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Climate change has emerged as a global focal point, notably affecting vulnerable countries like Pakistan. The country faces heightened risk, prompting concern among many due to its susceptibility to climate-related hazards. An imperative challenge arising from this phenomenon is the necessary shift towards sustainable energy, particularly concerning energy consumption within the building sector. Buildings significantly contribute to daily energy usage and subsequent GHG emissions. In Pakistan, transitioning to energy-efficient building stock holds pivotal importance in mitigating climate change impacts. This hinges on establishing a robust institutional framework and regulatory structure centered around energy efficiency. While Pakistan possesses policies and national guidelines advocating for energy-efficient buildings, their practical enforcement and application remain inadequate. The inception of the Building Energy Code of Pakistan in 1990, based on ASHRAE 90.1 standards, marked a step forward. However, obstacles rooted in institutional weakness and limited capacity building have impeded its effective adoption and adherence. Although the Energy Provisions of 2011 introduced modifications, their scope remained confined mainly to commercial structures. This paper conducts an extensive assessment of Pakistan's existing institutional and regulatory framework for building energy efficiency and transition. Drawing on literature insights and stakeholder perspectives, an in-depth understanding of prevailing policies and institutions uncovers underlying reasons for noncompliance and limited implementation. Additionally, input was gathered from stakeholders through interviews, aiming to identify barriers obstructing the reinforcement of building energy efficiency measures in Pakistan. Discourse and narrative analysis, informed by literature and stakeholder interviews, revealed the significance of awareness, participation, coordination, capacity building, technical expertise, finance, and resources as key factors contributing to deficient compliance and implementation of existing codes and policy guidelines. This paper also proposes actionable recommendations to expedite the transition towards a sustainable, energy-efficient building stock in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ever-increasing population and historic highest energy demand, the energy efficiency of buildings is becoming crucial. Architectural firms are moving from traditional Computer-Aided Design (CAD) to BIM. However, nearly 40% of the energy consumption is due to buildings. Therefore, there is a need to integrate BIM with Building Energy Modeling (BEM), which presents an innovative opportunity to demonstrate the potential of BIM to minimize energy consumption by integrating building information software with data from existing energy-efficient building automation systems (EBAS). BEM is a form of computational analysis that can be used in conjunction with BIM or Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) systems. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore the existing literature on BIM and BEM and identify the effect of the integration of BEM in BIM in the design phase of the project. A recent survey from the last ten years (2012 to 2023) was carried out on Google Scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied, and papers were scrutinized. From the results, it can be observed that the convergence of BIM and BEM is found to be useful in practical applications; however, projects with short life cycles might not be suitable for this solution. Challenges exist in the interoperability tools which have restrictions on data exchange. Binary translation is found to be the most suitable candidate for data exchange. The analysis further showed that the most used program for integrating BIM/BEM is Green Building Studio developed by Autodesk to improve construction and operational efficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to provide a holistic review of two decades of research advancement in the indoor environmental quality modelling and indexing field (IEQMI) using bibliometric analysis methods. The explicit objectives of the present study are: (1) identifying researchers, institutions, countries (territories), and journals with the most influence in the IEQMI topic; (2) investigating the hot topics in the IEQMI field; and (3) thematically analysing the keyword evolution in the IEQMI field. A scientometric review was conducted using the bibliometric data of 456 IEQMI research articles published in the past two decades. VOSviewer software was employed for bibliometric analysis, and the SciMAT tool was used to investigate the keywords' thematic evolution in three sub-periods (2004–2009; 2010–2015; 2016–2021). Results show that there is a continuous increment in the number of published papers in the field of IEQMI, and 60 out of 193 countries in the world have been involved in IEQMI studies. The IEQMI research mainly focuses on: (a) thermal comfort and energy efficiency; (b) occupant satisfaction and comfort; (c) IAQ and health issues; (d) methods and procedures. This field has undergone significant evolution. While 'indoor environmental quality was initially the only theme in the first period', 'occupant satisfaction', 'buildings', 'impact', 'building information modelling', and 'health' were added as the main thematic areas in the second period; 'occupant behaviour' and 'energy' were novel themes in IEQMI studies receiving much attention in the third period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing energy efficiency within the building sector is imperative to curbing energy losses, given that this sector alone contributes to over 34% of global energy consumption. Employing a building management system, along with its regular updates, presents a strategic avenue to decrease energy usage, enhance building energy efficiency, and more. Tailored control strategies, aligned with the unique characteristics and usage patterns of each building, are essential for achieving energy savings. This article presents an evaluation of HVAC system efficiency in office buildings, utilizing a data-driven approach coupled with simulations conducted in building performance simulation software. The research explores the control strategy of an office building equipped with a constant air volume HVAC system, featuring a regularly controlled air handling unit. The objective is to boost energy efficiency while striking a balance between occupant comfort and energy consumption. The findings indicate that by analyzing measured data and adjusting the configurable parameters, the energy consumption of buildings can be significantly reduced. The close monitoring of indoor parameters by building operators and making corresponding adjustments to the HVAC system can yield energy savings of up to 16%. Leveraging these insights, this paper suggests integrating data-driven and dynamic simulation methods into building management system models to optimize HVAC systems, enhance energy efficiency, and advance ambitious carbon neutrality objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption in buildings is gradually increasing and accounts for around forty percent of the total energy consumption. Forecasting the heating and cooling loads of a building during the initial phase of the design process in order to identify optimal solutions among various designs is of utmost importance. This is also true during the operation phase of the structure after it has been completed in order to ensure that energy efficiency is maintained. The aim of this paper is to create and develop a Multilayer Perceptron Regressor (MLPRegressor) model for the purpose of forecasting the heating and cooling loads of a building. The proposed model is based on automated hyperparameter optimization using Waterwheel Plant Algorithm The model was based on a dataset that described the energy performance of the structure. There are a number of important characteristics that are considered to be input variables. These include relative compactness, roof area, overall height, surface area, glazing area, wall area, glazing area distribution of a structure, and orientation. On the other hand, the variables that are considered to be output variables are the heating and cooling loads of the building. A total of 768 residential buildings were included in the dataset that was utilized for training purposes. Following the training and regression of the model, the most significant parameters that influence heating load and cooling load have been identified, and the WWPA- MLPRegressor performed well in terms of different metrices variables and fitted time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing building energy consumption is of paramount significance in sustainability and energy efficiency (EE) studies. The development of an accurate EE prediction model is pivotal for optimizing energy resources and facilitating effective building planning. Traditional physical modeling approaches are encumbered by high complexity and protracted modeling cycles. In this paper, we introduce a novel evolutionary dendritic neural regression (EDNR) model tailored to forecasting residential building EE. Acknowledging the vast landscape and complexity of the EDNR weight space, coupled with the inherent susceptibility of traditional optimization algorithms to local optima, we propose a complex network-guided strategy-based differential evolution algorithm for training the EDNR model. This strategy adeptly strikes a balance between exploration and exploitation during the search process, significantly