Amaia Zuazua-Ros

Comparison of Detailed Occupancy Profile Generative Methods to Published Standard Diversity Profiles

Occupancy schedules in building spaces play an important role in evaluating a building’s energy performance. This work seeks to identify disparities between different occupancy estimation techniques; standardised occupancy profiles found in literature, business processes’ based profiles through interviews and accurate profiles from real on-field measurements. The occupancy diversity profiles of secondary spaces in a healthcare facility building are analysed through descriptive statistics and t test methods over different time horizons. Occupancy measurements are obtained by utilising a novel, robust and highly accurate real-time occupancy extraction system which is established through a network of depth cameras. Results indicate that the utilisation of real occupancy data, along with elaboration of the business processes that take place in building spaces have the potential to support more precise profiles in Building Performance Simulation software tools.

Comparative analysis of heat dissipation panels for a hybrid cooling system integrated in buildings

The use of cooling panels as heat dissipation elements integrated in buildings has been previously investigated by the authors. Those elements would be connected to the condenser and would dissipate the heat in a passive form. Following the research, this study analyses and compares the thermal performance of two heat dissipation panels as part of a hybrid cooling system. Both panels were experimentally tested under different variables, thus having nine scenarios for each panel. Additionally, an already validated model was applied. The empirical results show a considerable difference between the cooling capacity among them, doubling the daily average ratio in one scenario. The heat dissipation ratios vary between 106 and 227 W/m in the first case and 140 and 413 W/m in the second. Regarding the model applicability, the average error for each panel was 4.0% and 8.5%. The bond between the metal sheet and the pipes of the panels has proven to be the main parameter to assure the highest heat dissipation potential of each panel.