Impact of Low-E Window Films on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions of an Existing UK Hotel Building

Abstract

In order to fulfil the UK government’s ambitious goal of 80% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to the levels of 1990s, unprecedented measures for improving the energy efficiency of buildings are needed. This study investigates the impact of a specific type of Low-emissivity (Low-E) window film—Thinsulate Climate Control 75—on the holistic energy consumption of an existing United Kingdom (UK) hotel building. Building modelling and energy simulation software EDSL TAS is used to conduct the study. The result of the simulations demonstrates that by applying Thinsulate films, savings in heating, cooling, and total energy consumptions are achieved by 3%, 20%, and 2.7%, respectively. Also 4.1% and 5.1% savings are achieved in annual CO2 emissions and total energy costs, respectively, while the initial costs may be an issue. This study found that application of Low-E window films results in slightly better energy performance of the hotel regarding its heating-dominant climate. The study also recommends using average annual actual energy consumption data for a time range, instead of picking a single year’s data for validating purposes.

Reduction Strategies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from High-Speed Railway Station Buildings in a Cold Climate Zone of China

“…As a major consumer of societal energy and national resources, it is necessary to conduct evaluative research on HSRS buildings in the scope of embodied GHG emissions. Several studies have focused on the energy consumption and carbon emissions from multiple building typologies internationally, including residential, office, school, and hotel buildings in China [8,9], Norway [10,11], Spain [12] and the United Kingdom [13]. More attention should be paid to the environmental performance of HSRS buildings, which also needs to be drastically improved.…”

Combinational Approach of Energy Management for Sustainable Food and Crop Storage Facilities: A Research Concept

“…The low-E coatings are typically structured as dielectric/metal/dielectric (DMD) multilayer thin films deposited by various methods, promotes the strong and very wide-band reflection of thermal infrared wavelengths. Recently energy harvesting PV glass windows (contain thin-film coating) capable of on-site energy generation simultaneous with the functionality of tailoring the incident sunlight spectrum required for different crops that improve production yields, can be useful for the design and building of innovative and cost-effective greenhouses for horticultural industries [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44].…”

Impact of Adding Comfort Cooling Systems on the Energy Consumption and EPC Rating of an Existing UK Hotel

“…The actual energy consumption of the hotel varies from one year to another, (Figure 4), due to changes in weather situation and occupancy rates. In the case of significant difference between annual consumptions from one year to another, e.g., when extreme weather conditions occur, using the average annual consumption can be a better choice for validating the simulated/estimated data [41]. As briefly mentioned in the previous section, the baseline model needed to be validated against the actual energy consumption data to ensure that it was reliable and made a robust foundation for further analysis.…”

“…The actual energy consumption of the hotel varies from one year to another, (Figure 4), due to changes in weather situation and occupancy rates. In the case of significant difference between annual consumptions from one year to another, e.g., when extreme weather conditions occur, using the average annual consumption can be a better choice for validating the simulated/estimated data [41].…”