enhancing the predictive and generalization capacities of EDNR. To our knowledge, this study represents the inaugural application of dendritic neural regression in real-world prediction scenarios. Extensive experimental findings demonstrate the efficacy of EDNR in accurately predicting building EE with commendable performance. Furthermore, the results of two nonparametric statistical tests affirm the validity and stability of EDNR. Consequently, our proposed methodology exhibits high potential and competitiveness in machine learning applications within the energy domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sun's total radiation alone exceeds the world population's entire energy consumption by 7.500 times and ignites secondary renewable energy sources. The end energy consumption buildings use for heating amounts to 28% of Germany's total energy consumption. With the ongoing trend of digitalization and the transition of the German energy supply away from fossil fuels and the consequent political dependency, electric heat pumps and photovoltaic (PV) systems have become increasingly important to the discussion. This has led to an increasing demand for smart control strategies, especially for inert systems such as thermally activated building systems (TABS). This paper presents and analyses a weather predictive control (WPC) strategy using a validated thermodynamic simulation model. The literature review of this paper outlines that the current common control strategies are data intense and complex in their implementation into the built environment. The simple approach of the WPC uses future ambient temperature and solar radiation to optimize the control of the heating, cooling, ventilation, and sun protection system. The thermal comfort and energy demand evaluate the concept. We show that with a WPC for TABS, thermal comfort can improve without increasing the energy demand for the office building in the moderate climate of Munich. Furthermore, this paper concludes that the WPC works more effectively with more thermal mass. This simplified building control strategy promotes the European roadmap goal of climate neutrality in 2050, as it bridges the phenomenon of the performance gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium commercial buildings account for nearly half of the energy consumed by commercial buildings in the United States. While energy retrofits can significantly reduce building energy consumption, buildings' owners often lack the capital and experience to perform detailed energy audits and retrofit assessments. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a low-investment, bottom-up and simplified methodology for identifying energy retrofit opportunities that benefit the owners of small and medium sized office buildings In particular, the paper addresses small and medium commercial buildings on a university campus as a proof-of-concept for other owner-operators that have small and medium commercial facilities in their portfolio. The methodology consists of an eight-step framework using publicly-available and simplified tools. While energy audits and retrofit opportunity assessments are not new, a low-cost methodology for owner-operators of small and medium commercial buildings to analyze energy consumption and identify retrofit opportunities represents a contribution to knowledge. A medium office building on a university campus in Arizona served as a case study to validate the methodology. The case study showed a maximum potential energy reduction of an estimated 50%, but the figure varies based on the types of retrofit (deep versus light), energy conservation measures selected and implemented, invested resources, and interactive effects between measures. This methodology is extensible to other owner-operators that have building utility data and would like to perform retrofit opportunity assessments themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kindergartens are probably the very first public buildings we actively use in our lives. Therefore, they can be considered as the physical structures that are providing for the very important educational and social function. Additionally, they can also be considered as the specific learning tool for future generations where they can encounter the ideas of green and energy-efficient buildings. One of the results of the research project "Energy efficiency in public buildings" has been formulated through the development of Serbian National Typology of Kindergartens which was conceived as a specific tool that can be used for improving this portion of building stock. The paper presents the methodology for identification of typical kindergarten buildings, covering various construction periods, building sizes and illustrates the type of analysis performed for model representatives. The potential for energy upgrades covering physical structure, installed technological systems, as well as expected impact on energy performance, has been estimated. The study presents results based on the analysis of the data derived from the National Typology, stressing out that energy retrofits of large and medium-sized kindergartens built during the 1970s and 1980s should be the primary focus of refurbishment activities. Accounting for almost 60% of total buildings and 69.59% of heated area, they are responsible for 75.97% of energy demands. Estimated energy savings of more than 60% indicate the effectiveness of their retrofit. The paper also presents the potential uses of National Typology as a retrofit tool on various scales, from single-building considerations to a strategic approach at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of an insulated area with a subtropical climate, such as La Réunion island, it is crucial to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and develop local renewable energy sources to achieve energy autonomy. Direct current (DC) nanogrids could facilitate this by reducing the energy conversion steps, especially for solar energy. This article presents the deployment and efficiency evaluation of a 48 VDC low-voltage direct current (LVDC) nanogrid, from conception to real-world installation within a company. The nanogrid consists of a photovoltaic power plant, a lithium–iron–phosphate (LFP) battery, and DC end-use equipment, such as LED lighting and DC fans, for two individual offices. For identical test conditions, which are at an equivalent cabling distance and with the same final power demand, the total power consumed by the installation is measured for several stages from 50 to 400 W, according to a 100% DC configuration or a conventional DC/AC/DC PV configuration incorporating an inverter and AC/DC converter. The methodology used enables a critical view to be taken of the installation, assessing both its efficiency and its limitations. Energy savings of between 23% and 40% are measured in DC for a power limit identified at 150 W for a distance of 25 m. These results show that it is possible to supply 48 VDC in an innovative way to terminal equipment consuming no more than 100 W, such as lighting and air fans, using the IEEE 802.3 bt power over ethernet (PoE) protocol, while at the same time saving energy. The nanogrid hardware and software infrastructure, the methodology employed for efficiency quantification, and the measurement results are described in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, energy efficiency has received increasing attention from the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry. Digital Twins have the potential to advance the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase in different application fields. With the increasing industry interest, there is a need to review the current status of research developments in Digital Twins for building energy efficiency. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the applications of digital twins for building energy efficiency, analyze research trends and identify research gaps and potential future research directions. In this review, Sustainability and Energy and Buildings are among the most frequently cited sources of publications. Literature reviewed was classified into four different topics: topic 1. Optimization design; topic 2. Occupants' comfort; topic 3. Building operation and maintenance; and topic 4. Energy consumption simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings represent the largest potential for carbon reduction worldwide. This highlights the need for a simulation and optimization method for energy management. The early design stage of buildings represents an important phase in which choices can be made to optimize design parameters. These parameters can focus on multiple areas, including energy and thermal comfort. This paper introduces the optimization of early-stage sustainable building design considering end-user energy consumption. It proposes an optimization model that integrates multiple layers, which consist of a parametric energy simulation, artificial neural network, and genetic algorithm. The proposed optimization model considers a single objective function to obtain the optimal design. The targeted goal is to obtain minimal energy consumption for residential buildings during the early design stages. Key design parameters of the building were identified for optimization and feasible ranges for them were obtained using genetic algorithms. Finally, the results of this paper include the identification of the optimal building design for the thermal comfort analysis and optimal energy performance. The model was applied to a case study in Egypt and the results showed that using the developed optimization model can lead to a 25% reduction in energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest in sustainability and energy efficiency is constantly increasing, and the noticeable effects of climate change and rising energy prices are fueling this development. The residential sector is one of the most energy-intensive sectors and plays an important role in shaping future energy consumption. In this context, modeling has been extensively employed to identify relative key drivers, and to evaluate the impact of different strategies to reduce energy consumption and emissions. This article presents a detailed literature review relative to modeling approaches and techniques in residential energy use, including case studies to assess and predict the energy consumption patterns of the sector. The purpose of this article is not only to review the research to date in this field, but to also identify the possible challenges and opportunities. Mobility, electrical devices, cooling and heating systems, and energy storage and energy production technologies will be the subject of the presented research. Furthermore, the energy upgrades of buildings, their energy classification, as well as the energy labels of the electric appliances will be discussed. Previous research provided valuable insights into the application of modeling techniques to address the complexities of residential energy consumption. This paper offers a thorough resource for researchers, stakeholders, and other parties interested in promoting sustainable energy practices. The information gathered can contribute to the development of effective strategies for reducing energy use, facilitating energy-efficient renovations, and helping to promote a greener and more sustainable future in the residential domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research provides a comprehensive exploration of energy efficiency dynamics in non-residential public buildings such as schools, swimming pools, hospitals, and museums. Recognizing the distinct energy consumption patterns of each building type, the study accentuates the unique challenges they present, with a particular focus on the continuous and intensive energy demands of hospitals and the unparalleled energy needs of swimming pools. Through an extensive review of various case studies, the research unveils prevailing energy consumption trends, highlighting the role of metrics in assessing energy efficiency and the inherent challenges these metrics face in ensuring uniformity and direct comparability. A core element of this analysis emphasizes the dual nature of technical retrofitting, categorizing interventions into passive and active measures. The research delves into the sustainability imperatives of energy interventions, exploring the economic motivations underpinning retrofit decisions, and the intricate relationship between advanced technological solutions and the behavioral tendencies of building operators and users. Additionally, the study uncovers the influence of external determinants such as climatic factors and government policies in shaping energy consumption in public buildings. In synthesizing these findings, the paper offers insightful recommendations, emphasizing the need for an integrated approach that harmonizes technological innovations with informed operational habits, aiming to optimize energy efficiency in public non-residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union, only 1% of the building stock is renovated every year. According to the EU strategy, around 75% of the existing building stock needs to be renovated by 2050. Energy efficiency programs mainly support residential and public building stocks; this article considers military dormitories as a type of unclassified building. It is very important to improve energy efficiency to reduce energy consumption and improve the microclimate in these buildings, since the staff is there 24/7. This paper analyzes the energy consumption and measures the indoor air quality in 13 nonrenovated military dormitories. The personnel in unclassified buildings have limited options for remote work in the case of COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, the retrofitting and maintenance of such buildings must be planned carefully. There is a significant lack of IAQ measurements in unclassified buildings. This study presents a wide analysis of energy consumption, indoor air parameters, and occupant satisfaction. On the basis of real data, four retrofitting scenarios were evaluated in IDA ICE dynamic simulation software. The simulation results showed that, in the case of a deep renovation scenario, the theoretical energy savings could be 77.6–79.3% of the used energy. This paper discusses the solar energy potential of onsite energy production for increasing the efficiency and energy supply resilience of unclassified buildings. The results of this study can be applied to other countries with climate conditions similar to Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gases emission as well as total energy consumption in buildings of public importance, such as schools, municipal buildings, health care centers, can be significantly reduced by increasing buildings' energy efficiency. Buildings' energy consumption adds up to 37% of total energy consumption in the EU countries. In the Republic of Serbia this amount is significantly higher, about 50%. School buildings are considered as one of the most diverse structures from the point of energy-efficient design and construction. The main aim of this paper is to determine the most appropriate settings for possible improvements in energy efficiency and temperature comfort inside a typical primary school classroom in Serbia. The energy efficiency analysis was performed during the heating season for the naturally ventilated primary school classroom located in the eastern Serbia region. The analysis was performed using novel CFD model, suggested in this paper. The suggested model was used to solve two hypothetical scenarios. The first scenario simulates the temperature field in classroom with current energy characteristic envelope of the school building. The calculated numerical data from the first scenario were compared with in-situ measurements values of temperature and wall heat fluxes and showed satisfying accuracy. The second scenario was simulated to indicate possible improvements, which would allow energy consumption decrease and thermal quality enhancement. The analyzed results, calculated using the suggested numerical model under the second scenario conditions, showed that using appropriate set of measures, it is possible to obtain desired temperature comfort levels without need for increase in the building energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lighting Engineering Laboratory - LEL - is one of the major lighting independent consultants in the north-west side of Romania. The laboratory is affiliated to the Building Services Faculty of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Over the past few years, the Lighting Engineering Laboratory carefully mapped the university's energy use. To estimate the actual level of energy efficiency at our faculty we compared previous consumption data to obtain the trends of energy consumption. The paper presents the energy consumptions recorded for the Building Services Faculty of Cluj-Napoca. This should be the very first step to achieve the most appropriate energy efficiency solutions for the university's buildings. Some lighting refurbishments were also tested as case studies. A new design for an active educational building that will produce more energy that it consumes - was proposed. The present paper tries to determine the detailed aspects of the building energy consumption, proposing at the same time some energy efficiency solutions economically viable for the most educational buildings in the Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing price of and demand for energy have prompted several organizations to develop intelligent strategies for energy tracking, control, and conservation. Demand side management is a critical strategy for averting substantial supply disruptions and improving energy efficiency. A vital part of demand side management is a smart energy management system that can aid in cutting expenditures while still satisfying energy needs; produce customers' energy consumption patterns; and react to energy-saving algorithms and directives. The Internet of Things is an emerging technology that can be employed to effectively manage energy usage in industrial, commercial, and residential sectors in the smart environment. This paper presents a smart energy management system for smart environments that integrates the Energy Controller and IoT middleware module for efficient demand side management. Each device is connected to an energy controller, which is the inculcation of numerous sensors and actuators with an IoT object, collects the data of energy consumption from each smart device through various time-slots that are designed to optimize the energy consumption of air conditioning systems based on ambient temperature conditions and operational dynamics of buildings and then communicate it to a centralized middleware module (cloud server) for management, processing, and further analysis. Since air conditioning systems contribute more than 50% of the electricity consumption in Pakistan, for validation of the proposed system, the air conditioning units have been taken as a proof of concept. The presented approach offers several advantages over traditional controllers by leveraging real-time monitoring, advanced algorithms, and user-friendly interfaces. The evaluation process involves comparing