Inevitably, the 21st century has initiated a series of developments in the construction industry, leading to its digitalization and resulting in a series of innovative approaches and practices. At the same time, the construction industry, being one of the main global environment polluters, should fulfil well-established, as well as novel, sustainability requirements in order to evolve in harmony with the rising concerns on the availability of natural resources. This overview study aims to present the main developments, research, and scientific challenges in the field of sustainable construction, emphasizing the field of energy. The study aims to present a state-of-the-art scientific discussion on the sustainable built environment topic by analyzing cutting edge topics in the fields of building elements and whole building energy assessment, of indoor air quality and low carbon buildings, as well as on sustainable energy systems and smart buildings. The study also presents the state-of-the-art in existing tools which are adopted for the assessment of the sustainable built environment, including the use of digital tools and building information modelling for the energy assessment of the built environment, as well as the application of Life Cycle Assessment on building-related processes. Cross cutting issues related to the analysis of the building sector in the Industry 4.0 era, such as sustainability management topics and environmental geomatics are also discussed. The study concludes in those fields which will be of interest of the scientific community in the following years, towards achieving the goals of the sustainable development of the building sector.
Similar to other cold climate countries, space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) accounts form the largest share of household energy demand in Lithuania. Heat pump technology is considered to be one of the environmentally friendly solutions to increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Heat pumps have been finding their way into the Lithuanian market since 2002, and currently there are many good practice examples present in the country, especially in the residential and public sectors. Heat pump use is economically advantageous in the Baltic Region, and the market share of these systems is growing. Studies have reported seasonal performance factor (SPF) ranges within 1.8 and 5.6. The lower SPF values are typically attributable to air source heat pumps, whereas the higher efficiency is achieved by ground or water source heat pump applications. While the traditional heat pump techniques are well established in the region, there is a slow uptake of new technologies, such as solar-assisted heat pumps, absorption heat pumps and heat pumps integrated into foundations, tunnels or diaphragm walls. This paper provides a critical review of different heat pump technologies, using Lithuania as a cold climate case study to overview the market trends within the European context. Potential trends for the heat pump technology development in terms of application areas, cost-benefit predictions, as well as environmental aspects, are discussed.
Indoor air quality as well as thermal comfort has a significant effect on productivity of the employees in office buildings. It may reduce work performance and cause financial losses in a long term perspective. Sudden temperature swings may have an impact on the work performance as well. The aim of this study was to assess the change of office work performance of the same individuals affected by unsteady air temperature. Office work was simulated in the test chamber with two workplaces and two persons at the time. 78 individuals of age 19 to 31 were divided into three groups and took participation in performing productivity tests. Two cases were analysed: one with the temperature rise from '22 to '26 8C and another with the temperature drop from '22 to '18 8C. The same tests were performed with the placebo group under a constant air temperature of '22 8C. Results of the study showed that subjects in the placebo group performed better while executing tasks for the second time and the overall productivity was higher by 2.1%. In case of the air temperature raise, performance reduced by 0.1% and the overall productivity improved by 5.2% in case of air temperature drop.
Medium-scale solar hot water systems with a total solar panel area varying from 60 to 166 m 2 have been installed in Lithuania since 2002. However, the performance of these systems varies depending on the type of energy users, equipment and design of the systems, as well as their maintenance. The aim of this paper was to analyse operational SHW systems from the perspective of energy production and economic benefit as well as to outline the differences of their actual performance compared to the numerical simulation results. Three different medium-scale solar thermal systems in Lithuania were selected for the analysis varying in both equipment used (flat type solar collectors, evacuated tube collectors) and type of energy user (swimming pool building, domestic hot water heating, district heating). The results of the analysis showed that in the analysed cases the gap between measured and modelled data of heat energy produced by SHW systems was approx. 11%. From the economical perspective, the system with flat type solar collectors used for domestic hot water production was proved to be most efficient. However, calculation of Internal Rate of Return showed that a grant of 35% is required for this project to be fully profitable. OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2015, 8 5726
Indoor climate affects health and productivity of the occupants in office buildings, yet in many buildings of this type indoor climate conditions are not well-controlled due to insufficient heating or cooling capacity, high swings of external or internal heat loads, improper control or operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, etc. However, maintenance of good indoor environmental conditions in buildings requires increased investments and possible higher energy consumption. This paper focuses on the relation between investment costs for retrofitting HVAC equipment as well as decreased energy use and improved performance of occupants in office buildings. The cost-benefit analysis implementation algorithm is presented in this paper, including energy survey of the building, estimation of occupants dissatisfied by key indoor climate indicators using questionnaire survey and measurements. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) analysis is used in the proposed method for data processing. A case study of an office building is presented in order to introduce an application example of the proposed method. Results of the study verify the applicability of the proposed algorithm and TOPSIS analysis as a practical tool for office building surveys in order to maximize productivity by means of cost efficient technical building retrofitting solutions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.