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Introduction: The decisive stage in technological, investment and energy demand for the production Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava) flour, is their paste pneumatic drying. Objective: To optimize the design of a cassava flour production facility considering as optimization functions the profitability dynamic indicators and as independent variables the root treatment capacity and the drying gas temperature for an energetic combination using biogas and Cuban crude oil as drying agent. Materials and Methods: Appropriate technology was selected, adopting traditional schemes for the initial stages and designing equipment for pneumatic drying. The indicators net present value, internal rate of return and discounted payback period were modeled through a central compound experimental design, generating nine runs and determining the traditional economic indicators that allowed establishing the cash flows under the foreseen conditions. Regression models for dynamic profitability indicators were optimized by means of ridgeline analysis using response surface methodology. Results and Discussion: The optimum economic variant has a capacity of 13 242.6 troots/y, feeding a mixture of air and flue gases of biogas and Cuban crude oil at 113.34 °C to a pneumatic dryer with a duct of 30.42 m3. Conclusions: An adequate equilibrium between technical-economic, energetic and environmental factors is achieved under optimal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop a new energy certification rating system in hot and dry climates. To do this, sustainable strategies must be applied for tertiary buildings. The methodology consists to evaluate these passive strategies by covering three proportions of sustainability (energy, economic and comfort), with a dynamic simulation. In addition, to calculate energy performance and energy savings indicators, we are carrying out a survey to establish reasonable and fair criteria for case study. In this study, four stages were carried out data collection and analysis, evaluation of the energy performance indicators of the strategies. With a multi-criteria analysis, we can evaluate indices of the energy performance of a building, in order to set up a new energy certification, which can allow energy savings and maintain comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A carbon price of USD 30/tCO 2 reduces income up to 2.5% for low-income households. • Effects on income distribution are mostly driven by differences in energy expenditure shares. • An inverse U-shape energy expenditure to income relationship explains distributional effects. • Distributional effects of carbon pricing tend to be progressive in low-income countries. Abstract Even though concerns about adverse distributional implications for the poor are one of the most important political challenges for carbon pricing, the existing literature reveals ambiguous results. For this reason, we assess the expected incidence of moderate carbon price increases for different income groups in 87 mostly low- and middle-income countries. Building on a consistent dataset and method, we find that for countries with per capita incomes of below USD 15,000 per year (at PPP-adjusted 2011 USD) carbon pricing has, on average, progressive distributional effects. We also develop a novel decomposition technique to show that distributional outcomes are primarily determined by differences among income groups in consumption patterns of energy, rather than of food, goods or services. We argue that an inverse U-shape relationship between energy expenditure shares and income explains why carbon pricing tends to be regressive in countries with relatively higher income. Since these countries are likely to have more financial resources and institutional capacities to deal with distributional issues, our findings suggest that mitigating climate change, raising domestic revenue and reducing economic inequality are not mutually exclusive, even in low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Keep it in the Ground" Movement (the "Movement") is a coalition of environmental groups that seek to end fossil fuel extraction by halting oil and gas development on federal lands. Supporters of the Movement demand a safer climate future and the transition to a renewable energy economy. However, the Movement is premised on the notion that the United States can divest fossil fuels, particularly petroleum hydrocarbons, from its energy economy and terminate oil and gas development in the near-term future. The Movement disregards the possibilities of serious economic impacts with respect to domestic revenues and infrastructure fi-amework, and geopolitical risks tied to energy independence and regional stability. This Article examines the rise of the Keep it in the Ground Movement and analyzes the challenges that would follow its evolution and implementation if it continues to ignore the reality of American energy use and reliance. It promotes the adoption of Energy Realism in two forms. The first form of this realism, Pragmatic Energy Realism, addresses the realities of actual petroleum consumption and reliance. The second form, Philosophical Energy Realism, borrows philosophical concepts arising from Kant's theories of realism to develop the theory that there is only one uniform reality of energy. Application of these theories highlights the flaws of examining the issue from solely an environmental perspective. In fact, the author hypothesizes that such an evaluation is not correct. Rather, this Article asserts that there is only one reality with respect to energy, environment, poverty, and other aspects of energy consumption and environmental impact. It is therefore impossible to isolate any single perspective without fundamentally dismissing reality and instead embracing a subjective perspective. This Article also proposes initiatives that the Movement could adopt to affect changes in consumer demand and energy consumption including: energy efficiency measures, implementation of a carbon tax, and addressing energy' poverty. The author intends that understanding and adopting Energy Realism will provide new directions and goals for the Movement and further the necessary dialogue between stakeholders on the interrelationships between energy and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the climate change impact on cooling energy consumption of office buildings in four major architectural climate zones in China. The results show that there are apparent differences in the responses of monthly or yearly cooling loads to climatic change in different climates. Dominant factors affecting monthly cooling loads change from dry bulb temperature (DBT) to wet bulb temperature (WBT) with the climate zones changing from severe cold to hot. The yearly cooling load was mainly afftectd by DBT in severe cold climate, whereas the WBT had the dominant effect in the other climates. With the continuous warming climate, the yearly cooling load did not rise significantly for any climate zone except for severe cold climate zone where cooling load had a significant increase ( p  < 0.01). More importantly, the cooling load showed a weak decrease in Guangzhou. These results suggest that different measurements for buildings cooling energy conservation should be made in different climate zones. The humidity effect should be fully considered to improve buildings energy