Search

• Overheating regulations and calculation methods in 26 European countries were compared. • Most of the existing calculation methods are outdated and do not fit climate-proof buildings. • France requires a mixed-mode operation of naturally ventilated households. • The UK developed a heatwave-based calculation approach. • Comfort-based, multi-zonal, and time-integrated calculation approaches are needed. With the ongoing significance of overheating calculations in the residential building sector, building codes such as the European Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) are essential for harmonizing the indicators and performance thresholds. This paper investigates Europe's overheating calculation methods, indicators, and thresholds and evaluates their ability to address climate change and heat events. e study aims to identify the suitability of existing overheating calculation methods and propose recommendations for the EPBD. The study results provide a cross-sectional overview of twenty-six European countries. The most influential overheating calculation criteria are listed the best approaches are ranked. The paper provides a thorough comparative assessment and recommendations to align current calculations with climate-sensitive metrics. The results suggest a framework and key performance indicators that are comfort-based, multi-zonal, and time-integrated to calculate overheating and modify the EU's next building energy efficiency regulations. The results can help policymakers and building professionals to develop the next overheating calculation framework and approach for the future development of climate-proof and resilient residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to optimize the passive design of newly-built residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter region of China for improving indoor thermal comfort while reducing building energy demand. In this respect, this paper investigates the performance of a representative apartment building in the city of Shanghai and evaluates the optimum solutions by using a developed optimization approach, which includes three major steps of 1) setting the model for multi-objective optimization, 2) sensitivity analysis for reducing the dimension of input variables, and 3) multi-objective optimization by using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) coupled with the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), among which a novel indicator for evaluating the annual indoor thermal comfort of residential buildings of Shanghai named Comfort Time Ratio (CTR) is defined based on the modification of Szokolay’s theory in terms of bioclimatic analysis, and the impacts of passive design variables on the indoor thermal comfort and building energy demand in terms of different directions are comprehensively investigated. Results of the multi-objective optimization indicate that the residential buildings of Shanghai have a great potential in comfort-improvement and energy-saving. A series of novel optimal passive design tactics for residential buildings in Shanghai are derived accordingly which could be easily understood and conveniently carried out by the architects in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provided a platform to test various residential building control systems. • Used probability of occupancy to determine setback temperature when unoccupied. • Integrated optimizer with adaptive and occupancy control. • Generated dynamic electricity tariff based on wholesale electricity pricing. • Evaluated the peak load shaving potential with dynamic pricing and optimization. Energy consumption in buildings continues to rise with increased deployment of energy-consuming equipment such as Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) amid a growing world economy. Renewable energy is projected to comprise a majority of the future electricity supply, but the intermittent nature of renewables means that consumption must respond to dynamic supply for optimal utilization. This paper proposes a novel HVAC control strategy for residential buildings using the adaptive comfort model, considering occupancy through probability and real-time information, and optimizing the HVAC schedule to reduce cost, maintain thermal comfort, and respond to the dynamic availability of renewable energy while being generalizable to different situations. To validate this approach, the Universal CPS Environment for Federation (UCEF) co-simulation platform is used to connect advanced building controls with the building energy simulation software EnergyPlus. Simulations are performed for a residential building in Sacramento, CA during a typical summer week. Economic impacts, energy consumption, and thermal comfort are analyzed for traditional, adaptive, and occupancy-based control strategies under demand-based, tiered, and fixed electric tariff systems. Simulation results show that occupancy consideration, adaptive thermal comfort, and optimization can reduce cost by 50.1 %, electricity consumption by 52.9 %, and discomfort by 56.2 % compared to traditional fixed setpoints. The ability of the proposed HVAC control strategy to shift energy consumption away from peak times under a demand-based tariff system is qualitatively analyzed and findings suggest that maximum load-shifting on a grid-scale is attained using occupancy consideration with optimized control and demand-based pricing. For individual residential buildings, similar economic benefits can be gained using the less-complex adaptive HVAC control strategy with existing tiered or simple electric tariff systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human influence is recognized as a major source of discrepancy between predicted and actual building energy use and has been a subject of extensive analysis for many years now. However, the impact that different users can bring to the actual performance of a building has not yet been studied in depth. This paper aims to contribute to this understudied dimension of the performance gap by providing a quantitative assessment of the impact of different users in residential heating consumption and indoor environmental conditions. For this purpose, heating energy consumption profiles for real users along with their corresponding thermostat settings were modeled in a building simulation model of a single dwelling thus allowing the study of the user factor in isolation. Remarkable differences were found in the resulting heating energy consumption and in the percentage of time that thermal comfort conditions defined by building regulations and standards were met for the different user scenarios. Results also demonstrate how the more complicated and varying the heating practices of a user are the more varying and unpredictable the impacts on heating consumption and comfort are. Overall, findings add to the growing body of literature that questions the standardized heating profiles and temperature settings used in energy simulation for residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A traditional Chinese heating system, the Chinese Kang, is used by 175 million people in detached houses in the rural regions of China, especially in Northeast China. This system utilizes biomass such as corn stalks, straw, corncob and energy plants as the heat sources. The objective of this paper is to establish a set of models to simulate the energy performance of the Kang heating system in one Chinese detached house. An experimental field study was carried out to collect practical parameters in a newly constructed Chinese detached house. The dynamic performance of the Kang heating system was simulated by using IDA-ICE 4.0 embedded with an empirical model built in the field study. The results show that the simulation can obtain good overall agreement with the field measurement results. It was confirmed that the Kang model created by IDA-ICE 4.0 is capable of simulating the performance of the Kang system and of calculating energy consumption in the detached house. Moreover, the result reveals that the thermal environment in the present Chinese detached house is still poor during the severe cold season if only the Kang system is used to heat the whole house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]