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The improvement of the energy efficiency of building stocks represents an important contribution for the reduction of the energy consumption in the European Union (EU), along with the decrease of greenhouse gases emissions. In this aim both the public administrations and the technical experts need reliable calculation methodology to assess buildings’ energy performance. In this framework, despite the recent publication of the Standard EN ISO 52016, that deeply modifies the approach to the energy building simulation by introducing a new hourly dynamic calculation model, the current normative framework (EN ISO 13790) will maintain its validity until the incorporation of the new Standard in the national Standards and Decrees (such as the Italian Standard UNI/TS 11300-1) will take place. The aim of this paper is comparing the suitability of the simulation approaches proposed by the above-cited Standards in relation to their different levels of complexity and to the levels of details of the results provided by them. On purpose, a case study in which the energy behaviour of a public building, sited in the Sicilian city of Trapani in the South of Italy, will be analysed and the results of the simulations conducted according to the aforementioned Standards will be compared considering the outcomes of the EnergyPlus software as reference values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing is poised to make major contributions to the global sustainability effort by engaging the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, and energy delivery. This paper discusses three near term opportunities for computing in the field of building energy efficiency. Integrated design uses building energy modeling to search for ultra-efficient buildings tailored to use requirements and climate. Continuous commissioning uses sensing, learning, and model to detect and diagnose mechanical system faults that degrade building energy performance. Computing can also be used to engage building occupants and modify their energy consumption habits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rapid development of residential housing in Kazakhstan entails an increase in the consumption of thermal energy and, accordingly, carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. According to the Department of Statistics, only in 2019, 41,415 individual and 1,746 multi-apartment residential buildings became operational in the country of the total living area of 13,133.8 thousand square meters. Providing that all built houses comply with energy efficiency requirements of Kazakhstan, the introduction of new housing has increased the consumption of thermal energy by about 1,557 gigawatt-hours. If all these buildings were heated by natural gas, annually emissions into the environment would be about 380 thousand tons of CO2, fuel oil - 500, electricity − 650 thousand tons. Especially difficult situation is in the Almaty region, there is intensive and rapidly developing construction, which leads to pollution of the region by emissions of thermal energy production. In order to analyse the possibilities of reducing heating energy consumption and CO2 emissions, statistical data on the construction of residential buildings in the Almaty region over the past years were collected. The efficiency of conversion of different types of energy into the thermal energy production was evaluated in calculation of CO2 emission. Using reference single-apartment and multi-apartment buildings 4 sets of measures to reduce the thermal energy consumption in buildings were modelled by reducing heat loss through the building envelope and using different more efficient heating and ventilation systems. Carbon dioxide emissions were calculated due to the annual increase in housing area regarding different buildings energy efficiency options and used primary energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use PCM is a way to store thermal energy on reducing the material volume and in building applications to choose the desirable phase-change temperature to reach a thermal comfort temperature. For old buildings, it is impossible to use traditional PCM as the envelope. But using a piece of PCM as a part of window maybe is a feasible choice. We have done experiments to study the PCM effects about indoor temperature and density of heat flow in Shanghai, China. The results of these experiments indicated the indoor average temperature decreased 1.67°C in the daytime and increased 1.71°C in the night, the space heat gain decreased 61% in the daytime and increased 230% in the night when PCM had used in the experimental rooms. The heat flow of PCM is the half of the glass windows in the daytime. PCM would decrease the indoor heat load in the daytime and change the thermal indoor environment in the evening. The investment payoff period is about 4 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]