efficiency, especially in the hot climate zones. The continuous increase of temperature in the future does not necessarily increase cooling loads of buildings in the cold, hot summer & cold winter and hot summer & warm winter climate zones, and change trendency of humidity in the future need to be considered to predict cooling energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis on the use of the R1 formula to determine the recovery status of some energy from waste plants. Detailed R1 computations are provided to demonstrate the application of R1 guidelines in incineration and gasification facilities. Climate and size correction methods are proposed in consideration of the disadvantage faced by smaller-sized energy from waste plants or those located in warmer regions in meeting the set threshold. A key highlight is the case-based application of climate and size correction factors to three case study plants in scaling the R1 value in consideration of external variants. The proposed size and climate correction factors are compared with the climate correction factor defined in the Waste Framework Directive of the European Union. The application of the proposed correction factors lead to conservative R1 scaling when compared with the application of the Waste Framework Directive climate correction factor. The introduction of the size correction factor addresses an important gap in the current Waste Framework Directive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of studying tropical urban climate was recognised by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) as early as in 1981 but substantial improvements were seen only in the last two decades. However specific knowledge of tropical urban climate still lags behind that of temperate climate. In this paper, authors review the state of the art in tropical heat island intensity, its influence on building energy consumption and the effect of urban compactness in the tropics. The review is limited to peer-reviewed journal publications found on four databases: Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and Science Direct. The review indicates that although the tropical belt has large variations in topography, forest cover, land mass and development patterns, much of the current work is confined largely to Far East Asia, South Asia and South America. Future studies should focus on protocol for parameterisation and standardisation of measurement, in depth and scientific understanding of the influence of vegetation, water and topography, survey and monitoring of the context specific relationship between UHI and energy consumption, development of database for numerical model validation and improvement, and the context specific development of LCZ based institutional framework to integrate UHI mitigation strategies with environmental design guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy models are valuable tools that are commonly employed for the optimal design of distributed energy systems (DES). However, the model-based design process of DES can be affected by uncertainty, which can lead to suboptimal design decisions and is introduced by aspects like the stochastic nature of renewables or the unknown future global energy and economy outlook. A critical first step of any effort to examine and incorporate uncertainty in the design process of DES includes the performance of a thorough uncertainty characterisation (UC). The UC task comprises the identification of the sources of uncertainty in the model's parameters and the assignment of a mathematical description to their uncertainty. The aim of this paper is to identify and categorise the most important uncertain parameters in typical DES design models and review the approaches used in the literature to represent their uncertainty. The uncertain aspects investigated pertain to the availability of renewable energy (wind and solar), the economic and environmental dimensions of energy carriers in a DES, the costs and technical characteristics of the technologies composing a DES, and, finally, the uncertain energy demands that a DES must satisfy. The analysis reveals the diversity and the varying complexity levels of the approaches used to characterise each parameter's uncertainty, as well as the specific parameters on which studies in the literature have mostly focused. Additionally, this review can serve to assist modellers who wish to introduce uncertainty considerations in their DES design model with the selection of appropriate UC approaches. Finally, in discussing the results of this review, directions for more effective UC in DES design are discussed, as well as suggestions for the integration of uncertainty in the design process of DES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article describes a case study that estimates the energy-saving potential of radiant cooling systems in different climate zones of India using calibrated building energy simulation. The case study uses an office building for the performance assessment of a radiant cooling system. The building consists of two symmetrical sides; one side of the building is cooled by the radiant cooling system, whereas the other side uses a variable air volume system. A whole building energy model was developed in EnergyPlus and was calibrated at the component level with the measured data to ensure the accuracy of the predicted results. The calibrated building energy model was then used for estimating the energy-saving potential of the radiant cooling system in four cities in different climate zones of India. The results revealed that a maximum energy saving of 27% was achieved in Bengaluru (temperate climate zone) and that the minimum, 11%, was achieved in Chennai (warm and humid climate zone). The impact of an energy recovery wheel was also estimated, and it was found that maximum energy savings from an energy recovery wheel were achieved in Chennai. Energy savings decreased when an energy recovery wheel was used in Bengaluru City in conjunction with the radiant cooling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural ventilation and the use of fans are recognized as sustainable design strategies to reduce energy use while reaching thermal comfort. A big challenge for designers is to predict ventilation rates of buildings in dense urban areas. One significant factor for calculating the ventilation rate is the wind pressure coefficient (Cp). Cp values can be obtained at a high cost, via real measurements, wind tunnel experiments, or high computational effort via computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation. A fast surrogate model to predict Cp for a schematic urban environment is required for the integration in building performance simulations. There are well-known surrogate models for Cp. The average surface pressure coefficient model integrated in EnergyPlus considers only a box-shaped building, without surrounding buildings. CpCalc, a surrogate model for Cp, considers only one height of neighbouring buildings. The Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO) Cp Generator model was available via web interface, and could include several box-shaped buildings in the surrounding area. These models are complex for fast integration in a natural ventilation simulation. For optimization processes, with thousands of simulation runs, speed is even more essential. Our study proposes a new surrogate model for Cp estimation based on data obtained