| 1. |
- Ramírez Villegas, Ricardo, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Combined environmental and economic assessment of energy efficiency measures in a multi-dwelling building
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 12:13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to assess how different renovation scenarios affect the environmental and economic impacts of a multi-dwelling building in a Nordic climate, how these aspects are correlated and how different energy carriers affect different environmental impact categories. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has set an agenda in order to reduce energy use in buildings. New buildings on the European market have a low replacement rate, which makes building renovation an important factor for achieving the European Union goals. In this study, eight renovation strategies were analyzed following the European Committee for Standardization standards for life cycle assessment and life cycle costs of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation and improved building envelopes. Results show that, depending on the energy carrier, reductions in global warming potential can be achieved at the expense of an increased nuclear waste disposal. It also shows that for the investigated renovation strategies in Sweden there is no correlation between the economic and the environmental performance of the building. Changing energy carriers in Sweden in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be a good alternative, but it makes the system more dependent on nuclear power.
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| 2. |
- Azizi, Shoaib, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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Adoption of Energy Efficiency Measures in Renovation of Single-Family Houses : A Comparative Approach
- 2020
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 13:22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inclusion of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) in the renovation of the single-family housing stock can unlock the potential for much-needed energy efficiency to tackle climate change. Energy renovation (ER) in single-family houses is often promoted as an aggregate process, and EEMs are treated homogenously without sufficient attention to their differences. This study applies a comparative analysis on common EEMs using chi-square test to investigate the influence of factors already found affecting the implementation of ER. This paper addresses the “personal” and “house-related” factors influencing the adoption of EEMs regardless of motives or barriers leading the adopters’ decisions. This strategy is useful to highlight the contexts leading to an increase in the adoption rate of different EEMs. The analysis is based on a questionnaire survey mailed in spring 2017 to 1550 single-family homeowners in the northern region of Sweden. Approximately 60% of respondents showed interest in adopting at least one EEM if they implement a major renovation. About 46% of respondents stated to have at least one indoor environmental problem (IEP) in their houses, and IEPs are found to have significant relations with homeowners’ interest to adopt several different EEMs. The policy implications related to different EEMs are discussed.
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| 3. |
- Azizi, Shoaib, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of Positioning of Multi-Sensor Devices on Occupancy and Indoor Environmental Monitoring in Single-Occupant Offices
- 2021
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 14:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The advancements in sensor and communication technologies drive the rapid developments in the applications of occupancy and indoor environmental monitoring in buildings. Currently, the installation standards for sensors are scarce and the recommendations for sensor positionings are very general. However, inadequate sensor positioning might diminish the reliability of sensor data, which could have serious impacts on the intended applications such as the performance of demand-controlled HVAC systems and their energy use. Thus, there is a need to understand how sensor positioning may affect the sensor data, specifically when using multi-sensor devices in which several sensors are being bundled together. This study is based on the data collected from 18 multi-sensor devices installed in three single-occupant offices (six sensors in each office). Each multi-sensor device included sensors to measure passive infrared (PIR) radiation, temperature, CO2, humidity, and illuminance. The results show that the positions of PIR and CO2 sensors significantly affect the reliability of occupancy detection. The typical approach of positioning the sensors on the ceiling, in the middle of offices, may lead to relatively unreliable data. In this case, the PIR sensor in that position has only 60% accuracy of presence detection. Installing the sensors under office desks could increase the accuracy of presence detection to 84%. These two sensor positions are highlighted in sensor fusion analysis as they could reach the highest accuracy compared to other pairs of PIR sensors. Moreover, sensor positioning can affect various indoor environmental parameters, especially temperature and illuminance measurements.
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| 4. |
- Lidberg, Tina, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of Domestic Hot Water Systems on District Heating Temperatures
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - Basel, Schweiz : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 12:24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When buildings become more energy effective, the temperature levels of district heating systems need to be lower to decrease the losses from the distribution system and to keep district heating a competitive alternative on the heating market. For this reason, buildings that are refurbished need to be adapted to suit low-temperature district heating. The aim of this paper is to examine whether four different energy refurbishment packages (ERPs) can be used for lowering the temperature need of a multi-family buildings space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) system as well as to analyse the impact of the DHW circulation system on the return temperature. The results show that for all ERPs examined in this study, the space heating supply temperature agreed well with the temperature levels of a low-temperature district heating system. The results show that the temperature need of the DHW system will determine the supply temperature of the district heating system. In addition, the amount of days with heating demand decreases for all ERPs, which further increases the influence of the DHW system on the district heating system. In conclusion, the DHW system needs to be improved to enable the temperature levels of a low-temperature district heating system.
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| 5. |
- Nydahl, Helena, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Performance Measures to Assess Building Refurbishment from a Life Cycle Perspective
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 12:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Energy efficiency investments in existing buildings are an effective way of reducing the environmental impact of the building stock. Even though policies in the European Union and elsewhere promote a unilateral focus on operational energy reduction, scientific studies highlight the importance of applying a life cycle perspective to energy refurbishment. However, life cycle assessment is often perceived as being complicated and the results difficult to interpret by the construction sector. There is also a lack of guidelines regarding the sustainable ratio between the embodied and accumulated operational impact. The scope of this study is to introduce a life cycle assessment method for building refurbishment that utilizes familiar economic performance tools, namely return on investment and annual yield. The aim is to use the introduced method to analyze a case building with a sustainability profile. The building was refurbished in order to reduce its operational energy use. The introduced method is compatible with a theory of minimum sustainable environmental performance that may be developed through backcasting from defined energy and GHG emissions objectives. The proposed approach will hopefully allow development of sustainable refurbishment objectives that can support the choice of refurbishment investments.
