Hasim Altan

Energy Performance Analysis of University Buildings: Case Studies atSheffield University, UK

University energy consumption is becoming increasingly important both financially and environmentally. Indeed, government grant allocation now directly relates to environmental performance and it is essential that university spending on energy is reduced, without reducing the useful output or services offered by a well-regarded educational establishment, such as the University of Sheffield. Over the last four years, the University’s Estates and Facilities Management have collected energy data from a selection of five buildings: Crookesmoor Building, Humanities Research Institute, Northgate House, Graduate Research Centre and Regent Court. In this study, the five university buildings’ energy data is compiled and analysed in relation to energy benchmarks. Additionally, time-series analysis, building specification surveys, and comprehensive building classification were carried out. Finally, recommendations were made in terms of the buildings that offer most potential for improved energy savings in the near future. The findings indicated that, aside from a few exceptions, the buildings perform poorly in terms of gas consumption, whereas electricity consumption is generally acceptable. Moreover, gas consumption could be most significantly reduced, although improved heating management could be applied to all buildings. Electricity consumption is generally more acceptable, although scope for improvement remains, particularly in buildings with extensive IT facilities.

Trends of Indoor Environment and Energy Consumption Incidence by Human Activities

This study has been undertaken as part of the Energy Innovation for Deprived Communities (EIDC) project, which aims to deliver a new approach to energy efficiency and renewable energy projects within a minimum of ten of the most deprived communities across six Local Authorities within Yorkshire and the Humber region in the UK. The properties will be assessed by energy efficiency experts and then brought up to modern standards with a range of measures including so-called smart electricity meters and heating systems upgrades to boilers, wall and loft insulations, double glazing, insulated cladding and even solar panels where appropriate. It is important for the success of the EIDC project that both detailed monitoring and post occupancy evaluation are performed on a sample of houses before rolling out a wider refurbishment. Energy consumption and indoor environment were analysed based on indoor activity of participants. The results from one dwelling showed that the energy consumption rises in the evening due to the use of cooker to prepare dinner and the use of electric shower. In addition, the temperatures increased in the evening for everyday and remained on that level till late night due the lack of ventilation during the time. Electrical energy consumption was correlated to the indoor environment and indoor air quality. The results showed that electrical energy has a direct proportion to indoor air temperature levels i.e. temperature increases when electrical energy consumption increases.

Design for sustainability: A comparative study of a customized modern method of construction versus conventional methods of construction

Emergent methods of construction are believed to have achieved higher standards, thereby delivering improved building performance. Added to the higher living standards however, this sometimes proves to be very difficult to evaluate. In addition, the state-of-the-art strategies and methods applied elsewhere, if employed in the construction industry, might not prove as environmentally friendly as they might need to be. This has been used as our core discussion to evaluate new buildings against refurbishment with reference to environmental performance. This article investigates an offsite construction method offering customization against its conventional counterpart in a fairly controlled context. The comparison has been normalized to guarantee most realistic results. We start with a brief introduction to the two educational buildings, followed by a brief overview of customization strategy. We will then argue why the new building can be accounted for as a mass customizable system. The data was collected, collated and analysed, and the environmental impact of two buildings was measured using two different open-source applications. The result shows that despite the higher standards required by law, which in return increases the environmental impacts, the new school building is performing significantly better with a slightly lower environmental impact compared to the old building.

Energy Performance Development of Non-regulated Retrofit Mass Housing Estates in Northern Cyprus

Abstract This research project was undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C). The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity; to explore how and why occupants decide to change building components and to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient materials. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This research paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 16 housing estates in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders.

Zero Energy Homes

In the last 50 years a fifth of the planet’s inhabitants had a strong development that deeply changed their habits and their life quality. For this enhancement, the people of the developed areas paid a high price. A large use of energy, produced from non-renewable sources as fossil fuels, increased the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere with several problems and a huge impact on the nature. As a consequence, there is a need to rethink the design of buildings, cities and their organizations. The challenge for the new sustainable cities is to grow according to the lifestyles of today and tomorrow, while implementing a better relation between the nature and the mankind and restoring the lost human contacts. An option for doing this is to design and develop Zero Energy Homes (ZEH) reducing to the minimum the impact of pollution and the exploitation of non-renewable sources. In particular, the following aspects should be considered: to use of renewable and recycled materials; to improve the energy efficiency of buildings; to introduce more efficient energy systems that use alternative and clean sources; and to introduce building automation systems (to optimize the energy consumption). In this lecture the following topics will be presented: definition of ZEH, including a review of definitions, parameters influencing the definition and examples, criteria to build or refurbish to a ZEH standard and some questions and examples related with the design, construction and operation of new Zero Carbon Homes.

