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Abstract: Managing thermal comfort, in both hot and cold climates, critically influences energy use in homes [1-4]. For low income households, who commonly live in thermally poor housing stock, maintaining thermal comfort can be costly relative to household income, leading to trade-offs between comfort, energy use and affordability. Comfort as a concept has been explored from many vantages, including as a physiological need [5,6]; a parameter for healthy housing [7]; as an energy efficiency building standard [4,8] and a cultural construct [9,10]. Yet, there is little research available that provides detailed insight into the relationship between thermal comfort and energy efficiency in existing housing stock or about the impact of support programs on these key indicators. This paper reviews measures of household thermal comfort as they relate to energy efficiency assessments in a project, Get Bill Smart (GBS), that worked with low income households in Tasmania, Australia. Thermal comfort and energy use data was collected over 15 months from 51 households, a sub-set of the 510 households participating overall. Longitudinal interviews and housing observations were also conducted. New thermal comfort and energy efficiency indicators were developed from this data. This paper demonstrates the application of these indicators by providing examples of findings in GBS. Suggestions are made for the refinement of measures discussed for use in future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a multi-method (interviews, cost-benefit analysis, technical monitoring) longitudinal evaluation of ten social housing dwellings in Horsham (Victoria, Australia), including four low-energy and six control houses. Occupants of the low-energy houses purchased 45-62% less electricity, had lower utility bills resulting in financial savings of $1,050/year, had improved thermal comfort, health and social outcomes. However, there were several challenges for the providing government department and tenants, including supporting tenants to use certain sustainability features of the house as designed. The paper concludes by providing discussion to help guide similar projects in the future to more sustainable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores energy use and behaviour of older urban Australians by identifying the key factors that shape their energy demand. As Australia is facing an aging population, understanding what structural and behavioural factors can help improve residential energy efficiency is key for developing effective policy initiatives to support the successful management of household energy costs, wellbeing and carbon emissions within this population. This paper reports on survey and electricity meter data collected for an energy efficiency program involving 1,647 older householders (aged 60 and above) living within the Brisbane City Council Local Government Area. The program was funded by the Australian Government Low-Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP) and ran from November 2013 to February 2015. Brisbane is Australia’s third largest city and has a subtropical climate, with warm or hot weather for most of the year. The findings show that electricity consumption within the study’s sample population was influenced by both structural and demographic factors. These factors include range of energy sources used, number of bedrooms and number of people living in the household, as well as type of appliances used in the home. In terms of appliance use, high-energy consuming appliances such as water heating and space cooling systems, clothes-dryers and refrigerators were important predictors of energy consumption. Over two-thirds of the study participants were relying on cooling systems for thermal comfort, and such systems were typically not being used in an energy efficient way. The use of high-energy demand heating and cooling systems can account for around 40% of energy consumption in Australian households, and has a large impact on electricity peak demand. With the penetration of air-conditioning in seniors’ home expected to increase over time, it is important to better understand the range of low and high-energy demand practices that are currently employed by older Australians to achieve thermal comfort at home. Designing strategies that minimise the need for high-energy demand cooling practices will be key for managing household energy costs and wellbeing within this target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Buildings use significant amount of energy worldwide, with mechanical air-conditioning systems accounting for a large proportion of the total energy consumed. Utilizing natural ventilation can achieve a comfortable indoor thermal environment while reducing the use of air-conditioning and building energy consumption. However, previous studies mainly focused on either thermal comfort or energy conservation by utilizing natural ventilation. The correlation between thermal comfort and energy performance due to the effect of natural ventilation is important, but has not been studied thoroughly in literature. Moreover, natural ventilation in buildings is greatly affected by building geometry, material property, outdoor environmental condition and occupancy, which were not fully incorporated in the previous studies. This paper presents a framework based on building information modeling (BIM) to study the effect of natural ventilation on the correlation between thermal comfort and energy performance. BIM provides 3D building models with detailed geometric and material information as well as the building location and type that help determine the outdoor environmental condition and occupancy, thereby improving the accuracy of natural ventilation simulation. A case study was conducted using the proposed framework, aimed at investigating the natural ventilation in a residential flat in Hong Kong at different seasons. The results show that utilizing natural ventilation cannot always achieve thermal comfort. Natural ventilation brings cool air in late spring (April) during which the indoor temperature can be controlled at a comfortable level and the energy use for mechanical ventilation can be saved. The proposed framework helps evaluate the natural ventilation in buildings for maintaining indoor thermal comfort at minimal energy use, thereby creating a more sustainable built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The indoor temperature in traditional Variable Air Volume (VAV) systems is controlled synchronously by increasing or decreasing the damper of the valve based on the return air temperature. However, the thermal comfort cannot be guaranteed since the load inside may