Analysis of the Impact of Self-Isolation of Residents during a Pandemic on Energy Demand and Indoor Air Quality in a Single-Family Building

Abstract

This work presents the results of analysis of the final energy demand (Qk) for a single-family house in a pandemic situation and accompanying self-isolation of residents. It was assumed that the object of study is located in Bialystok (Poland). This analysis covers the impact of various factors such as specific periods of the active pandemic phase, the length of the inhabitants’ self-isolation period, the number of residents at home, and the type of energy source used in the building. Based on the results of computational experiments, a deterministic mathematical model of the relationship between these variables was developed, and the effects of the selected factors on the final energy demand were analyzed for the typical meteorological year (TMY) weather data. It turned out that the change in the length of the self-isolation period from 0 to 31 days caused an increase of Qk by about 6.5% for the analyzed building. When the number of inhabitants changed from 1 to 4, Qk increased by 34.7%. A change from 4 to 7 people causes an additional 26.7% increase in Qk. It was found that the structure of energy demand for this building operation during the period of inhabitants’ self-isolation also changed. With the increase in the length of the self-isolation period from 0 to 31 days, the electricity demand (Eel) increases by about 40–42%, while the demand for energy related to fuel consumption (Qg) decreases by about 7–10%. The article also presents an analysis of the impact of residents’ self-isolation on indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort. The simulation results showed that the use of variable air volume ventilation allows the CO2 concentration to be kept significantly below the limit value.

Energy efficient ventilation and indoor air quality in the context of COVID-19 - A systematic review

“…While MV is more commonly studied in educational, office, and commercial buildings with 11 and 4 published papers, respectively, NV and HV modes are more prevalent in residential buildings with an overall 6 published papers. The even number of papers investigating NV and HV proves the significance of considering both two potential ventilation modes in residential buildings [ 68 ]. Studies has shown that homes, in which individuals spend a significant period, are mostly exposed to aerosol contaminants [ 121 ].…”

Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Approximation of Heat Conduction in Three-Phase-Lag Solid

“…The calculus of (D 2 ∆ u) n j provided in ( 39) is a straightforward application of definition (D 2 ∆ u) n j and the relation for (D 1 ∆ u) n j provided in (36). We initialize the discretization of the system by evaluating the initial conditions, i.e., functions ψ 1 and ψ 2 provided in (11), on the mesh I ∆x :…”

“…We rewrite (L 1 ∆ u) 1/2 j and (D 1 ∆ u) 1/2 j in notation (41). We begin by (L 1 ∆ u) 1/2 j , from (21) and the initial condition (11), and we deduce that…”

“…In recent years, and mainly driven by concerns regarding climate change, there is a growing concern to investigate issues related to the global environment, where one of the areas is that related to energy [1][2][3]. More specifically, regarding energy, there are various investigations focused on its distinct aspects that range from improving energy efficiency [4,5], encouraging the energy refill of clean energy devices for transportation and heating [6,7], promoting the construction of buildings that guarantee low energy consumption [8][9][10], and the proposal of global policies that regulate the practices and guide the industrial activities that reduce CO 2 emissions [11,12]. In this context, engineering applications based on multilayered materials have been encouraged.…”