from the TNO CP Generator model. The new model considers the effect of different neighbouring buildings in a simplified urban configuration, with an orthogonal street pattern, box-shaped buildings, and repetitive dimensions. The developed surrogate model is fast, and can easily be integrated in a dynamic energy simulation tool like EnergyPlus for optimization of natural ventilation in the urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulating heritage buildings in order to provide a comfortable indoor climate, to reduce energy consumption and avoid thermal stresses into the structure, is generally not in accordance with architectural preservation guidelines. Without compromising historic features, insulation renders may however upgrade rendered heritage of which the original materiality is considered inferior compared to its design. This study evaluates the hygrothermal performance of 49 insulating lime-perlite render configurations on brick masonry, by combining characterisation experiments with numerical modelling. The effects of the coupled heat-moisture transport are finally validated by ageing cycles and bond strength tests. It is found that insulating renders cause smaller shifts in temperature in the structure compared to historic renders, but the moisture level of the support may increase significantly. In addition, the insulation layers store a lot of moisture during winter, affecting the expected insulation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical building models are typically forced with weather data from a limited number of “representative cities” or weather stations representing different climate regions. The use of representative weather stations reduces computational costs, but often fails to capture spatial heterogeneity in weather that may be important for simulations aimed at understanding how building stocks respond to a changing climate. We quantify the potential reduction in temperature and load biases from using an increasing number of weather stations over the western U.S. Our novel approach is based on deriving temperature and load time series using incrementally more weather stations, ranging from 8 to roughly 150, to evaluate the ability to capture weather patterns across different seasons. Using 8 stations across the western U.S., one from each IECC climate zone, results in an average absolute summertime temperature bias of ∼4.0 °C with respect to a high-resolution gridded dataset. The mean absolute bias drops to ∼1.5 °C using all available weather stations. Temperature biases of this magnitude could translate to absolute summertime mean simulated load biases as high as 13.5%. Increasing the size of the domain over which biases are calculated reduces their magnitude as positive and negative biases may cancel out. Using 8 representative weather stations can lead to a 20–40% bias of peak building loads during both summer and winter, a significant error for capacity expansion planners who may use these types of simulations. Using weather stations close to population centers reduces both mean and peak load biases. This approach could be used by others designing aggregate building simulations to understand the sensitivity to their choice of weather stations used to drive the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the impacts of cotton farming on the climate changes in terms of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission indices. Energy consumption pattern and sensitivity of energy inputs were evaluated and share of each input in GHG emissions was determined in the form of direct and indirect emissions for cotton farms in Golestan province of Iran. The total energy input and energy output were calculated to be 34,424.19 and 41,496.67 MJ/ha respectively. The share of fertilizers by 45.0 % of total energy inputs was the highest. This was followed by energies of fuel (18.4 %) and irrigation (17.9 %) respectively. Fertilizers and fuels were also the biggest producers of GHGs in the farms with shares of 61.95 and 24.32 % of total GHGs emission. Energy ratio, energy balance, energy intensity and energy productivity were found as 1.21, 7,072.48 MJ/ha, 9.79 MJ/kg and 0.10 kg/MJ, respectively. Results of sensitivity analysis indicated that the cotton production was more sensitive to energies of seed and human labour than other inputs and an additional use of 1 MJ of each of these inputs would lead to a change in the yield by -0.75 and 0.73 kg/ha, respectively. The results also showed, in the process of cotton farming 897.80 and 1177.67 kg CO2-equivalent of direct and indirect GHG were emitted per hectare respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings contribute to climate change by consuming a considerable amount of energy to provide thermal comfort for occupants. Cooling energy demands are expected to increase substantially in the world. On this basis, technologies and techniques providing high energy efficiency in buildings such as passive cooling are highly appreciated. Passive cooling by means of phase change materials (PCM) offers high potential to decrease the cooling energy demand and to improve the indoor comfort condition. However, in order to be appropriately characterized and implemented into the building envelope, the PCM use should be numerically analyzed. Whole-building energy simulation tools can enhance the capability of the engineers and designers to analyze the thermal behavior of PCM-enhanced buildings. In this paper, an extensive review has been made, with regard to whole-building energy simulation for passive cooling, addressing the possibilities of applying different PCM-enhanced components into the building envelope and also the feasibility of PCM passive cooling system under different climate conditions. The application of PCM has not always been as energy beneficial as expected, and actually its effectiveness is highly dependent on the climatic condition, on the PCM melting temperature and on the occupants behavior. Therefore, energy simulation of passive PCM systems is found to be a single-objective or multi-objective optimization problem which requires appropriate mathematical models for energy and comfort assessment which should be further investigated. Moreover, further research is required to analyze the influence of natural night ventilation on the cooling performance of PCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global energy crisis, energy-saving issues have been great attention to HVAC industry. As for the building atrium with large space, the indoor air diffusion has been hot-pot. Air conditioning system which can meet the requirement of indoor human thermal comfort and reduce the energy consumption of buildings has become the focus of scholars. The GAMBIT software is used to build the corresponding geometric model and divide it into meshes in this paper. The FLUENT software is used to simulate the airflow organization of the atrium winter air-conditioning system. In the simulation calculation, the physical model uses the turbulence model, the two-equation k-ε model and standard SIMPLE algorithm are used to simulate the equation, the boundary condition is set to the second boundary condition. The influence of factors that different air supply angles, velocity, temperature, the outlet height on temperature field and velocity field in atrium were simulated by FLUENT, and the thermal comfort of work area was analyzed. According to the three factors of