electricity consumption before and after the installation of the SEMS. The proposed system is tested and implemented in four buildings. The results demonstrate significant energy savings ranging from 15% to 49% and highlight the significant benefits of the system. The smart energy management system offers real-time monitoring, better control over the air conditioning systems, cost savings, environmental benefits, and longer equipment life. The ultimate goal is to provide a practical solution for reducing energy consumption in buildings, which can contribute to sustainable and efficient use of energy resources and goes beyond simpler controllers to address the specific needs of energy management in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of public procurement documents in the domain of university buildings taken from the e-procurement platform, particularly focusing on their transformation towards more efficient energy consumption. Using a corpus of the titles of the public procurement documents from 2020 to 2022, we used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modeling to understand the key thematic areas of focus. The methodology presented in this study incorporated a bifurcated approach. This two-stage procedure began with preprocessing and dictionary creation from the corpus of titles of procurement documents. Following this, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model was employed for topic extraction and trend analysis, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the thematic progression in procurement practices over time. Our analysis revealed a shift in emphasis from modernization towards the adoption of energy-saving technologies as well as a growing focus on broader sustainability initiatives. However, a less prevalent topic was adherence to cooling & heating systems, suggesting potential areas for improvement in procurement practices. These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on sustainable procurement in university buildings and offer valuable insight for universities to enhance their energy efficiency strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public buildings are energy-intensive users, especially when energy management is lacking. More than ever, the use of energy efficiency strategies and renewable energy sources (RES) in buildings are a national priority for Morocco in order to improve energy self-sufficiency, replace fossil fuel use and lower energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Relating to the exemplarity of the Moroccan government in terms of energy efficiency and sustainable development, the study support that aim and presents results of a deep energy performance analysis of more than 20 university campuses across Morocco, which has concluded that around 80% of the energy consumed in the university campuses is designated for lightning and hot water for sanitary use. Later, this study examined the potential for energy saving and the environmental benefits of implementing actions to reduce energy demand from the grid, considering the use of on-site solar energy. Thereafter, the study aimed to analyze the impact of RES integration in public university campuses, namely the photovoltaic (ESM1) for electricity output and solar thermal system for hot water use (ESM2), to assess the techno-economic-environmental performance on building energy consumption reduction. Hence, the paper reported a detailed energetic-economic and environmental (3E) analysis simulation for campuses by integration of the two Energy Saving Measurements (ESM). The results showed that the integration of ESM1 system can reduce the annual energy demand by 22% and the energy bill by 34%, whereas the integration of ESM2 achieved 67% in energy saving. According to the analysis of the results, the integration of ESM1 is expected to save 6044 MWh of electrical energy annually on the 30222 MWh for all campuses and 2559 MWh for ESM2 which is equivalent to 284 m3/yr of diesel. With the reduced energy consumption, it is possible to cut down fossil fuels for electricity production and offset greenhouse gas emissions by 672 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Besides, the evaluation of results showed that the energy performance indicator was reduced from 530 kWh/bed/yr to 248 kWh/bed/yr, which represents 56% of energy saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering Sciences is the property of Faculty of Engineering - Assiut University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The recent trend is to transform existing buildings into smart, green, or passive buildings by adopting sustainable technologies to achieve increased life comfort and production efficiency through reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption, and operating costs. Thus, existing buildings can be rehabilitated in order to have the lowest possible energy consumption. One of the highest demands on the energy consumption of buildings is the heating system used during the winter months. In this paper, we propose a management and control system for electrical and energy heating consumption, based on a BMS (building management system) that is used for the rehabilitation of the students' dormitories on a university campus. This includes a cogeneration plant that can be controlled in order to produce electrical and heating energy, depending on the requirements needed to heat the building in the cold season. The system reduced the consumption of energy for heating by 13% and of electricity by 32%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: To date, the 'values' associated with 'heritage buildings' have received little attention in designing technical interventions for energy efficiency. This may be due to a fear that modern interventions for improving energy performance clash with heritage conservation, especially conservation of original features. We argue that energy efficiency interventions and heritage conservation can co-exist if an in-depth understanding of people's heritage values and attitudes is obtained. This paper adds to our limited knowledge of residents' approaches to heritage conservation and energy efficiency. It does so by presenting the first study of its kind in Mexico's City Historic Centre (a World Heritage Site since 1987). The results reveal the type of heritage values that residents assigned to their buildings when seeking to achieve thermal comfort and energy efficiency in heritage buildings. With building construction representing one of the largest sectors responsible for the use of natural resources, retrofitting existing heritage buildings becomes a necessity, albeit a challenging one. The emergence of specific guidance on retrofitting heritage buildings has unveiled more than never the need to understand how residents negotiate, thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and heritage conservation decisions. The paper reports the complexity of the decision-making process of residents of heritage buildings in the Historic Centre of Mexico City regarding energy efficiency, intending to improve thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption while preserving heritage values. The study involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with users of heritage buildings that were thematically analysed, complemented by the monitoring of internal environmental conditions and system dynamics analysis. The results show that although the residents perceived the buildings' temperature as poor, passive thermal comfort actions (e.g., wearing more clothes and closing windows) were preferred against invasive retrofitting solutions for thermal comfort due to residents' resistance to a potential loss in the buildings' values and the high cost of changes. The degree of change necessary for maintenance, renovation, and actions for improving the thermal comfort of a heritage building is related to values and to their preservation for future generations. The users' changes were limited to small-scale interventions in floors and ceilings while avoiding touching what they consider essential to preserve and protect (i.e., social and cultural values). Integrating the user into the decision-making process would enhance the long-term continuity and sustainability of retrofitting policies and guidelines, thus avoiding losing heritage-built stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering Sciences is the property of Faculty of Engineering - Assiut University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nearly zero-energy-consumption buildings are the inevitable trend of future buildings. There have been a large number of studies on nearly zero building technology issues. However, there is no detailed study on how to effectively promote the development of nearly zero-energy consumption buildings according to China's national conditions. Here, by establishing an evolutionary game model, this paper discusses the dynamic game scheme selection and stability strategy of three stakeholders, namely local government, real estate companies, and construction consumers, related to the development of nearly zero-energy-consumption buildings in the development process. The conditions required for evolutionary stabilization strategies were identified. Finally, Matlab data simulation analysis is used to further illustrate the stability and equilibrium strategies of each subject and the sensitivity analysis of the main influencing factors at various stages in the development process of nearly zero-energy-consuming buildings. The research results show that the government plays a leading role in the early stage of the development of nearly zero-energy