Implementing User Behaviour on Dynamic Building Simulations for Energy Consumption

The energy poverty derived from socio-economic imbalances affects mostly households with fewer economic resources, being social housing complexes one of the most vulnerable sectors. The insufficient access to energy and the incapability to maintain dwellings at an adequate temperature can have negative impact on people’s health due to the prolonged exposure to poor hygrothermal conditions. Therefore, the prioritization of building retrofitting actions must be carried out regarding the actual state of the housing and the family economy. This paper proposes the definition of a prioritization map that gave a general knowledge of the energy vulnerability situation of the existing building stock. To this end, the dwelling’s energy performance is analysed, focusing on the correlation among its characteristics and the energy vulnerability of its inhabitants. In this way, dwellings with high energy poverty potential are identified in order to develop different energy retrofitting strategies. By applying this method to 14 case studies of social housing in Bilbao, Spain, it was obtained a prioritization map with six levels of vulnerability that can serve as a tool for public entities to design their future strategies. It has been proven that building compactness and year of construction are important factors with a great impact on the heating demand and final consumption in dwellings. Acknowledging the vulnerability context of the building stock eases the decision-making process and the definition of intervention guidelines, prioritizing those in a situation of greater vulnerability.

Section: Annual Heating Demand and Cost Calculation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposal for Prioritizing the Retrofitting of Residential Buildings in Energy Poverty Circumstances

Perez-Bezos

Grijalba

Irulegi

2020

“…User behaviour has a non-negligible importance for energy consumption. Today, even building simulations aim to take user behaviour into account [2]. Interventions to change energy use behaviour have the potential to help reduce energy demand, avoid greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy costs.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top Energy Saver of the Year: Results of an Energy Saving Competition in Public Buildings

Kaselofsky

Schüle²,

Rošā

et al. 2020

Non-residential buildings in the European Union consume more than one third of the building sector’s total. Many non-residential buildings are owned by municipalities. This paper reports about an energy saving competition that was carried out in 91 municipal buildings in eight EU member states in 2019. For each public building an energy team was formed. The energy teams’ activities encompassed motivating changes in the energy use behaviour of employees and small investments. Two challenges added an element of gamification to the energy saving competition. To assess the success of the energy saving competition, an energy performance baseline was calculated using energy consumption data of each public building from previous years. Energy consumption in the competition year was monitored on a monthly base. After the competition the top energy savers from each country were determined by the percentage-based reduction of energy consumption compared to the baseline. On average, the buildings had an electricity and heat consumption in 2019 that was about 8 % and 7 %, respectively, lower than the baseline. As an additional data source for the evaluation, a survey among energy team members was conducted at the beginning and after the energy competition. Support from superiors, employee interest and motivation and behaviour change as assessed by energy team members show a positive, if weak or moderate, correlation with changes in electricity consumption, but not with changes in heat consumption.

“…In a study focusing on the impact of user behaviour and how to incorporate user behaviour on building simulation, Jimenez-Bescos et al [22] have noticed a reduction in comfort due to future weather will generate a change in behaviour from users to adapt to higher temperatures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Performance Gap of Climate Change on Buildings Design Analytical Stages Using Future Weather Projections

Alhindawi

Jimenez-Bescos

2020

Self Cite

With the higher pace of climate change, temperatures are rising each year, resulting in various effects on the thermal status of buildings. This paper takes the opportunity of analysing different scenarios of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using hourly weather data of future projections by implementing EPW weather files on EnergyPlus software dynamic simulations, coupled with architectural science methods of climate analysis, to test the effect of high and medium-high emission scenarios for the 2050s and 2080s future timelines on thermal comfort range, passive zones potential, and heating/cooling periods, as compared to the weather data from 2003–2017. Simulations results have shown a remarkable effect on the scale of daily cooling hours and monthly coverage under the high GHG emission scenario, expanding its range by 60 %, with 6 hours on summer peak days and 3 months/year, as well as an annual decrease in heating period by 33.3 %. Thermal comfort zones of tested periods have also witnessed an alternation, translating the effect on the passive cooling and passive heating zones’ way of variating, where the ranges are pushed towards their potential limits. Results have also demonstrated that if future weather data is not included in simulations, a weather-related performance gap is generated.