heat comfort, ventilation efficiency and energy utilization coefficient, the weight coefficient method was used to evaluate the airflow organization in different conditions, and the optimal air supply parameters were determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wine-making sector, processes require high cooling loads for short periods; in addition, the climate-dependent energy needs have to be added. In Southern Europe latitude, a combination of Air Source Heat Pumps to cover peak cooling loads and lpg-fired boiler for winter heating is the most common solution for wineries in countryside, which are usually off-gas grid. Shallow geothermal energy coupled to heat pumps could represent a good solution for wine-making sector, and some applications exist in different countries. Nonetheless, because of electricity price and the displacement between high cooling and low heating loads, the investment cost for the geothermal field often is not justified. Some cheap and shallow solutions as geothermal baskets can help to reduce investment costs, but their capacity is limited, so to cover the entire cooling loads represents a significant task. On the other hand, a combination of different technologies could bring to interesting results in terms of cost and CO 2 savings. The paper presents an efficiency evaluation of a hybrid solution integrating a Ground Source Heat Pump coupled to geothermal baskets with an Air Source Heat Pump. An experimental campaign − Thermal Response Test − was conducted in the courtyard of a winery. A simulation program tailored on the test results has been realised for the specific case study, in order to optimise the integration between two plants. It was then possible to determine the energy savings connected to the use of the hybrid solution with respect to alternatives, to cover the entire heating and cooling needs of the winery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to make existing private housing more energy efficient, various policies aim at influencing decisions made by homeowners regarding renovation and retrofitting in Scandinavia. Presenting two case studies from Denmark and Norway, we take one step back and observe the whole process of keeping a home habitable. Inspired by theories of Tim Ingold and Elizabeth Shove, we suggest calling this process “the practice of dwelling.” Rather than focusing on decisions and acts pertaining to retrofitting alone, we observe how maintenance and retrofitting are parts of an ongoing practice of dwelling. The cases demonstrate how decisions can be understood as embedded in the practice of dwelling, and how a readiness for decisions regarding retrofitting is created, or not, in this practice. We suggest shifting focus from the outcome of decisions, to attention toward the process that leads to readiness for making the decision in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The proposed transition to a low-carbon society faces challenges, as it is occurring too slowly to achieve the goals set by international and national governmental bodies, and gaps are found between available energy-efficiency technologies and their appropriate use. The governance of domestic energy systems has attracted European research attention, and the findings illustrate how materials, competence, and meaning influence energy productivity in domestic settings and how accountability is enacted by connecting people and technologies. The present research cites Swedish examples of how energy efficiency has been improved by involving multiple local actors, such as consumers, energy utilities, property companies, and local governments. Examples are analysed through the lens of social change and mundane governance theory, illustrating how spaces and places often overlooked as too mundane to be considered in policy prove, when analysed in more detail, to be important for energy efficiency. The results indicate that “governance pairs” (e.g., “households/lighting” and “caretakers/heating systems”) are more or less successfully held together and influence accountability and governance possibilities. The present analyses demonstrate that, while governance is often portrayed in terms of causality, everyday practices involving governance pairs are messier and less predictable than anticipated. These results call for the upgrading of research into everyday life and for bottom–up approaches to energy studies. Accountability – crucial to closing the energy-efficiency gap and understood in the context of mundane governance – can advance our energy-efficiency thinking and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daylighting is a cornerstone strategy aiming at reducing a building's energy consumption. Daylight responsive dimming is a proven, mature technology, that significantly reduces lighting energy use, which in turn, affects both energy consumption and peak loads as well. Although in Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD), the use of a daylighting harvesting system is encouraged, the specifications are rather limited based on EN 15193:2007. According to literature, the potential for lighting energy savings from daylight integration, can approach 60.0%. Consequently, a more accurate and detailed calculation method could possible result in downgrading a building's energy performance rating, when compared with simplified procedures that may underestimate these savings. The paper builds on the authors’ previous work, providing an overview of the methods and techniques used to estimate lighting energy savings due to daylight harvesting. An extensive comparison is carried out between the resulting energy savings as estimated by the method adopted in EN 15193:2007 and its variation by the Greek Regulation for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (KENAK), with savings calculated by more complex calculation methods that require the use of simulation tools. According to the results, great differences are observed in the estimated lighting energy savings between simulation and EN15193:2007. These differences still exist even when the parameters used in EN15193 are calculated by an external software affecting energy performance certificate rating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results of a thorough investigation of a cool-roof application on a public school building (pilot building) located in Athens, Greece. An impact assessment was conducted by means of both energy monitoring and numerical analysis of whole-building's thermal behavior. A twin nearby school building (reference building) was used for comparison purposes. The measuring process in both buildings included the recording of thermal performance indicators (TPIs), i.e. roof internal and external surface temperature, indoor air temperature and relative humidity. The ambient air temperature and incident solar irradiance were also recorded at the roof of the reference building. The duration of the monitoring period was approx. one month, two weeks before and two weeks after the application of the cool roof material. TPIs’ differences before and after the application were based on comparisons to the reference building recordings to ensure the same outdoor climatic conditions. The impact of the cool roof in the building's energy performance was based on hourly dynamic energy simulations (in annual basis). The model developed uses as input conditions: a modified weather file based on the onsite weather measurements, the