energy efficiency

The stock housing of England (UK) constitutes the oldest housing stocks in the world. Indeed, 63 per cent of all dwellings were built before 1960s and thus most of the people in the UK live in an old house or at least a house that is more than 50 years old. The most common dwelling types in the UK are the semi-detached and terraced houses, and particularly within deprived communities. In deprived communities, houses suffer from poor indoor conditions and building standards of energy performance.

by space and water heating. The high costs of energy are a national matter not only for their economic and environmental implications, but also because they contribute largely to a social problem, known as fuel poverty. The cost of heating the housing stock is rather high for different reasons, one of each being the heat loss through the building envelope. The thermal performance of existing buildings can be increased in two ways: by adding insulation to external fabric, and by reducing the unintended air leaks of the envelope.

In Spain, the residential sector is the third principal source of energy consumption; many of these dwellings are obsolete and do not have optimal conditions of comfort. For this reason, their energy retrofitting means an enormous step towards the energy efficiency. Under the general intervention strategies, the study and analysis of the air-tightness of the building envelope (as measured by the degree of infiltration) is a fundamental factor, because of its impact on energy efficiency, thermal comfort of occupants and indoor air quality.

The EPBD (EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) Concerted Action is a cooperative effort from all 27 EU Member States (MS), plus Norway and Croatia, together with the European Commission. It is running since 2004, under the Intelligent Energy programme since 2007. It aims at providing support to MS in their effort to transpose and then implement the EPBD, identifying the best solutions and practices that MS can then adopt and thus move towards harmonization throughout the EU.

Office buildings in Chile show higher cooling than heating energy demand. The climate of the country show important differences between cities by the ocean and those of interior regions, located between the coastal and the Andes range. Main cities of Central Chile, where more than 40% of buildings are constructed every year are Santiago and Valparaíso, both located at around 33° S. Santiago presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature oscillation between day and night during cooling period.

A study of excessive air leakage in the ductwork of a large pharmaceutical plant located in the Southeast United States is executed in order to determine the energy loss associated with the excessive ductwork leakage. Much of the air supplied by the ductwork is delivered to clean rooms. The analysis requires the development of a model that is used to predict the increased energy costs. The model is applied for each 15 minute interval over the entire year (approximately 35,000 data points).

Buildings represent the major energy consuming sector in India. Sustainable and climate responsive architecture offers possible solutions to this high energy demand. Vernacular buildings, in contrast to modern 20th century buildings, are more climate receptive to the environment and are based on principles evolved over many generations. The traditional architecture of housing in Chettinadu, Tamil Nadu, India is known for its use of natural and passive methods for a comfortable indoor environment. However, it has not been proved by a detailed and quantitative evaluation method so far.

This paper analyses the energy efficiency of a Ventilated Active Façade (VAF) applied to office buildings in Spain in comparison with conventional façades that comply with the minimum energy requirements of the Spanish Technical Building Regulation (Código Técnico de la Edificación - CTE). The analysis considers the climatic diversity of the 12 climatic zones of Spain. The studied VAF consists of an outer layer element of 2 mm galvanized steel panels and a 3 cm air cavity through which the ventilation air is preheated in winter and exhausted in summer.

European CEN Standard EN 15251 (2007) requires indoor thermal comfort conditions to be assessed and to fall within a category system for different levels of expectation and building purpose.  The COMMONCENSE project has prepared and provided information about the energy implications of the Standard and in particular whether the Standard is encouraging high-energy buildings in the case of new buildings and major rehabilitations.

The removal efficiency of high efficiency air filters against microbe-carrying particles (MCPs) in the air supply of occupied rooms, such as cleanrooms, was determined. Knowing the size distribution of MCPs in the air to be filtered, and the removal efficiency of a filter against individual particle diameters, the overall removal efficiency was ascertained.