Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo

Analysis on the performance of a high efficiency administrative building in Spain

ABSTRACT A building is an element that consumes great quantities of primary energy both during construction and operating life. Buildings are reported to consume 40% of total primary energy in Europe. Efficiency and saving policies in this sector should be priority to reduce the European energetic dependence on third countries as well as to diminish greenhouse emissions. The present work is aimed at review the results obtained during the first operating year of a public building with high energetic qualification in Mérida (Spain), which develops novel techniques on efficiency, energy saving and integration of renewable energies applied to the building sector. The building was constructed according to the climatic characteristics of Mérida. Diverse techniques regarding passive solar collection and thermal isolation, window and roofing shadowing and natural lighting were accounted for. The results showed that it is possible to air-condition public buildings in extreme weather regions by applying specific measures to minimize energy consumption with the use of renewable energy sources (solar energy and biomass). Based on the actual energetic results, the economic, energetic, and environmental feasibility of this kind of building is also analyzed.

A Quantitative Analysis of Cold Water for Human Consumption in Hospitals in Spain

An estimation of the water used for human consumption in hospitals is essential to determine possible savings and to fix criteria to improve the design of new water consumption models. The present work reports on cold water for human consumption (CWHC) in hospitals in Spain and determines the possible savings. In the period of 2005–2012, 80 Eco-Management and Audit Schemes (EMAS) from 20 hospitals were analysed. The results conclude that the average annual consumption of CWHC is 1.59 m3/m2 (with a standard deviation of 0.48 m3/m2), 195.85 m3/bed (standard deviation 70.07 m3/bed), or 53.69 m3/worker (standard deviation 16.64 m3/worker). The results demonstrate the possibility of saving 5,600,000 m3 of water per year. Assuming the cost of water as approximately 1.22 €/m3, annual savings are estimated as 6,832,000 €. Furthermore, 2,912 MWh of energy could be saved, and the emission of 22,400 annual tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere could be avoided.

Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses on Project Deficiencies in Flat-Roof Design in Extremadura, Spain

AbstractThe present paper reports on the analysis performed over a set of 44 final designs projected in the period 2000 to 2007, and is aimed at performing a quantitative and qualitative analysis on the prevalence of project deficiencies in flat roofs in construction building projects. The methodology is based on the study of a set of control parameters to point out the most frequent deficiencies in flat-roof designs. Out of the total number of sample projects, only eight (18.18% of total number of projects) were categorized as high-quality projects, while 17 (38.63%) and 19 (43.18%) were finally regarded as intermediate and low-quality, respectively. The use of accurate methodologies at former project stages to identify potential failures or construction deficiencies in advance is a successful predictive strategy, which directly enhances infrastructure sustainability. It provided they might prevent between 70 and 80% of the standard pathologies addressed for flat roofs, and might moreover achieve annual ...

Diagnosis of functioning incidences from judicial claims in building installations in Spain

Building facilities are an important part of construction, given that they interact with the rest of the building and may generate complaints from and dissatisfaction among the users, with subsequent litigation in courts. Expert reports used during judicial processes resulting from user complaints constitute an original source of knowledge on incidences in facilities. This article analyses the anomalies detected in 15 different types of installations from a total of 496 buildings under study, in which judicial claims were filed between 2008 and 2010, in Spain. In total, 854 incidences were found. The material damages and causes and consequences were analysed. These incidences were categorised qualitatively and quantitatively, and the most recurrent situations were studied. Through statistical analysis, the building typology, climate and location with the greatest likelihood of manifesting problems in each facility were determined, as well as the complaint risk factor per facility. It was also detected that most of the incidences (41.34%) were caused by lack of water-tightness in the facilities. With this information, technicians will be able to detect the most conflicting points and reduce failures in the execution of their projects, thus improving building construction quality.