thermo-physical properties of the building materials taken from the available insulation study, and the optical properties measured from surface samples. Inspection surveys’ with interviews, which provided building's systems operation and occupancy schedules, were also used as input schedule files. The model was validated with comparisons of calculated and measured indoor air temperatures. The results showed that, ten days after the application, the reduction of the daily mean indoor air temperature below the cool roof ranged in 1.3-2.3 0 C and 1.6-1.9 0 C as provided by measurements and simulations, respectively. In terms of annual energy consumption, a reduction of up to 30% in cooling demand was estimated in summer, while the heatingpenalty for winter period reached 12%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past assessments of climate change impacts on building energy consumption have typically neglected spatial variations in the 'balance point' temperature, population distribution effects, and the extremes at smaller spatiotemporal scales where the impacts of climate change are most pronounced. Here we test the impact of these limitations through a sensitivity analysis in the Contiguous United States. Though national/annual total source energy consumption differences between the 2080-99 time period and the present are less than 2 %, we find changes at the state/month scale that are much larger with summer electricity demand increases exceeding 50 % and spring non-electric energy declines of 48 % by the end of the century. The use of a fixed 18.3 °C (65 °F) balance point temperature, versus a more representative state-specific value, leads to an overestimate of the energy consumption changes in most states with a maximum change in the state of Oregon of almost 14 percentage points. Finally, projected population redistribution, when combined with the spatial pattern of climate change, exacerbates the building energy consumption impacts, further increasing source energy consumption in some states (max = +5.3 percentage points) and further diminishing energy consumption declines in others (max = −8.2 percentage points). When integrated over the U.S., the intersection of projected population distribution changes and climate change shifts future building energy consumption from a net decrease to a net increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As drivers of climate action, cities are taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which if left unabated pose a challenge to meeting long-term climate targets. The economics of climate action needs to be at the forefront of climate dialogue to prioritize investments among competing mitigation measures. A marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve is an effective visualization of climate action that initiates a technical and economic discussion of the cost-effectiveness and abatement potential of such actions among local leaders, policy makers, and climate experts. More commonly demonstrated for countries, MAC curves need to be developed for cities because of their heterogeneity, which vary in their urban activities, energy supply, infrastructure stock, and commuting patterns. The methodology for constructing bottom-up MAC curves for cities is presented for technologies that offer fuel switching and/or energy efficiencies, while considering technology lifetimes, city-specific electricity and fuel prices, and emission intensities. Resulting MAC curves are unique to every city, and chart the pathway towards low-carbon growth by prioritizing measures based on cost-effectiveness. A case study of Toronto's climate targets demonstrates the prioritization of select technologies. Leveraging MAC curves to support climate programs enables cities to strategically invest in financing climate action and designing incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good indoor thermal climate is important. To reduce energy demands for space heating, individual metering and billing (IMB) for space heating costs is common, though not yet in Sweden. To obtain a better picture of the thermal climate conditions, the distribution of the measured indoor temperatures was investigated in each apartment in 14 apartment blocks with a total of 419 apartments. All blocks had an IMB system for space heating with a traditional feed-forward control. In the studied buildings, temperatures were measured in each living room and each bedroom, and were registered at 2.1 m over floor level, every 15 min over a period of 12 months. Seasonal mean temperatures, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis are presented for apartment blocks. For one, with 75 apartments, these values are monthly, and for January and April, the temperature range for each apartment is presented in boxplots. It can be concluded that there are variations in temperature between different apartments: both variations in temperature levels and in temperature ranges. The overall conclusions are that differences in indoor temperature are achievable for different apartments in an apartment block with a certain set point temperature and that the temperatures are not dependent on an apartment's location in the building. Both the building owner's goal to keep a certain average temperature for energy saving reasons, and the tenants' goals, possibility to vary the indoor temperature at individual apartment level, seems to be possible to reach. The measured temperatures are close to being normally distributed, though they have a mild negative skewness and a mild kurtosis during heating periods. The results support that indoor temperatures can be modeled as normally distributed in energy simulations of buildings. Further, it can be seen that temperature variations follow the seasons. The temperatures on individual apartment level show that there is a tendency for warm apartments to be warm all the year round and vice versa. There are also daily variations, with a magnitude of 0.3-0.4 °C and with 0.1-0.3 °C difference between weekdays and weekends. Every single indoor temperature measurement for a whole year covering all seasons as a function of outdoor temperature is presented in iso-plots. Temperature levels are mainly within the limits of standards for thermal comfort, thus showing that a thermal satisfying indoor climate is met in these apartment blocks with IMB. It also seems that it was possible to achieve the desired temperatures irrespective of the apartment's location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the quantitative effects of climatic factors (cold and hot events represented by cooling and heating degree days, wind speed, precipitation and sunshine duration) on electricity consumptions in the four sectors of China and draw the curves of temperature sensitivity of each sector. The results of impacts of climatic factors demonstrate that the household sector and the tertiary industry are more sensitive to the hot and cold events than the primary and the secondary industry; the stimulation of the cold pressure on the electricity use of the household sector, the secondary and the tertiary industry is approximately 1/2 of that of the same degree of the hot event; under the condition of temperatures rise, the saved amount of electricity is not sufficient to offset the incremental electricity consumption for each sector; the impact on the secondary industrial relative amount is minimum but absolute amount is