The Effect of Passive Design Strategies on Thermal Performance of Female Secondary School Buildings during Warm Season in a Hot and Dry Climate

This paper describes a series of field studies and simulation analysis to improve the thermal performance of school buildings in the city of Tehran in Iran during warm season. The field studies used on-site measurement and questionnaire-based survey in the warm spring season in a typical female secondary school building. The on-site monitoring assessed the indoor air temperature and humidity levels of six classrooms while the occupants completed questionnaires covering their thermal sensations and thermal preferences. Moreover, thermal simulation analysis was also carried out to evaluate and improve the thermal performance of the classrooms based on the students’ thermal requirements and passive design strategies. In this study, the environmental design guidelines for female secondary school buildings were introduced for the hot and dry climate of Tehran, using passive design strategies. The study shows that the application of passive design strategies including south and south-east orientation, 10cm thermal insulation in wall and 5cm in the roof, and the combination of 30cm side fins and overhangs as a solar shading devices, as well as all-day ventilation strategy and the use of thermal mass materials with 25cm-30cm thickness, has considerable impact on indoor air temperatures in warm season in Tehran and keeps the indoor environment in an acceptable thermal condition. The results of the field studies also indicated that most of the occupants found their thermal environment not to be comfortable and the simulation results showed that passive design techniques had a significant influence on the indoor air temperature and can keep it in an acceptable range based on the female students’ thermal requirement. Therefore, in order to enhance the indoor environment and to increase the learning performance of the students, it is necessary to use the appropriate passive design strategies, which also reduce the need for mechanical systems and therefore reduce the energy loads of the building.

Using IBM SPSS statistics to identify predictors of electricity consumption in a UK supermarket

In order to save energy in supermarkets, technical solutions need to be supported by appropriate maintenance and operation tools. These tools should provide sufficient information to detect unusual levels of energy consumption. Therefore this paper presents an explorative study on a well sub-metered grocery supermarket in the UK Yorkshire and Humber region. The data collected for this study included electricity consumption, footfall data, inside and outside climate data, as well as settings of all relevant building timers. Thereafter the meaningfulness of these predictors was evaluated with the ‘stepwise’ option in the linear regression section of SPSS. The results generally show a very good fit between the mathematical regression model and the measured data (r > 0.95). The only exception was the refrigeration model for all five days. Upon further investigation it was found that the current reading for one of these five days was unusually low (proving the effectiveness of the method to detect abnormalities). Based on these results it can be argued that it should be possible to use data routinely gathered by supermarkets or otherwise easily obtained to detect greater abnormalities and thus keep energy consumption to a minimum.

The Impact of Urban Fabric on Natural Ventilation for the City of Alexandria

Alexandria is one of the most famous cities on the Mediterranean Sea. Many ages have passed over the ancient city and formed huge changes in the urban fabric, until the time came up with the first scheme of Alexandria in the modern age by the British Sir MacLean in 1921. By adopting the principles of the network planning, with perpendicular streets on the coast and parallel to the winds’ directions; MacLean was able to create the ideal thermal environment of the coastal city. With water surface (Mahmoudya canal) mediated the fabric and by maintaining the Lake of Hadara, the city achieved the cross natural ventilation effect of the urban fabric level providing the thermal comfort in the deepest point to the south, away from the coast. Unfortunately, many changes have taken place on MacLean scheme during the past ninety years. The lake had been totally replaced with a classy residential area (Smouha) along with huge informal housing expansion to the south-west and east of the city. While Smouha followed a completely contrary pattern, the informal housing expansion came out as the same as the old layout attributes. Smouha became a classy residential hot zone surrounded by informal housing areas enjoying better natural conditions. This paper is an investigative comparison study depending mainly on a fieldwork. The collected air quality numerical measurements of CO, CO2, levels of humidity and particles matter that came out within the global standards, were used along with the winds’ characteristics to assess the real effect of the natural ventilation of the urban fabric. The study has proven that the network planning invented by the early builders of Alexandria has still the preferred layout accommodating the incoming air flow into the city in which the natural ventilation is playing an important role of providing better living conditions and reducing the air pollutants’ proliferation.

ZEMCH Business Operation in Japan

Today, Japanese housing manufacturers mass-customise their highly industrialised houses with the aim to deliver quality affordable homes in which design quality, or housing performance, can be defined by buyers/users in consideration of their economic constraints. Moreover, in response to the drastic hike of energy prices and global warming issues, the prefabricators today tend to commercialise net zero energy homes. Their high-quality, zero energy mass custom homes (ZEMCH) that are also reasonably priced enjoy a good reputation. This chapter will identify the essential elements of Japanese housing manufacturers’ business operation being applied for the delivery of socially, economically and environmentally sustainable homes that satisfy the market needs and demands.

Energy Use in Housing

This chapter mainly focuses on energy use in housing and covers areas related to energy use breakdown, demand side management, fuel poverty, occupant behaviour and smart metering. It also touches on importance of reducing energy use and its associated carbon emissions by discussing best practice benchmarks. Some of the learning outcomes anticipated as follow: (1) Overview of the energy use in housing including its breakdown and usage trends. (2) Understanding the relationships between the demand side management and its associated carbon emissions as well as the supply side perspective. (3) Understanding the correlation between energy use and fuel poverty both locally and globally. The idea is to provide an overview of, and a basic ability to understand the energy use in housing in order to help design and retrofit housing projects toward reduction of energy demand and/or energy end-use efficiency. Energy benchmarks and best practice guidelines have been discussed as well as fuel poverty and interventions for adopting energy conscious behaviour. In addition, integration of renewables and smart technologies will be touched on to support demand side management including operation and maintenance.