consumption buildings, and as the market matures, government intervention gradually withdraws from the market; furthermore, if the cost of supervision is prohibitively high, the government's willingness to supervise the market will be reduced. This will hinder consumers and developers from choosing nearly zero-energy-consuming buildings and if the penalties and subsidies are too low, it will be meaningless to the evolution of the optimal solution of the three parties. On this basis, targeted promotion programs are established to realize the rapid development of China's nearly zero-energy-consumption building sector. Our research results can provide important scientific basis for the development of the nearly zero-energy building industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for healthy indoor conditions, the energy crisis, and environmental concerns make building ventilation systems very important today. The elements of ventilation systems to reduce energy intensity are constantly the subject of much scientific research. The most recent articles published in the last three years are analyzed in this paper. Publications focused on the topic of reducing energy consumption in ventilation systems were selected and divided into five key research areas: (1) the aspect of the airtightness of buildings and its importance for the energy consumption, (2) the methods and effects of implementing the concept of demand-controlled ventilation in buildings with different functions, (3) the possibilities of the technical application of decentralized ventilation systems, (4) the use of earth-to-air heat exchangers, (5) the efficiency of exchangers in exhaust air heat-recovery systems. The multitude of innovative technologies and rapid technological advances are reflected in articles that appear constantly and prompt a constant updating of knowledge. This review constitutes a relevant contribution to recognizing current advancements in ventilation systems and may be helpful to many scientists in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China accounts for more than 22% of the total energy consumption worldwide. Building energy consumption, among which consumption in public buildings was about 40% took the second place. With the problems of high energy waste, error rate and complexity of the control systems available, an indoor intelligent lighting system based on occupants' location is proposed in this paper to improve the energy efficiency of the current lighting systems indoors. The transmission model of electromagnetic wave in free space is optimized in both aspects of reference signal strength and attenuation coefficient radiation in complex environment dynamically based on which occupants' positions are obtained. The smart lighting system will turn on or off corresponding lights adaptively to provide a more energy efficient platform. Experimental results show that the proposed system is able to improve the energy efficiency of indoor lighting by at least 15%, with a lower error rate below 2% compared with the existing lighting systems based on voice control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on applying multicriteria decision making tools to determine an optimal energy retrofit plan for a portfolio of buildings. We present a two-step decision making technique employing a multiobjective optimization algorithm followed by a multiattribute ranking procedure. The method aims at deciding, in an integrated way, the optimal energy retrofit plan for a whole stock of buildings, optimizing efficiency, sustainability, and comfort, while effectively allocating the available financial resources to the buildings. The proposed methodology is applied to a real stock of public buildings in Bari, Italy. The obtained results demonstrate that the approach effectively supports the city governance in making decisions for the optimal management of the buildings’ energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rapid urbanization across the world has led to an exponential increase in demand for utilities, electricity, gas and water. The building infrastructure sector is one of the largest global consumers of electricity and thereby one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing building energy consumption directly contributes to achieving energy sustainability, emissions reduction, and addressing the challenges of a warming planet, while also supporting the rapid urbanization of human society. Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) that are digitalized using advanced sensor technologies are a formal approach that is widely adopted to reduce the energy consumption of building infrastructure. Measurement and Verification (M&V) protocols are a repeatable and transparent methodology to evaluate and formally report on energy savings. As savings cannot be directly measured, they are determined by comparing pre-retrofit and post-retrofit usage of an ECM initiative. Given the computational nature of M&V, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be leveraged to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of M&V protocols. However, AI has been limited to a singular performance metric based on default parameters in recent M&V research. In this paper, we address this gap by proposing a comprehensive AI approach for M&V protocols in energy-efficient infrastructure. The novelty of the framework lies in its use of all relevant data (pre and post-ECM) to build robust and explainable predictive AI models for energy savings estimation. The framework was implemented and evaluated in a multi-campus tertiary education institution setting, comprising 200 buildings of diverse sensor technologies and operational functions. The results of this empirical evaluation confirm the validity and contribution of the proposed framework for robust and explainable M&V for energy-efficient building infrastructure and net zero carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraged by the European Union, all European countries need to enforce solutions to reduce non-renewable energy consumption in buildings. The reduction of energy (heating, domestic hot water, and appliances consumption) aims for the vision of near-zero energy consumption as a requirement goal for constructing buildings. In this paper, we review the available standards, tools and frameworks on the energy performance of buildings. Additionally, this work investigates if energy performance ratings can be obtained with energy consumption data from IoT devices and if the floor size and energy consumption values are enough to determine a dwellings' energy performance rating. The essential outcome of this work is a data-driven prediction tool for energy performance labels that can run automatically. The tool is based on the cutting edge kNN classification algorithm and trained on open datasets with actual building data such as those coming from the IoT paradigm. Additionally, it assesses the results of the prediction by analysing its accuracy values. Furthermore, an approach to semantic annotations for energy performance certification data with currently available ontologies is presented. Use cases for an extension of this work are also discussed in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frontier methods quantify the energy efficiency of buildings by forming an efficient frontier (best-practice technology) and by comparing all buildings against that frontier. Because energy consumption fluctuates over time, the efficiency scores are stochastic random variables. Existing applications of frontier methods in energy efficiency either treat efficiency scores as deterministic values or estimate their uncertainty by resampling from one set of measurements. Availability of smart meter data (repeated measurements of energy consumption of buildings) enables using actual data to estimate the uncertainty in efficiency scores. Additionally, existing applications assume a linear form for an efficient frontier; i.e., they assume that the best-practice technology scales up and down proportionally with building characteristics. However, previous research shows that buildings are nonlinear systems. This paper proposes a statistical method called stochastic energy efficiency frontier (SEEF) to estimate a bias-corrected efficiency score and its confidence intervals from measured data. The paper proposes an algorithm to specify the functional form of the frontier, identify the probability distribution of the efficiency score of each building using measured data, and rank buildings based on their energy efficiency. To illustrate the power of SEEF, this paper presents the results from applying SEEF on a smart meter data set of 307 residential buildings in the United States. SEEF efficiency scores are used to rank individual buildings based on energy efficiency, to compare subpopulations of buildings, and to identify irregular behavior of buildings across different time-of-use periods. SEEF is an improvement to the energy-intensity method (comparing ): whereas SEEF identifies efficient buildings across the entire spectrum of building sizes, the energy-intensity method showed bias toward smaller buildings. The results of this research are expected to assist researchers and practitioners compare and rank (i.e., benchmark) buildings more robustly and over a wider range of building types and sizes. Eventually, doing so is expected to result in improved resource allocation in energy-efficiency programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Façades are the most strategic and visible part of the building which leads to an improvement in appearance and environmental performances in buildings. Facades play a