not be evenly distributed, energy is wasted due to continuing cool down space even though no occupants inside. Thus, this paper introduced a coordinated control strategy aiming to improve energy efficiency and thermal comfort of large-scale rooms. A case study was presented on a summer day to show the benefits of the proposed method. The selected chamber is divided into two subzones with each controlled by a separated VAV box. Typically, each zone can be controlled independently by regulating its corresponding VAV box to track the temperature set point. Since occupants may move randomly, the worst scenario is that one subzone was fully packed. In this case, the corresponding representative temperature cannot be cooled down to its set point, and an extra airflow rate may be needed using its neighbor VAV box to cool down the air inside. To achieve this function, the thermal coupling effect between zones is considered with the Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) integrated into the control platform established in TRNSYS. The simulation results show the proposed control can deal with the dynamic variation of load distributions inside. The introduction of heat exchange between adjacent zones can improve the accuracy of the temperature controls. The energy consumption of the variable speed supply fans was compared with conventional control, approximately 10% of energy saving was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a newly developed personal cooling device called Thecla and its influence on a subject's thermal sensation and comfort as well as the energy demands of cooling buildings. Thecla is a thermoelectric cooling partition that provides a cooled surface using longwave radiation exchange to cool a user's skin and clothing. The impact of this device on the skin temperatures and the resulting impact on the personal thermal sensation and comfort is determined through a human subject study and numeric comfort and sensation model simulations. The cooling capability of Thecla is quantified by the term "corrective delta", which describes the highest possible temperature increase from a neutral thermal condition for which Thecla could still maintain thermal comfort. The amount of cooling energy saved because of admissible higher set temperatures is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The ‘ Beat The Heat! ’ project was a project of the Australian Federal Governments ‘Low Income Energy Efficiency Program’ (LIEEP). This project aimed to enhance the resilience and improve the comfort and wellbeing of Adelaide households during South Australias long, hot summers. The installation of ceiling insulation and new air-conditioners in the main living areas of low-income households were two of the key interventions made through this project. Total electrical energy consumption of each household and the air-conditioner were monitored following these interventions and compared with electricity bills before the installation, during matched summer periods. Indoor temperatures of the main living area were also monitored, following the intervention, to assess the improvement in thermal comfort. Significant differences between the energy use before and after household interventions, along with associated household perceptions, are discussed in this paper. Specifically, the impact on energy consumption of factors such as household income, the source of cooling energy prior to the intervention and differences in climate and thermal comfort are explored. For houses where an old, inefficient and ineffective air-conditioner was replaced by a new, efficient split system (3.23

High-rise apartment buildings in Canada are an integral part of the residential building stock, and their dominance is continuing to grow as their market escalates. Meanwhile, the refurbishment of the existing multi-unit residential building stock is becoming a fundamental step in order to address Canadian energy saving targets. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness for energy saving of increasing the thermal capacity of the building enclosure. In particular, thispaperassesses the benefits ofthe adoption of Phase Change Material (PCM) in lightweight constructions in the climates of Toronto and Vancouver. The main aspect investigatedis the contribution of PCM systems to lower the building cooling demand and to increase the indoor thermal comfort. Building simulations aimed at comparing different PCM systemsfor building elements such as floors, ceilings, and walls are reported.Different orientations and internal gains are considered in order to have a complete understanding of the potential benefits of the adoption of systems with high (latent) thermal energy storage capacity in building retrofits in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of five educational institution buildings and three municipality department buildings were carried out in Liepāja municipality, Latvia. Aim of the study is to draw attention to finding balance among energy efficiency, thermal comfort and indoor air quality dilemma. The research of recently renovated public sector buildings was done. The combination of factors that form microclimate and indoor air quality are described in the paper. Emphasis is put on a person's ability to perform mental tasks in regards of changes in thermal comfort and air quality. Surveys of buildings’ inhabitants and economic aspects of human productivity changes were carried out in the research. Also four ventilation scenarios have been modelled and economic benefits of each scenario have been assessed. Different air exchange rates can make 19% human productivity improvement. Using ventilation systems as it is designed already gives economic benefit and not all the buildings need additional investments for new system implementation. The economic benefit in four buildings is more than 20 000 euro already in second year. The priority for planning, designing and managing education institution buildings should be indoor environment and thermal comfort of inhabitant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the most innovative aspects of the EC-FP7 EcoThermo project. The main aim of the project consists on innovating the technique of heat cost allocation in buildings with a centralized heating system, overcoming the heat cost allocator drawbacks for reliability, measurement reproducibility and traceability and contexts of applications. Given the complexity of the project, we will focus on its main aspects, such as the use of a virtual sensor to estimate the radiators heating power, the design of electronic valves fitted out with an energy harvesting system and the original wireless communication protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]