Predicting building's energy utilization with the application of energy simulation software: Case study

This appendix summarizes building characteristics used to determine heating and cooling loads for each of the five building types in each of the four regions. For the selected five buildings, the following data are attached: new and existing construction characteristics; new and existing construction thermal resistance; floor plan and elevation; people load schedule; lighting load schedule; appliance load schedule; ventilation schedule; and hot water use schedule. For the five building types (single family, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, office buildings, and schools), data are compiled in 10 appendices. These are Building Characteristics; Alternate Energy Sources and Energy Conservation Techniques Description, Costs, Fuel Price Scenarios; Life Cycle Cost Model; Simulation Models; Solar Heating/Cooling System; Condensed Weather; Single and Multi-Family Dwelling Characteristics and Energy Conservation Techniques; Mixed Strategies for Energy Conservation and Alternative Energy Utilization in Buildings. An extensive bibliography is given in the final appendix. (MCW)

INTRODUCTION: With the increasing global awareness of sustainable development and environmental protection, green building has become one of the important development directions in the construction industry. The application of sustainable type energy in the construction industry is of great significance in reducing building energy consumption and environmental pollution. This study aims to explore the application of sustainable types of energy and conduct research on energy consumption optimization. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze the current situation of the application of sustainable types of energy in the construction industry, to explore its impact on the energy consumption of buildings, and to propose corresponding optimization strategies in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development of green buildings in China. METHODS: This study adopts a combination of literature review and case study; firstly, a literature review on the application of sustainable types of energy, sorting out its technical characteristics and application effects; then, several typical cases are selected to analyze its energy application and energy consumption in buildings; finally, relevant strategies and suggestions for optimizing the energy consumption are put forward by combining the results of the literature review and the case study. RESULTS: Through the literature review and case analysis, it is found that sustainable types of energy, such as solar energy and wind energy, have been widely used in buildings and achieved certain energy-saving effects. However, there are also some problems, such as inefficient energy utilization and high cost. To address these problems, this study proposes a series of optimization strategies, including suggestions for optimizing energy system design, improving energy utilization efficiency, and reducing energy costs. CONCLUSION: This study concludes that the application of sustainable types of energy in green buildings is an important way to optimize building energy consumption and sustainable development. Through measures such as optimizing energy system design and improving energy utilization efficiency, building energy consumption can be further reduced, environmental pollution can be reduced, and the development of the construction industry can be promoted. However, further research and practice are still needed to continuously improve relevant technologies and policies to promote the application and development of sustainable types of energy in buildings.

The synergistic active-passive utilization of solar energy in buildings plays an important role in achieving nearly zero-energy buildings. Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) is a crucial initiative to reduce heating energy consumption, especially in cold climate zones with abundant solar radiation. However, few studies have examined the impact of design parameters of photovoltaic combined vacuum glazing (PVCVG) on building energy efficiency in Lhasa. This study assessed the energy performance of several typical windows and PVCVG with various Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) design conditions and investigated how the WWR and orientation of PVCVG influence energy consumption using DesignBuilder7.0 software. The findings indicate that PVCVG exhibits great energy-saving potential in Lhasa, with both orientation and WWR of PVCVG substantially affecting energy consumption. Specifically, when the south-facing WWR exceeds 40%, the energy generated by the three kinds of PV windows can meet the building’s requirements. The optimal orientation for PVCVG is southward, followed by east and west orientations. PVCVG reaches optimal energy satisfaction when the south WWR is 85%. This study is expected to provide useful information for improving energy use efficiency in cold climate zones with abundant solar radiation and promoting sustainable building development.

Rational planning and the use of renewable energy are effective means to reduce urban carbon emissions. In view of the few urban renewable energy planning cases and unclear methods, the paper takes the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City renewable energy planning project as a case to provide a renewable energy planning method under the guidance of carbon constraints. Based on scenario analysis, the energy demand of urban buildings, industry and transportation is analyzed and predicted. On the basis of meeting the needs of terminal energy use, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions, the renewable energy planning scheme from 2021 to 2050 under the low-carbon scenario has been formulated, including the promotion of energy-efficient buildings, the utilization of renewable energy in buildings, the electrification of terminal energy use, and the application of large-scale municipal renewable energy. It is planned that, by 2050, the overall renewable energy utilization rate of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City will reach 76.76%. It will use renewable energy to heat about 60 million square meters, generate about 766 million kWh of electricity, save about 0.723 million tons of standard coal and reduce 1.287 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, which will have a good effect of energy conservation and emission reduction. In this paper, the renewable energy planning method under the guidance of carbon constraint is established, which can achieve the purposes of saving resources, protecting the environment and driving sustainable development. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City is an international co-creation city, which will receive extensive attention and provide theoretical guidance and demonstration cases for urban renewable energy planning in the context of carbon peak and carbon neutrality in the new era.

Efficient energy utilization in buildings is crucial for sustainability. This work proposes an intelligent system that leverages computer vision techniques and CCTV images to assess indoor lighting energy usage based on occupancy, artificial lighting, and daylight conditions. Object detection models - You Only Look Once (YOLO) version 3 (v3) and v8 are employed to detect people, lights, and windows, achieving promising accuracies of 94.9 ​%, 73.3 ​%, and 98.7 ​%, respectively. The system categorizes scenarios as energy-efficient, wasteful, or neutral by integrating these outputs, highlighting opportunities for improving efficiency by harmonizing lighting infrastructure with occupancy and daylight exposure. Performance analyses, including training and validation metrics, are presented. This study demonstrates the potential of computer vision and AI for optimizing energy utilization, enabling sustainable building operation and promoting energy-positive occupant behaviors through sensor-driven methodologies.