significant role in the quality of a building. It forms the barrier between the internal space and the outside climate. This means that the façade is the medium through which the interaction takes place between the activities, inside and outside. The image of a building, and therefore for the users, is reflected through the design of the façade. In recent practices, architects and engineers are strategically designing and installing dynamic facades not only for their aesthetic values, but also for improving the buildings' energy performance. The high integration of these strategies for dynamic facades increases their durability and suitability, with current building demands, which targets for energy efficiency and thermal comfort level. In the meantime, recent studies show that the majority of people spend up to 90% of their time indoors especially in hot climates. This trend has had a high impact on the requirements of the indoor environment, consequently turning the buildings into complex devices that ensure the wellbeing of the people who use them. Therefore, users are starting to look for new products for the façade design that comply with the requirements of energy. This poses an important question, is there anything to be done to this specific part of the building in order to positively influence the overall energy need of the building?. The paper will discuss the concept and the importance of dynamic facades according to their design and types, implementations, current challenges and climate impacts. It will highlight the history of these facades and the essential parameters which make the building sustainable through its facades. Moreover, the paper will analyze two examples of buildings with dynamic facades with automated control systems and its effect on the building environment. At the end, the paper tries to demonstrate if these facade systems and strategies could be applicable on the buildings in Egypt. Finally, the paper aims at integrating the dynamic facades in buildings as an environmental control system to achieve a sustainable design to reach good energy performance in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the European Union (EU), the energy demand of the building sector is evaluated at 40% of final energy consumption. Within this, the residential sector accounts for 63% of total energy consumption. These values justify the sustained effort for increasing building energy performance and to obtain efficient building materials, designs and solutions. However, the exclusive use of conservative construction products creates further problems as they require a considerable amount of energy for production and end-of-life management, in a context where EU priority issues are an efficient post-use of building materials, preferably in a circular economy context, and moving towards "zero carbon" buildings, a concept that soon will integrate the embedded energy and CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is essential to find new ways to reduce both the embedded CO2 in building materials, as well as CO2 associated with operational energy and to facilitate the post-use integration in economy. This paper presents a sustainable solution that meets these requirements, by integrating natural resources and agriculture by-products, with minimum embedded energy, in a novel design suitable for industrialization. The model is assessed from the point of view of the building energy demand and compared with a conventional unit using same architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for calculating the value of price risk reduction to a consumer that can be achieved with investments in energy efficiency. The value of price risk reduction is discussed to some length in general terms in the literature reviewed but, so far, no methodology for calculating the value has been presented. Here we suggest such a method. The problem of valuating price risk reduction is approached using a variation of the Black-Scholes model by considering a hypothetical financial instrument that a consumer would purchase to insure herself against unexpected price hikes. This hypothetical instrument is then compared with an actual energy efficiency investment that reaches the same level of price risk reduction. To demonstrate the usability of the method, case examples are calculated for typical single-family houses in Finland. The results show that the price risk entailed in household energy consumption can be reduced by a meaningful amount with energy efficiency investments, and that the monetary value of this reduction can be calculated. It is argued that this often-overlooked benefit of energy efficiency investments merits more consideration in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over many decades, buildings have been recognised as a significant area contributing to the negative impacts on the environment over their lifecycle, accelerating climate change. In return, climate change also impacts on buildings with extreme heatwaves occurring more frequently and raising the earth's temperature. The operation phase is the most extended period over a building's lifespan. In this period, office buildings consume most energy and emit the highest amount of greenhouse gas pollution into the environment. Building upgrading to improve energy efficiency seems to be the best way to cut pollution as the existing building stock is massive. The paper presents an economic analysis of energy efficiency upgrade of buildings with a focus of office buildings. The paper identifies upgrading activities that are commonly undertaken to upgrade energy efficiency of office buildings and a case study of three office buildings in Sydney, Australia has been used to analyse the results. The upgrading activities can improve the energy performance of the case study buildings from 3 stars to 5 stars NABERS energy rating in compliance with the mandatory requirement in the Australian government's energy policy. With the potential increase in energy price, energy efficiency upgrading will become more affordable, but currently, most of them, except solar panels and motion sensors show a negative return and would not be undertaken if they did not also contribute to higher rental income and an increased life span of the building. The upgrading discussed in the paper represent a potentially attractive alternative to demolition and building anew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sustainable use of active heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems is crucial for minimum energy consumption. Currently, research studies are increasingly applying adaptive setpoint temperatures, thus reducing considerably the energy consumption without influencing comfort levels excessively. Most of them, however, are focused on the limit values of adaptive comfort standards without considering the tolerance in users' adaptation capacity. This research study analyzed various tolerance ranges in the recent adaptive thermal comfort model from EN 16798-1:2019 used in setpoint temperatures. The study focused on the south of Europe, considering 47 cities in Spain, 18 cities in Portugal, 13 cities in Greece, and 20 cities in Italy. In addition, such cities were analyzed in three climate scenarios: present time, 2050, and 2100. The results showed that values prefixed by EN 16798-1:2019 for new buildings (tolerance of 0.00 °C) produced significant savings with respect to the static model and that each progressive improvement in users' thermal expectations in 0.25 °C increased the energy consumption between 6.57 and 9.31% in all scenarios analyzed. Even applying a thermal tolerance of 1.50 °C, energy savings are currently produced with respect to the static model. This tendency increases in future scenarios until a thermal tolerance of 1.75 °C. The results of this paper provide greater knowledge about the possible energy increase that the improvement in users' expectations would produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of maintaining users' thermal comfort conditions in indoor environments may require complex regulation procedures and a proper energy management. This problem is being widely analyzed, since it has a direct effect on users' productivity. This paper presents an economic model-based predictive control (MPC) whose main strength is the use of the day-ahead price (DAP) in order to predict the energy consumption associated with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). In this way, the control system is able to maintain a high thermal comfort level by optimizing the use of the HVAC system and to reduce, at the same time, the energy consumption associated with it, as much as possible. Later, the performance of the proposed control system is tested through simulations with a non-linear model of a bioclimatic building room. Several simulation scenarios are considered as a test-bed. From the obtained results, it is possible to conclude that the control system has a good behavior in several situations, i.e., it can reach the users' thermal comfort for the analyzed situations, whereas the HVAC use is adjusted through the DAP; therefore, the energy savings associated with the HVAC is increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by updated building energy codes and green building initiatives across the world, vacuum insulation panel, also known as VIP, has become a desired insulation product for building envelope constructions. VIP has initial center-of-panel thermal conductivity of 0.004 W/mK or lower, and integration of VIP in building envelopes can reduce CO2 emissions and contribute towards 'net-zero' or 'near-net-zero' building constructions. Although