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| 6. |
- Puttige, Anjan Rao, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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A Novel Analytical-ANN Hybrid Model for Borehole Heat Exchanger
- 2020
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 13:23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optimizing the operation of ground source heat pumps requires simulation of both short-term and long-term response of the borehole heat exchanger. However, the current physical and neural network based models are not suited to handle the large range of time scales, especially for large borehole fields. In this study, we present a hybrid model for long-term simulation of BHE with high resolution in time. The model uses an analytical model with low time resolution to guide an artificial neural network model with high time resolution. We trained, tuned, and tested the hybrid model using measured data from a ground source heat pump in real operation. The performance of the hybrid model is compared with an analytical model, a calibrated analytical model, and three different types of neural network models. The hybrid model has a relative RMSE of 6% for the testing period compared to 22%, 14%, and 12% respectively for the analytical model, the calibrated analytical model, and the best of the three investigated neural network models. The hybrid model also has a reasonable computational time and was also found to be robust with regard to the model parameters used by the analytical model.
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| 7. |
- Puttige, Anjan Rao, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Application of Regression and ANN Models for Heat Pumps with Field Measurements
- 2021
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 14:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developing accurate models is necessary to optimize the operation of heating systems. A large number of field measurements from monitored heat pumps have made it possible to evaluate different heat pump models and improve their accuracy. This study used measured data from a heating system consisting of three heat pumps to compare five regression and two artificial neural network (ANN) models. The models’ performance was compared to determine which model was suitable during the design and operation stage by calibrating them using data provided by the manufacturer and the measured data. A method to refine the ANN model was also presented. The results indicate that simple regression models are more suitable when only manufacturers’ data are available, while ANN models are more suited to utilize a large amount of measured data. The method to refine the ANN model is effective at increasing the accuracy of the model. The refined models have a relative root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 5%
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| 8. |
- Ramirez Villegas, Ricardo, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental payback of renovation strategies in a northern climate - the impact of nuclear power and fossil fuels in the electricity supply
- 2020
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to assess how the use of fossil and nuclear power in different renovation scenarios affects the environmental impacts of a multi-family dwelling in Sweden, and how changes in the electricity production with different energy carriers affect the environmental impact. In line with the Paris Agreement, the European Union has set an agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by means of energy efficiency in buildings. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 80% of Europe's population will be living in buildings that already exist. This means it is important for the European Union to renovate buildings to improve energy efficiency. In this study, eight renovation scenarios, using six different Northern European electricity mixes, were analyzed using the standard of the European Committee for Standardization for life cycle assessment of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation, and improvement of the building envelope. The results show that while in some electricity mixes a reduction in the global warming potential can be achieved, it can be at the expense of an increase in radioactive waste production, and, in mixes with a high share of fossil fuels, the global warming potential of the scenarios increases with time, compared with that of the original building. It also shows that in most electricity mixes, scenarios that reduce the active heat demand of the building end up in reducing both the global warming potential and radioactive waste, making them less sensitive to changes in the energy system.
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| 9. |
- Ramirez Villegas, Ricardo, et al.
(författare)
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Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures : Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 12:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The scope of this study is to assess how different energy efficient renovation strategies affect the environmental impacts of a multi-family house in a Nordic climate within district heating systems. The European Union has set ambitious targets to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. There is special attention on reducing the life cycle emissions in the buildings sector. However, the focus has often been on new buildings, although existing buildings represent great potential within the building stock in Europe. In this study, four different renovation scenarios were analyzed with the commercially available life cycle assessment software that follows the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard. This study covers all life cycle steps from the cradle to the grave for a residential building in Borlange, Sweden, where renewable energy dominates. The four scenarios included reduced indoor temperature, improved thermal properties of building material components and heat recovery for the ventilation system. One finding is that changing installations gives an environmental impact comparable to renovations that include both ventilation and building facilities. In addition, the life cycle steps that have the greatest environmental impact in all scenarios are the operational energy use and the building and installation processes. Renovation measures had a major impact on energy use due to the cold climate and low solar irradiation in the heating season. An interesting aspect, however, is that the building materials and the construction processes gave a significant amount of environmental impact.
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| 10. |
- Zhou, Hongxia, et al.
(författare)
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An explicit finite element method for thermal simulations of buildings with phase change materials
- 2021
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 14:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The thermal performance of building envelopes is essential for building thermal comfort and the reduction of building energy requirements. Phase change materials (PCMs) implemented in building envelopes can improve thermal performance. An explicit finite element method (ex-FEM) has been developed based on a previous study to investigate the heat transfer performance through building walls with installed PCMs. For verification, we introduce an electrical circuit analogy (ECA) method. For model validation, at first, COMSOL is used. For comparison, data were collected from experiments using a small hotbox, part of the sides are covered by PCMs with different configurations. This work shows how the ex-FEM model can predict the wall's temperature profile with and without incorporated PCM. With the implementation of PCMs, the work problematizes unpredictable influences for modeling. In addition, the study introduces results from simulations of sequencing of PCM layers in wall construction.
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