highest while that of primary industry is opposite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double-skin façades (DSF) are considered an innovative energy efficient technique that gained an increasing interest worldwide. The aim of this article is to perform a parametric study for the DSFs’ configuration in hot climatic conditions. The parameters under investigation are the ventilation rate, the shading requirements and the cavity dimensions. A newly erected building with surface area of 18 500 m2 is considered as the basis for the parametric study. The building is monitored and simulated using Energy Plus. The parametric analysis showed that the ventilation rate in the DSFs’ configuration is of a major importance especially during the cooling season. The lack of adequate ventilation increases the cooling demands and deteriorates the DSF's effectiveness. Finally, the integration of shading in the overall construction, especially the external ones, results to 24% annual energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Measures for an improved indoor climate control can potentially increase the energy efficiency in commercial buildings while comfort is maintained. Substantial energy reductions are possible by revising conventional building automation systems for an enhanced adaptation to process characteristics and current conditions. However, maintaining a low complexity to facilitate installation and commission of new technologies is also necessary to promote a widespread utilization. This work suggests a compromise between these two aspects by providing an experimental evaluation of a simplified model-based controller for indoor climate control in office environments. A working day was resembled in a test facility, and the task of the controller was to automate the heating, cooling and ventilation system in order to maintain a desirable indoor climate. The investigation considered two office environments, representing a meeting and an office room, as well as two weather seasons. From the investigation, it was concluded that the suggested model-based controller had the possibility of reducing energy usage and improve the indoor climate compared to a conventional feed-back controller as benchmark. But, these benefits were highly dependent on the investigated scenarios, which is important to consider in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The present study is about the analysis of mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures carried out on annual, seasonal, and monthly timescales examining the data from 15 meteorological stations in Bangladesh for the period 1961-2008. Various spatial and statistical tools were used to display and analyze trends in temperature data. ArcGIS was used to produce the spatially distributed temperature data by using Thiessen polygon method. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used to determine whether there is a positive or negative trend in data with their statistical significance. Sen's method was also used to determine the magnitude of the trends. The results reveal positive trends in annual mean and mean maximum temperatures with 95 % significance. Trend test reveals that the significant positive trend is found in June to November in case of mean maximum temperature, but according to the mean minimum temperature, the situation is different and a significant positive trend was found from November to February. The analysis of the whole record reveals a tendency toward warmer years, with significantly warmer summer periods and slightly colder winters. These warming patterns may have important impacts on energy consumption, water supply, human health, and natural environment in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the world is not to jeopardize the chances for human life on Earth, climate change must be mitigated; therefore, achieving low carbon development is crucial. China is the world's greatest GHG emitter, energy producer and energy consumer; investigating its energy-climate policy developments and international positions are of utmost importance to understand and tackle current stumbling blocks of the global energy and climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the daily meteorological data with preliminary quality-control from 94 meteorological stations in North China during 1961 -2009, the impact of climate change on energy consumption in North China was analyzed by calculating heating and cooling degree-day. It's shown that the heating degree-days (HDDs) in most areas of North China reduced obviously during 1961 -2009. The heating energy consumption tended to decrease with temperature rising and the reduction rate in the northern region was greater than that in the southern region. The cooling degree-days (CDDs) in most areas of North China in summer tended to increase. Besides the west of Inner Mongolia, the regions where the CDDs increased significantly in North China corresponded to the urban agglomerations of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shanxi. The rise in temperature made the cooling energy consumption increase greatly in most areas of North China in summer. The result from future climate projection reveals that the HDDs in most areas of North China will reduce persistently and the reduction rate in the northern region is also higher than that in the southern region. Simultaneously, the CDDs in most areas of North China in summer will continue to increase. The increasing rate in the southern region is higher than that in the northern region, and the most obviously increasing regions are located in the west of Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin, middle-southern region of Hebei, and south of Shanxi. This reveals that the cooling energy consumption in most areas of North China in summer will significantly increase due to climate warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional land use and transportation planning influences energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a number of ways, such as through its effect on vehicle miles travelled and the extension of municipal infrastructure to serve newly developed areas. Planning regulations also help to shape the density and form of residential development, which creates opportunities for energy savings, as more compact housing types (attached homes and apartments) use less energy, on average, than single-family detached units. This study uses micro-data from the US Department of Energy's Residential Energy Consumption survey to estimate future residential energy use for space heating and cooling in Virginia's 10 Census-designated metropolitan regions. It then calculates the effect of four residential development scenarios on that energy demand and resulting GHG emissions. Potential GHG emission reductions of approximately 23% are found between the most conservative and aggressive scenarios. The greatest potential energy savings are found in regions that currently have a relatively low share of compact housing types, particularly those that also have relatively cold winters compared to the state's other regions. These factors, along with the distribution of home heating fuels used (electric vs. natural gas), influence the extent of potential GHG emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Waste heat recovery in Croatian industry is of the highest significance regarding the national efforts towards energy efficiency