energy use

Assessment methods to assess smart ventilation, in most countries focus only on comfort as criteria for the indoor air quality (IAQ), (Guyot et al., 2019). This is an issue as in doing so, pollutants that are known to cause harm to the human health are not taken into consideration while the exposure to VOCs will be elevated if the smart ventilation system lowers the ventilation flowrates to save energy (De Jonge and Laverge, 2021).

Worldwide the food system is responsible for 33% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, the total food production should be 70% more than current food production levels. In the UK, food chain is responsible for around 18% of final energy use and 20% of GHG emissions. Estimates indicate that energy savings of the order of 50% are achievable in food chains by appropriate technology changes in food production, processing, packaging, transportation, and consumption.

Buildings account for approximately 40 % of energy use in the European Union, as well as in the United States. In light of the European Energy performance of buildings directive, efforts are underway to reduce this energy use by targeting zero or nearly zero energy buildings. In such low energy buildings in cold climates, ventilation to ensure suitable indoor air quality is responsible for half or more of their energy use. The use of heat recovery and demand-controlled ventilation are potential solutions to reduce ventilation-related energy consumption.

The proposed Annex should bring researchers and industry together to investigate the possible energy benefits by using gas phase air cleaners (partial substitute for ventilation) and establish procedures for improving indoor air quality or reduced amount of ventilation by gas phase air cleaning. The project shall also establish a test method for air cleaners that considers the influence on the perceived air quality and substances in the indoor air.

The early design stage of a building is decisive for describing the concept of the HVAC system. Designers and practitioners can adjust and optimize the design during this stage as it provides them with enough resilience to adapt new changes. In practice, a well-defined optimization process is essentially required in order to achieve the project’s goals within a reasonable time span. These goals vary from one project to another, and sometimes they require a comprehensive study to identify the factual and stochastic parameters and their impact on the design.

Night ventilation is used extensively as a low energy strategy to cool buildings in climates where night temperatures are suitable. It can be used for spaces utilising natural or mechanical ventilation systems as well as active refrigerant cooling. Most published work focuses on domestic and relatively simple in operation commercial buildings such as offices. This paper presents a study of the cooling benefits of night ventilation for frozen food supermarkets with high cooling demand.

Supermarkets are a category of non-domestic buildings with high energy use because of their operation. Recent work indicates that by improvements to the energy delivery systems through which internal environmental conditions are maintained such as thermal properties of external envelope including airtightness, HVAC systems and lighting, substantial energy savings can be achieved. Work to date has focused on typical supermarkets while the present paper examines frozen food supermarkets which include more refrigeration cabinets and therefore result in higher energy use per sales floor area.

Demand controlled ventilation (DCV) considerably reduce the ventilation airflow rates and energy use compared to Constant Air Volume (CAV) systems. DCV in commercial buildings is probably a prerequisite to achieve ambitious energy-goal. However, evaluation of real energy use demonstrates that the energy saving potential is seldom met. DCV-based ventilation systems must become more reliable to close the gap between theoretical and real energy-performance.

The indoor climate system, which serves a building with a proper indoor air quality and thermal comfort, has been predominantly designed based on the initial cost. A life cycle approach could improve both the economic and environmental performance. For example, the energy use could decrease. There has been a lack of knowledge, models and simulation tools for determining the life cycle cost (LCC) for an indoor climate system. The objective of this paper is to present a model for calculating the LCC for indoor climate systems. Focus is on indoor climate systems for premises and dwellings.

Worldwide the food system is responsible for 33% of GHG emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, total food production should be 70% more than current food production levels.   In the UK, food chain is responsible for around 18% of final energy use and 20% of GHG emissions. Estimates indicate that energy savings of the order of 50% are achievable in food chains by appropriate technology changes in food production, processing, packaging, transportation, and consumption.