An analysis of technical facilities failures in modern Spanish houses

The correct execution of facilities in housing determines their maintenance and comfort. The objective of this article is to identify the usual functional failures, common in technical facilities of houses, study their causes and determine their consequences. To this effect, a total of 153 detached houses (18%), 231 attached houses (27%), 444 apartment blocks (52%) and 26 residential buildings of other types (3%) were analysed. The facilities with the greatest number of detected failures were ‘covered sanitation pipes’ (24.00%), ‘exposed sanitation pipes’ (20.73%), ‘ventilation’ (13.93%), ‘heating and air conditioning’ (11.01%) and ‘plumbing’ (9.72%). The most common types of failures identified were ‘malfunctions’ (41.22%) and ‘humidity/runoffs in finished elements’ (37.55%). The housing typology which concentrates the most failures is ‘apartment block’ (52%), followed by ‘attached houses’ (27%). The causes, in general, are one of the following three: ‘installation anomaly’, ‘omission of/in an installation’ and ‘joints or tail-ends inadequately placed or deteriorated’. Practical application: This work presents a methodological procedure which allows designers to identify the most common incidences in building facilities and the causes leading to them, analyse their consequences and avoid their appearance in the design stage.

Challenges of Biomass in a Development Model Based on Renewable Energies

Although fire has been known to mankind for about 500,000 years, the implementation of biomass energy in the world has barely changed since then, having been used mainly for heat production. To this end, an estimated global consumption of biomass accounts for 10.6% of total world consumption of primary energy. However, the use of biomass as transportation fuel or for generation of electricity is not displayed in the annual world, European, or national statistics, as if its contribution to primary energy consumption was insignificant. What is the reason behind this? Why is the development of biomass only limited to its thermal use? Why is the production of biomass for electricity and transportation purposes not increasing? And what is then happening to biomass? The present article addresses issues that, in our view, limit the incursion of biomass in current energy systems and provides some answers to solve them.

Assessment of Energy Consumption in Spanish Hospitals

In this chapter, assessment of energy consumption in Spanish hospitals is analysed. The quantification of energy consumption in hospitals is essential to save energy and establish design criteria. Average energy consumption in hospitals in Spain adds up to about 20% of the total energy consumed in the service sector. The aim of this paper is to analyse and quantify the final average energy consumption in hospitals in Spain according to appropriate parameters, including built surface area, number of bed and number of employees. The results show that the average annual energy consumption in normal operation conditions in the hospitals under study can serve as a starting point for the development of indicators in order to quantify the exact consumption of energy. They can also help to set optimal hospital infrastructure through healthcare engineering.

Metrology of Surfaces Applied to the Electrochemical Polishing Process

This study presents an integrated approach to the teaching of surface metrology and the regulation of electrochemical polishing process control parameters. The electropolishing processes permits different ranges of surface finish through different combinations of the process parameters of current density (J) and electropolishing time (t), and students must have a sound knowledge of the procedure for selecting filters (λs, λc, λf). Thus, experimental trials are undertaken to establish the influence of current density (J) and electropolishing time (t) on surface finish by measuring the arithmetic average roughness parameter (Ra), and setting the filters and measurement procedure for each range of surface finish. The integrated learning of both disciplines enables students to consolidate their knowledge on the methodology for measuring surface roughness (Ra), and to establish direct correlations between variation in process control parameters and the surface finish obtained by characterizing the behaviour of the process.

A Tool Wear Monitoring System for Steel and Aluminium Alloys Based on the same Sensor Signals and Decision Strategy

This paper presents a tool wear monitoring system that uses the same signals and prediction strategy for monitoring the machining process of different materials, i.e., a steel and an aluminium alloy. It is an important requirement for a monitoring system to be applied in real applications. Experiments have been performed on a lathe over a range of different cutting conditions, and TiN coated tools were used. The monitoring signals used are the AC feed drive motor current and the cutting vibrations. The geometry tool parameters used as inputs are the tool angle and the radius. The performance of the proposed system was validated against different experiments. In particular, different tests were performed using different numbers of experiments obtaining a rmse for tool wear estimation of 17.63 μm and 13.45 μm for steel and aluminium alloys respectively.