improvements and climate protection. By recuperation of heat which would otherwise be wasted, the quantity of fossil fuels used for production of useful energy could be lowered thereby reducing the fuel costs and increasing the competitiveness of examined Croatian industries. Another effect of increased energy efficiency of industrial processes and plants is reduction of greenhouse gases i.e. the second important national goal required by the European Union and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Paper investigates and analyses the waste heat potential in Croatian industrial sector. Firstly, relevant industrial sectors with significant amount of waste heat are determined. Furthermore, significant companies in these sectors are selected with respect to main process characteristics, operation mode, and estimated waste heat potential. Data collection of waste heat parameters (temperature, mass flow and composition) is conducted. Current technologies used for waste heat utilization from different waste heat sources are pointed out. Considered facilities are compared with regard to amount of flue gas heat. Mechanisms for more efficient and more economic utilization of waste heat are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union played a key role on Kyoto Protocol's entrance into force, and has been a front runner on the implementation of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within its territory. However, the slow progress achieved since the Bali Roadmap was agreed (2007) illustrated a worrying trend that was confirmed by what happened at Copenhagen Summit in 2009. The Cancun Summit in 2010 showed how developing countries also had something to say in order to achieve a positive outcome. All these facts seem to indicate that the EU is losing its influence at international negotiations in the area of climate change, which makes sense if we take into account that its participation on total emissions is smaller each day, and that it is time for the biggest polluters to commit on reduction targets and energy efficiency policies. Nevertheless, the positive results that the measures adopted by the EU are giving in terms of emissions reduction and shift towards a low carbon economy could be taken as example by these countries, reinforcing its assessment role in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that the consumption of electricity in modern postindustrial society is highly dependent on fundamental climatic and geographical characteristics, i.e., the average annual air temperature and the effective territory. According to this conception, the world market will be saturated by electric energy at the level of 60 trillion of kWh not earlier than at the end of the current century, which is three times above the present level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the effects of increasing population of older people to the debate regarding climate change. They mention that demographics of the household will change which will result to change in energy consumption. They state that older people must be considered in the debate because they are much affected by climate change. They argue that older people must be always included in the debate because they could tell if they have lived in climate change.

A parametric study was conducted using EnergyPlus version 6.0 to investigate humidity issues on a typical mid-1990s reference home, a 2006 International Energy Conservation Code home, and a high-performance home in a hot-humid climate. The impacts ofvarious dehumidification equipment and controls are analyzed on the high-performance home. The study used the Walker and Wilson (1998) infiltration model to examine the combined effects of infiltration and mechanical ventilation with balanced and unbalanced mechanical ventilation systems. Indoor relative humidity excursions were examined-specifically, the number of excursions, average excursion length, and maximum excursion length. Space relative humidity, thermal comfort, and whole-house source energy consumption were analyzedfor indoor relative humidity set-points of 50%, 55%, and 60%. The study showed and explained why similar trends of high humidity were observed in all three homes, regardless of energy efficiency, and why humidity problems are not necessarily unique in high-performance homes. Thermal comfort analysis indicated that occupants are unlikely to notice indoor humidity problems. The study confirmed that supplemental dehumidification should be provided to maintain space relative humidity below 60% in a hot-humid climate. All modeled supplemental dehumidification options successfully controlled space relative humidity excursions, yet the increase in whole-house energy consumption was much more sensitive to the humidity set-points than the chosen technology option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the literature published in from 2008 to 2010 on topics related to electrochemical treatment within wastewater was presented. The review included several sections such as optimization, modeling, various wastewater treatment techniques, analytical and instrumentation, and comparison with other treatment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictions on the consequences of the rapidly increasing atmospheric CO levels and associated climate warming for population dynamics, ecological community structure and ecosystem functioning depend on mechanistic energetic models of temperature effects on populations and their interactions. However, such mechanistic approaches combining warming effects on metabolic (energy loss of organisms) and feeding rates (energy gain by organisms) remain a key, yet elusive, goal. Aiming to fill this void, we studied the metabolic rates and functional responses of three differently sized, predatory ground beetles on one mobile and one more resident prey species across a temperature gradient (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 °C). Synthesizing metabolic and functional-response theory, we develop novel mechanistic predictions how predator-prey interaction strengths (i.e., functional responses) should respond to warming. Corroborating prior theory, warming caused strong increases in metabolism and decreases in handling time. Consistent with our novel model, we found increases in predator attack rates on a mobile prey, whereas attack rates on a mostly resident prey remained constant across the temperature gradient. Together, these results provide critically important information that environmental warming generally increases the direct short-term per capita interaction strengths between predators and their prey as described by functional-response models. Nevertheless, the several fold stronger increase in metabolism with warming caused decreases in energetic efficiencies (ratio of per capita feeding rate to metabolic rate) for all predator-prey interactions. This implies that warming of natural ecosystems may dampen predator-prey oscillations thus stabilizing their dynamics. The severe long-term implications; however, include predator starvation due to energetic inefficiency despite abundant resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the government legislation aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the effect these policies have on older buildings. Focusing on Edinburgh, Scotland, the author provides a brief history of climate change legislation, citing agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2008, and explains reasons why traditional buildings are much less energy-efficient than modern structures. Architectural details such as timber windows, mass walls, and older roofs and attics are examined in detail and are noted as particularly energy inefficient. Tables providing figures on the environmental impact and efficiency of traditional and newer buildings and suggestions for the modernization and preservation of historic structures are also included.