VIPs have been applied in real-world constructions across the world, primarily in Asia, Europe and North America, it is still a novel building product under investigation. This overview paper is a summary of fundamentals, constituents, constructions and performances of VIPs. The paper shows there exists many advantages and challenges associated with the integration of VIPs in building envelope constructions. The speed at which VIPs will be integrated in building envelope construction in the coming years remains unclear; nevertheless, it is evident that vacuum technology is the promising way forward for sustainable building envelope constructions in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the ability of a Building Information Model (BIM) to serve as a multi-disciplinary data repository, this paper seeks to explore and exploit the sustainability value of Building Information Modelling/models in delivering buildings that require less energy for their operation, emit less CO2?and at the same time provide a comfortable living environment for their occupants. This objective was achieved by a critical and extensive review of the literature covering: (1) building energy consumption, (2) building energy performance and analysis, and (3) building information modeling and energy assessment. The literature cited in this paper showed that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helped project design teams to predict and create optimized energy consumption. To validate this finding, an in-depth analysis was carried out on a completed BIM integrated construction project using the Arboleda Project in the Dominican Republic. The findings showed that the BIM-based energy analysis helped the design team achieve the world's first 103% positive energy building. From the research findings, the paper concludes that linking an energy analysis tool with a BIM model helps to expedite the energy analysis process, provide more detailed and accurate results as well as deliver energy-efficient buildings. The study further recommends that the adoption of a level 2 BIM and the integration of BIM in energy optimization analyse should be made compulsory for all projects irrespective of the method of procurement (government-funded or otherwise) or its size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human living could become very difficult due to a lack of energy. The household sector plays a significant role in energy consumption. Trying to optimize and achieve efficient energy consumption can lead to large-scale energy savings. The aim of this paper is to identify the equipment and property affecting energy efficiency and consumption in residential homes. For this purpose, a hybrid data-mining approach based on K-means algorithms and decision trees is presented. To analyze the approach, data is modeled once using the approach and then without it. A data set of residential homes of England and Wales is arranged in low, medium and high consumption clusters. The C5.0 algorithm is run on each cluster to extract factors affecting energy efficiency. The comparison of the modeling results, and also their accuracy, prove that the approach employed has the ability to extract the findings with greater accuracy and detail than in other cases. The installation of boilers, using cavity walls, and installing insulation could improve energy efficiency. Old homes and the usage of economy 7 electricity have an unfavorable effect on energy efficiency, but the approach shows that each cluster behaved differently in these factors related to energy efficiency and has unique results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Urgent Care Center of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina in city of Novi Sad, Republic od Serbia, as a specific medical facility with very demanding conditions of work and functioning, has an extensive and constant energy demands. The building is new, set into operation in 2010. The state-of-the-art concept and the equipment installed create conditions for using advanced solutions in the framework of supervisory and control systems, increasing energy efficiency and reducing operating costs in the Urgent Center. The aim of this paper is the assessment of additional possibilities for increasing energy efficiency in the building using a number of control techniques available today. According to a source of energy, the most utilized is the electric power, which is consumed for air conditioning, compressed air, and lighting. Thermal energy is used for space heating in winter and the preparation of hot water. The first step in increasing energy efficiency was the continuous monitoring and recording of consumption. The next step was the analysis of the energy consumption and the discovery of critical areas of consumption. The final step was related to the plans and algorithms for the energy reduction. To this goal, the energy consumption in the period March 2014-February 2016 was measured and recorded. According to that measuring and data analysis, an expert system based on the methods of computational intelligence that combines all the developed actions and algorithms for increasing energy efficiency in one unit was implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Cities contribute to a massive amount of carbon emissions. About 80% of the global greenhouse gasses are emitted from these cities. The sustainable practices should be adopted in built environment for these cities. As an example, a residential neighbourhoods in arid climate has been discussed as a case study in practice in this paper. It has been developed to implement the sustainable strategies and concepts. It demonstrates a mixed-use community which integrates the sustainability dimensions to improve the quality toward sustainable living in a small community (about 4000 persons), allocated in Dubai land area. This paper aims to highlight the sustainable practices in the arid zones and to give an overview about the performance of the clean energy and renewable in these areas. The studied development has been selected to evaluate such techniques and strategies in the gulf region (Dubai). Various environmental categories such as; on energy, water, mobility, energy consumption of the buildings and infrastructure, urban green spaces, solid waste management and urban farming, have been appraised in this study. It has been noticed that the urban design proposed reduces its potable water consumption by 40% and for energy demands by 57% compared to conventional households. The solar production can cover around 38% of the energy consumption on average. Many challenges face the sustainability movement in the region, especially, the affordability and feasibility in such harsh climate zones areas. This manuscript opens new perspectives about the prioritization that should be considered for adopting the sustainable strategies in arid climate. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the current sustainability challenges requires reduction in building stock energy usage towards achieving the European Green Deal targets. This can be accomplished by adopting techniques such as fault detection and diagnosis and efficiency optimization. Taking an Estonian school as a case study, an occupancy-based algorithm for scheduling ventilation operations in buildings is here developed starting only from energy use data. The aim is optimizing the system's operation according to occupancy profiles while maintaining a comfortable indoor climate. By relying only on electricity meters without using carbon dioxide or occupancy sensors, we use the historical data of a school to develop a DBSCAN-based clustering algorithm that generates consumption profiles. A novel occupancy estimation algorithm, based on threshold and time-series methods, then creates 12 occupancy schedules that are either based on classical detection with an on-off method or on occupancy estimation for demand-controlled ventilation. We find that the latter replaces the 60% capacity of current on-off schedules by 30% or even 0%, with energy savings ranging from 3.5% to 66.4%. The corresponding costs are reduced from 18.1% up to 62.6%, while still complying with current national regulations for indoor air quality. Remarkably, our method can immediately be extended to other countries, as it relies only on occupancy schedules that ignore weather and other location-specific factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global energy crisis has spurred increased investments in energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives; however, the results have fallen short of expected effectiveness. Concurrently, population growth and urbanisation drive a persistent surge in energy demands, especially within the residential sector, significant to overall building energy consumption. Current research focuses on residents' responses to one-shot investments for energy efficiency or clean sources. The renovation wave, involving a massive number of existing buildings, calls for the mobilisation of huge investments that can be hard to afford in the short run. Sustainable behavioural change is complementarily rising as a key asset for maximising the overall estimated energy saving potential. Despite significant efforts to analyse household energy use and promote behavioural transformations, the literature remains gaping about future users, particularly the younger generation, as future leaders of sustainable development who exhibit a more responsible approach towards climate-related issues but also a strong dependency on digital-based solutions, which may influence energy use patterns and living habits, also impacting relations among peers