Search

Este trabajo se enmarca dentro del acondicionamiento ambiental de viviendas en clima calido-humedo, y en la obtencion de condiciones de confort termico por medios predominantemente pasivos. El analisis se centra en una vivienda representativa de las tipologias constructivas de La Habana (Cuba), como ejemplo caracteristico del clima calido-humedo. Se analiza mediante un software de simulacion dinamica la evolucion de la temperatura interior de la vivienda para diferentes situaciones de ventilacion natural y de las estrategias de sombreamiento en combinacion con aquellas. Al comparar las temperaturas interiores de la vivienda, resultantes de la simulacion efectuada, con las exteriores hora a hora y dia a dia proporcionadas por el modelo, se cuantifican las amortiguaciones y amplitudes de la onda termica en condiciones de invierno y de verano, en funcion de las diferentes estrategias adoptadas, y se valoran las situaciones termicas obtenidas en orden a una mejor habitabilidad de la vivienda.

The attached sunspaces are classic bioclimatic systems. Normally, they are used as solar passive techniques in buildings. However, it has been suggested that they could also be used as active systems in order to collect solar energy and harness it in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. This paper analyses the sunspace built during the ARFRISOL project, which has a validated simulation tool of its thermal behaviour, developed in a previous research. In this paper, this tool is applied to study the possibility of the energy collection. Although this energy is not enough to be used as direct heating system, it can pre-heat the air before entering the HVAC equipment. Two configurations have been studied: collecting the energy during the whole day or only at night to take advantage of the sunspace thermal inertia. Also, the results obtained with these configurations have been compared with the sunspace used in passive mode. For this analysis, several characteristic days with summer and winter climatic conditions have been considered. Finally, an economic evaluation of this innovative system –a solar active sunspace- is performed taking into account the results of the different configurations.

This paper presents a monitored performance study of a bioclimatic educational building with the best Spanish energy performance label. The building is half-buried in the north facade and it has been constructed integrating sunspaces, shading devices, wooden structures, differentiated facades, ventilation strategies, biomass boilers and geothermal conducts. The summer overheating produce by sunspaces was solved with the inclusion of optimize eaves to prevent the solar radiation only during the summer. The highest inner temperatures were reached inside the building during winter. The harnessing of the earth thermal inertia of the half-buried north facade decreased the heating and the cooling energy demand of the building. The post-processing of the registered data highlighted the and exceptional situations. Finally, a review of standardized indices for a long-term evaluation was carried out. The differences between the inlet variables needed by each index resulted in very different thermal comfort percentages. Adaptive models reached the highest values of thermal comfort while regulations based only on temperature set points reached the lowest thermal comfort percentages.

The building sector is the highest energy consumer (38.1%) in the European Union. This consumption has to be reduced in both new and existing buildings. Respect to the existing ones, they need an effective energy renovation as the current European Directives reflect. Specifically, according to these Directives, all countries have had to retrofit 3% of their public buildings per year since 2014. There are dozens of retrofitting measures that can be applied to each building, and selecting the most appropriate ones is not an easy task. In this paper, a decision matrix is proposed as a tool to identify the most appropriate retrofit measures of an existing building. This decision matrix is calculated using dynamic simulation tools. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is carried out and the energy deviations produced modifying the input variables are quantified. The outputs obtained by this decision matrix are the building loads of each retrofit measure and the associated cost. After obtaining this decision matrix, a multi-variable optimization has been made considering different cost functions. This methodology has been applied to an educational building at Oviedo University, located in Gijon (Spain). According to the climate classification of Gijon, the Spanish normative and the building layout, three upgrading measures have been studied: addition of insulation on the envelope, windows renovation and shading devices. It has been observed that the influence of the cost function selected is relevant, and for the educational building, the case with the best glazing but only intermediate facade insulation is the best retrofitting choice according to the majority of cost functions compared.

To increase the comfort level of urban public areas during the summer period, several passive strategies can be implemented. In areas characterized by hot and dry summers, the most common techniques are based in solar shading, natural ventilation and evaporative processes. The case study analized in this work is a cylindrical construction called “Air Tree” that was built in a boulevard in Madrid. It is composed by sixteen evaporative wind towers that combine the three passive strategies. The main objective is to evaluate the thermal influence of this construction in the perception of heat and cold. This value has been quantified by the outdoor TS comfort index at 1m high in the pedestrian area. To that effect, temperature, humidity and radiation values recorded during the summer of 2008 have been used. Air velocities in the interest area have been obtained indirectly by CFD simulations, previously validated with experimental data. The results from this study show that the application of these techniques enhances the social and environmental quality of urban spaces.

The present article is intended to show the main features, advantages and applications of bioclimatic architecture as well the integration of renewable energies into edification. For such purpose, the Project of an approximate 1.700 m2 intelligent zero-conventional-energy (“Bioclimatic”) building (referred to as PETER Project (Experimental Transborder Park on Renewable Energies), which is being located in the Campus of the University of Extremadura in Badajoz, is described. It will implement the concepts of saving and energy efficiency in buildings. Specific principles directly relating building design, like energy saving, energy efficient and integration of renewable energy sources. In addition, it will be shown how acclimating buildings by measures that diminish energy consumption is possible in extreme climate cities (like Badajoz itself, with necessity of heating in winter and refrigeration in summer). Finally, a description of the energy response of the building is carried out via computer simulation techniques.