The article discusses the threat of the global climate change (GCC) to human beings according to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It discusses the vulnerability of earth's biodiversity reservoir such as Amazon rainforest and the corral reefs to break down and mentions the relation of economic growth to GCC through connecting the greenhouse gas emission on individual economic growth. It associates the logic of adding financial wealth upon energy generation which in return causes GCC and emphasizes that environmentalism needs to be pursued and prioritized rather than concerns in increase in wealth.

Many scholars analyze the Kyoto–Copenhagen process, and offer corrective suggestions for identified flaws in the present design. Based on various proposals in the literature, this article adopts a global master-plan perspective, leaving executive architecture to sovereign participants. Transparent, flexible and fair top-down rules must synchronize the numerous bottom-up initiatives while addressing the diversity of national circumstances in the drastic transformation of the world's energy economies. Plan B refutes absolute emission reduction targets on old or speculative baselines. It criticizes global tax and permit trade instruments for being ineffective, inefficient and unfair when uniformly applied on a tremendous differentiated world. Plan B is built on three annually observed variables measuring percentage progress against rolling baselines (the variables'' values in the previous year): the ratio of net climate tax revenues to GDP, the commercial energy intensity of GDP, and the carbon intensity of commercial energy use. The three variables together indicate countries' progress affecting emissions per person, a metric that must converge to lower bands when climate change is addressed seriously. Long-term scenarios of global convergence “funnels” serve as guidance to frame near-term actions rich and poor countries individually propose to take. The global regime is common for all countries, and is ranked by GDP per person to determine whether a nation is a donor or a beneficiary in a Global Climate Transfer Fund. Fund payments and drawing rights depend on that ranking but also on the performances of the countries in realizing committed progress. The transparent mechanisms of the design and of the fund persuasively invite countries to participate in a fair, self-enforcing agreement. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) would contribute to energy saving and greenhouse effect reduction if they were to be massively launched on the market. A notable effort has been done in simulation to optimize energy consumption and component sizing. Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulation could be a further step to obtain more realistic performance and to compare different solutions, including economic aspects. This paper deals with the implementation on a high dynamic test bench of a diesel mild parallel HEV using the PHIL technique. Three configurations, corresponding to different energy-storage systems, have been tested under the same conditions. Power, energy, consumption, and pollutant emission performance, which are measured on the test bench, are compared and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupant behaviour and its relation to energy use within the built environment have become more important in recent years. This paper first describes three statistical models based on a field survey and measurement for summer and winter respectively, which can be used to predict the percentage of air-conditioning-units used during night-time with a realistic assumption of human behaviour. The first statistical models are the results of a common approach to connect the occupant behaviour with the mean outdoor air temperature through the use of logistic regression. The present investigation extends these models to one including further external factors such as the mean outdoor air temperature the night before. The final models also include the preference and background of the individual subject. The statistical models are then compared to a theoretical model of occupant behaviour based on a comprehensive literature review. In conclusion, mean outdoor air temperature of the foregoing night(s) had a major impact on occupant behaviour during summertime, but a minor one in wintertime. The impact of the individual factors had the same magnitude as the external factors in summer, but an eight times higher impact in winter. Detailed research on the occupant behaviour is proposed to clarify further aspects of the theoretical model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on building energy and indoor environment simulations, this study uses a recently developed method relying on Bayesian Network theory to estimate and compare the consequences for occupant performance and energy consumption of applying temperature criteria set according to the adaptive model of thermal comfort and the more conventional PMV model. Simulations were carried out for an example building with two configurations (with and without mechanical cooling) located in tropical, subtropical, and temperate climate regions. Even though indoor temperatures differed significantly between building configurations, especially in the tropical climate, the estimated performance differed only modestly between configurations. However, energy consumption was always lower in buildings without mechanical cooling, particularly so in the tropical climate. The findings indicate that determining acceptable indoor thermal environments with the adaptive comfort model may result in significant energy savings and at the same time will not have large consequences for the mental performance of occupants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Weather data are important in building design and energy analysis. In Bahrain, the weather data currently used are based on far past climatic information. Climate variability during the last few decades has raised concern over the ability of these data to provide accurate results when analysing the energy performance of buildings. This study discusses issues related to climate variability and evaluates its impact on the performance of weather data used in building simulation. An evaluation was performed using two methods: firstly, a comparison of measured climatic elements and secondly, a comparison of the thermal performance of two statistically based weather data files. With respect to their impact on typical Bahraini building thermal systems, the comparison was carried out between simulation results and the actual energy consumption of two case studies. This paper shows a 14.5% difference between simulation results based on far past data and present electricity consumption and concludes that the prediction of present and future performance based on recent updated data gives better results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]