and overall societal sustainability and energy efficiency. This article proposes a systematic literature review to analyse the variables affecting young people's energy behaviour at home. The aim is to investigate the engines and gaps between strategies or tools for behaviour change and the expected effects, then find potential methods to address that barrier to identify a more promising approach, encouraging the younger generation to translate towards more sustainable energy behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the building sector is responsible for more than 40% of energy use and it contributes approximately 30% of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This high contribution stimulates research and policies to reduce the operational energy use and related GHG emissions of buildings. However, the environmental impacts of buildings can extend wide beyond the operational phase, and the portion of impacts related to the embodied energy of the building becomes relatively more important in low energy buildings. Therefore, the goal of the research is gaining insights into the environmental impacts of various building strategies for energy efficiency requirements compared to the life cycle environmental impacts of the whole building. The goal is to detect and investigate existing trade-offs in current approaches and solutions proposed by the research community. A literature review is driven by six fundamental and specific research questions (RQs), and performed based on two main tasks: (i) selection of literature studies, and (ii) critical analysis of the selected studies in line with the RQs. A final sample of 59 papers and 178 case studies has been collected, and key criteria are systematically analysed in a matrix. The study reveals that the high heterogeneity of the case studies makes it difficult to compare these in a straightforward way, but it allows to provide an overview of current methodological challenges and research gaps. Furthermore, the most complete studies provide valuable insights in the environmental benefits of the identified energy performance strategies over the building life cycle, but also shows the risk of burden shifting if only operational energy use is focused on, or when a limited number of environmental impact categories are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimizing energy consumption in buildings is one of the priorities of the European Union energy strategy. The European legislation has defined a legal framework to determine the energy qualification of a building that is used by each of the member states to define its own energy qualification procedure. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate the effect of climate conditions in the energy qualification procedure. It evaluates the effectiveness of the qualification in representing the yearly energy demand and \CO2 emissions. Moreover, it determines the effects of improvements in different parameters of the procedure (e.g., the construction materials of the enclosure, thermal installations, etc.) in order to improve qualifications. It has been applied to the Spanish legislation using a series of simulations of a typical domestic building, with climatic data from different zones of the Spanish territory. The most significant results are the similarity in the energy certification values obtained in all scenarios and the lack of concordance between the energy rating scale, energy consumption, and \CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract Modern technology has greatly affected buildings' envelope, which has a significant impact on the environmental considerations, users comfort and energy consumption. The paper addresses the subject of buildings' envelopes and the external skin configurations, due to its importance as the first element facing the external environment. The contemporary studies of the environmental sustainability have made such a topic quite significant, especially in the context addressed in the research: residential buildings in Alexandria, Egypt. Such a domain has recently generated a broad debate and drawn increased attention among those involved in the design and management processes, owing to the problem of the increasing energy consumption, especially in the residential buildings, which is accompanied by a noticeable lack of awareness among both the designers and householders about the most suitable technology for building envelopes. The aim of this paper is to test some variables of design and construction, so as to determine the appropriate technology for the environmentally-efficient envelopes of the residential buildings. The presented ideas could be of some significance in formulating useful and applied guidelines in the field of architectural design and re-design of residential buildings/projects. The research introduces a comparative discourse of a literature review covering the different definitions and notions of "Low Technology" and "High Technology", followed by a direct application on a case-specific context. Based on a systematic analysis using an Energy Plus simulation tool, the study concludes a set of statements and guidelines for designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the design and implementation of a model predictive control framework for temperature control in buildings zones via direct control of their thermal energy inputs. Comfort-centric approach in ensured by selecting building thermal zones to be equal to the physical building rooms. The framework integrates different identification and estimation technologies, machine learning and model predictive control to assure systematic handling of non-modelled disturbances and offset-free control. It is envisioned as the lowest level in the hierarchical decomposition of building subsystems responsible for comfort and shaping the overall thermal energy consumption in building zones. The paper shows how it is deployed on a full scale occupied skyscraper building. To enable optimization of the whole building behaviour a special focus is put on developing the possibility for interaction and coordination with other building subsystems or energy distribution grids. This ensures the scalability of the approach, computational relaxation, technology independency, cost-effective implementation and enables upscaling towards the smart grid and smart city concepts where buildings play decisive roles. [Display omitted] • Direct control of thermal energy per zone. • Enabled interaction with other building subsystems. • Integral part for upscaling towards smart grid and smart city concepts. • Deployment and verification on a scale of the whole skyscraper building. • Modular service built on top of the existing building automation infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new approach to architecture and urban design that results in an increase of the energy efficiency of buildings set close to each other, which is set as the optimization problem. The main goal is to maximize the sunlight impact on objects, in a way to minimize inter-object shading on each building. The problem is solved by the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm and its modifications, as well as the application of PSO algorithm with niches, which makes it possible to find a large number of local optima. It turned out that the PSO algorithm with niches is especially suitable for solving the described problems. The proposed methodology is illustrated by a few examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While technology advancements are improving the energy efficiency of buildings, occupant behavior remains a critical factor in ensuring the effectiveness of such enhancements. To this end, numerous eco-feedback systems have been developed to reduce building energy use through influencing occupants' behaviors during building operations. Information representation is a critical component in eco-feedback systems, affecting the users' interpretation, engagement, and motivation to reduce energy consumption. Many studies have focused on using different charts and technical units or abstract and artistic visualizations to represent energy consumption. However, the effectiveness of such techniques varies across studies. Recent research emphasizes the need to integrate information representation strategies that balance numeric and aesthetic appeal. Concurrently, studies have called for increased adoption of a Building Information Model (BIM) during a building's operations phase to improve facility management. In this paper, we introduce a new eco-feedback information representation method that combines numeric and aesthetic appeal through leveraging spatial and color-coding techniques in BIM. The BIM-integrated energy visualization approach developed in this paper uses the Revit Application Program Interface (API) and allows users to visualize and compare energy consumption values in 2D and 3D views of a multi-family building through a color-coding scheme in an as-built BIM. The method is validated through a user survey that quantitatively and qualitatively assesses the proposed 2D and 3D BIM eco-feedback compared to more traditional bar chart based eco-feedback. Our findings suggest that 2D spatial, color-coded eco-feedback provides the optimal information representation, as it is easy to understand, while evoking engaging and motivating responses from users. This study advances our understanding of eco-feedback information representation while expanding BIM applications during building operations. These are important steps to address the human dimension of energy efficiency in the built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]