Protocol for Maximizing Energy Savings and Indoor Environmental Quality Improvements when Retrofiting Apartments

Protocol for maximizing energy savings and indoor environmental quality improvements when retrofitting apartments

Energy and Buildings ◽

10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.02.046 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 61 ◽

pp. 378-386 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Federico Noris ◽

William W. Delp ◽

Kimberly Vermeer ◽

Gary Adamkiewicz ◽

Brett C. Singer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Quality Improvements

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Indoor Environmental Quality Analysis for Optimizing Energy Consumptions Varying Air Ventilation Rates

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12020482 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 482 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Francesco Mancini ◽

Fabio Nardecchia ◽

Daniele Groppi ◽

Francesco Ruperto ◽

Carlo Romeo

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Building Envelope ◽

In Situ Monitoring ◽

Quality Analysis ◽

Airflow Rate ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Hvac System ◽

Energy Consumptions

The energy refurbishment of the existing building heritage is one of the pillars of Italian energy policy. Aiming for energy efficiency and energy saving in end uses, there are wide and diversified improvement strategies, which include interventions on the building envelope and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, with the introduction of renewable energy sources. The research aims at evaluating the building energy consumptions and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), varying the airflow rates handled by the HVAC system. A Case Study (the Aula Magna of a university building) is analysed; an in-situ monitoring campaign was carried out to evaluate the trend of some environmental parameters that are considered to be significant when varying the external airflow rates handled by the HVAC system. Additionally, dynamic simulations were carried out, with the aim of evaluating the energy savings coming from the airflow rates reduction. The results of this case study highlight the opportunity to achieve significant energy savings, with only slight variations in IEQ; a 50% reduction in airflow rate would decrease energy consumption by up to 45.2%, while increasing the carbon dioxide concentration from 545 ppm to 655 ppm, while the Particulate Matter and Total Volatile Organic Compounds increase is insignificant.

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A Wireless Gas Sensor Network to Monitor Indoor Environmental Quality in Schools

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18124345 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (12) ◽

pp. 4345 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Alvaro Ortiz Perez ◽

Benedikt Bierer ◽

Louisa Scholz ◽

Jürgen Wöllenstein ◽

Stefan Palzer

Keyword(s):

Sensor Network ◽

Gas Sensor ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Environmental Parameters ◽

Well Being ◽

Sensor Nodes ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Monitoring And Control ◽

And Control

Schools are amongst the most densely occupied indoor areas and at the same time children and young adults are the most vulnerable group with respect to adverse health effects as a result of poor environmental conditions. Health, performance and well-being of pupils crucially depend on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of which air quality and thermal comfort are central pillars. This makes the monitoring and control of environmental parameters in classes important. At the same time most school buildings do neither feature automated, intelligent heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems nor suitable IEQ monitoring systems. In this contribution, we therefore investigate the capabilities of a novel wireless gas sensor network to determine carbon dioxide concentrations, along with temperature and humidity. The use of a photoacoustic detector enables the construction of long-term stable, miniaturized, LED-based non-dispersive infrared absorption spectrometers without the use of a reference channel. The data of the sensor nodes is transmitted via a Z-Wave protocol to a central gateway, which in turn sends the data to a web-based platform for online analysis. The results show that it is difficult to maintain adequate IEQ levels in class rooms even when ventilating frequently and that individual monitoring and control of rooms is necessary to combine energy savings and good IEQ.

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Global Comfort Indices in Indoor Environments: A Survey

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132212784 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (22) ◽

pp. 12784

Author(s):

Stefano Riffelli

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Recent Literature ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Indoor Environments ◽

Specific Context ◽

Comfort Index ◽

Current Trends ◽

Core Section ◽

Comfort Indices

The term “comfort” has a number of nuances and meanings according to the specific context. This study was aimed at providing a review of the influence (or “weight”) of the different factors that contribute to global comfort, commonly known as indoor environmental quality (IEQ). A dedicated section includes the methodologies and strategies for finding the most relevant studies on this topic. Resulting in 85 studies, this review outlines 27 studies containing 26 different weightings and 9 global comfort indices (GCIs) with a formula. After an overview of the main concepts, basic definitions, indices, methods and possible strategies for each type of comfort, the studies on the IEQ categories weights to reach a global comfort index are reviewed. A particular interest was paid to research with a focus on green buildings and smart homes. The core section includes global indoor environmental quality indices, besides a specific emphasis on indices found in recent literature to understand the best aspects that they all share. For each of these overall indices, some specific details are shown, such as the comfort categories, the general formula, and the methods employed. The last section reports IEQ elements percentage weighting summary, common aspects of GCIs, requisites for an indoor global comfort index (IGCI), and models adopted in comfort category weighting. Furthermore, current trends are described in the concluding remarks pointing to a better IGCI by considering additional aspects and eventually adopting artificial intelligence algorithms. This leads to the optimal control of any actuator, maximising energy savings.

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Energy Efficiency Package for Tenant Fit-Out: Laboratory Testing and Validation of Energy Savings and Indoor Environmental Quality

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13205311 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (20) ◽

pp. 5311

Author(s):

Paul Mathew ◽

Cindy Regnier ◽

Jordan Shackelford ◽

Travis Walter

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Laboratory Testing ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

The Real Estate ◽

Efficiency Measures ◽

Plug Loads ◽

Operational Issues ◽

Core Measures

Approximately 40% of the total U.S. office floor space of 1.5 billion sq.m (16 billion sq.ft.) is leased space occupied by tenants. Tenant fit-out presents a key opportunity to incorporate energy efficiency within the real estate business cycle. We designed a package of energy efficiency measures tailored to the scope of a tenant fit-out. This tenant fit-out package (TFP) includes advanced lighting and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) controls as core measures, with ceiling fans, automated shading, and plug load controls as additional optional measures. We conducted laboratory testing of six configurations of the package to evaluate energy savings, indoor environmental quality, and identify installation, commissioning, and operational issues. Combined savings for HVAC, lighting, and plug loads ranged from 33–40%. Lighting savings ranged from 69–83%, and HVAC savings from 20–40%. The laboratory testing also revealed some minor but tractable challenges with installation and commissioning of HVAC controls. Overall, the results demonstrate that significant savings can be realized in existing office buildings by incorporating relatively low-risk, proven measures at the time of a tenant fit-out.

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