey was to get the opinions of the residents, find out which variables are important, make inferences for the planning and improvement of such areas, and determine what will be emphasized in the sustainable suburban development of the future. Therefore, the results were based on this empirical approach—survey—but further research such as energy analysis, wood-based facade renovation, and additional floor solutions will be done as part of other studies. It is believed that this study will contribute to the use of sustainable materials and decarbonization of buildings as well as zero energy building (nZEB) to overcome the challenges posed by climate change by the diffusion of wood in the renovation of buildings.