Design Optimization of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Sustainable Building Development based on Energy-Hub

Application and development of solar energy in building industry and its prospects in China

Activity Recognition can be referred to as the process of describing and classifying actions, pinpoint specific movements, and extract unique patterns from the dataset using heterogeneous sensing modalities. Activity Recognition approaches have garnered the attention of researchers in the energy management domain to enhance energy utilization in buildings. In our experiment, we define activities as a combination of different actions, which are detected using multiple sensors. To learn insights for the various activities, we used inexpensive Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors in the test-bed. This study aims at gaining high-level knowledge about activities from the low-resolution sensors deployed. For accurate occupancy counts, we have used 3D Stereo Vision Cameras at the entrance, and count lines are defined to capture the transitions of inflow and outflow of multiple occupants. Multi-class labels enable activity recognition on the collected dataset. The multi-class labels used are 1) Moving, 2) Stagnant, 3) Outside, 4) Both (Moving and Stagnant), 5) No activity inside. The labeling for the multiclass is done through an algorithm using supervised learning. The data acquisition gets carried out from 23rd November to 3rd December 2018, spanning over a period for 11 days. The results document that Gradient Boosting Classifier outperforms any other Machine Learning Classification (MLC) algorithm with an accuracy of 97.59% and an F1 score of 97.40% for activity recognition. This paper also explicitly highlights the challenges and limitations faced during the initial phase for the deployment, and it identifies the key research trends and directs towards the potential improvements in the field of occupancy sensing for energy-efficient buildings.

In this chapter, the development of a computer tool for the determination of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) metrics upgraded with life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) indicators is presented, following the requirements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The computer tool was developed for the assessment of new and renovated buildings to support the holistic decision-making process. The tool itself consists of two modules: the building description module (BDU), based on the national certification tool of buildings’ energy performance, and the LCA tool (Etool). BDU enables the assessment of energy needs, final energy demand, and primary energy needs. According to the EPBD, supporting standards was upgraded with the life cycle inventory database. The database includes data on predefined building materials, envelope components, heat generators, and energy carriers and is used by Etool with which mid-point and end-point life cycle impact assessment can be done by taking into account impact groups and damage factors from IMPACT2002+ and ReCiPe methods. The LCC assessment module, which is also part of Etool, was developed according to Commission Delegated Regulation No. 244/212. The use of computer tools is demonstrated through the case studies.

New designing techniques are used recently during the design phases of buildings to adapt the environment and achieve human thermal comfort, one of these designing techniques is using energy simulation software's. However, architects need to understand the capabilities of these software's and its operation systems, when it comes to designing and modelling passive buildings. Moreover the validity of the design outcomes which is the main concern of this research. These energy simulation software's helps architects to estimate the building's energy efficiency in order to achieve human thermal comfort. This study will focus on studding and analyzing one of the well-known simulation software's used for building's energy simulations which is called Design-Builder. The presented research will measure the accuracy of Design-Builder outcomes by comparing the accuracy of the thermal simulation in Design-Builder software to the results obtained from the experimental data. A Bookstore kiosk located in El-Sherouk city, Cairo, Egypt was chosen to be the study area of this research. The research will compare the simulation results of this Kiosk to the field's experimental measurements obtained from site visit. The results reveled that there is differences between the field measurements and the simulation ranged between 1 to 5°C. The study analyzed the causes of these differences and provided some proposals to improve Design-Builder software in order to provide more accurate data in simulating hot arid climates.

The embodied energy in buildings is an energy consumption that happens throughout its life cycle in the activities related to construction and maintenance. Embodied energy calculation is a complex process since its value is accounted for in other economic sectors such as the manufacture of building materials and transportation. The contribution of embodied energy in Brazilian buildings reaches 40% of its energy consumption life cycle. In addition, infrastructure needs in the country, particularly in the residential sector, should result in high energy consumption for its construction, contributing to put pressure on the expansion needs of the energy supply system. In this context, the main objective of this research is to calculate the embodied energy in the construction of a residential condominium in the city of Campo Grande in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. A methodology based on Life Cycle Energy Assessment (LCEA) was used considering two scenarios that differ in terms of energy efficiency at the transportation stage. Initial Embodied Energy per unit area was 4.99 GJ/m 2 for scenario 1 and 5.52 GJ/m 2 for scenario 2, with a non-renewable energy share of 61.2% and 64, 2%, respectively. In scenario 1, the material manufacturing stage accounted for 96.1% of the initial embodied energy value, transportation contributed with a share of 3.2% and the construction stage with 0.7%. In scenario 2, the share of each stage was 86.8%, 12.6% and 0.6%, respectively. The results of the presented case study and the elaborated panorama on the embodied energy in Brazilian buildings carried out in this thesis reinforce the need to include embodied energy as a criterion of energy efficiency in the development of public policies that contribute to reduce energy consumption in the building sector.

Sustainable residential building energy consumption forecasting for smart cities using optimal weighted voting ensemble learning

Improving accuracy in building energy simulation via evaluating occupant behaviors: A case study in Hong Kong

Energy Conservation Strategy Research for Residential Building Refurbishment in Urban area of China

RETRACTED: Calculating potential of solar energy and CO2 emissions reduction for cityscale buildings based on 3D remote sensing technologies