Effect of building energy efficiency standards on carbon emission efficiency in commercial buildings

The building sector plays a crucial role in the worldwide shift toward achieving net-zero emissions.Building energy efficiency standards(BEESs)are highly effective policies for reducing carbon emissions.Therefore,exploring the provincial variations in carbon emission efficiency(CEE)in the building sector and identifying the effect of BEESs on CEE is crucial.This study focuses on commercial buildings in China and applies a difference in differences model to evaluate the impact of BEESs on the CEE of commercial buildings.The slacks-based measure–data envelopment analysis model is employed to assess the CEE of commercial buildings in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2019.Furthermore,heterogeneous tests are used to explore how climate characteristics and economic conditions affect the efficiency of BEESs.The results indicate that BEESs positively influence the CEE of commercial buildings.Specifically,a 1%increase in the intensity of BEESs causes a 0.1484%increase in the CEE of commercial buildings.Moreover,the impact of BEESs is particularly pronounced in the southern and western provinces.This study provides valuable scientific evidence for governments to enhance BEESs implementation.

Indicators of Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Comparison with Standards in Force in Argentina

In this work we make a comparative study of the energy behaviour in different building types. We analyze three cases of office buildings and three residential buildings, and compare them with a previous sample. We seek to find correlations or differences in behavior in terms of potential energy losses and gains, and UL values compared with Argentinian Standards to verify the degree of efficiency. For energy analysis we used a software which allows the analysis of thermal and energy building performance at steady state on a monthly basis. This software is called EnergoCAD and it also determines formal indicators based on IRAM standards. We conclude that the indicators used are clear to energetically “grade” buildings and to facilitate comparisons. In turn, smaller buildings are relatively less energy efficient than larger ones. At the same time it is noteworthy that the energy inefficiency has been growing rapidly over the years. Finally it is noted that none of the cases analyzed meets the National Standards.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY:DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENCY OF HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS

Tall buildings are being designed and built across a wide range of cities.A poorly designed tall building can tremendously increase the building’s appetite for energy.Therefore,this paper aims to determine the design strategies that help a high-rise office building to be more energy efficient.For this purpose,a comparative study on twelve case buildings in three climate groups(temperate,sub-tropical&tropical)was performed.The exterior envelope,building form and orientation,service core placement,plan layout,and special design elements like atria and sky gardens were the subject of investigation.effectiveness of different design strategies for reducing the cooling,heating,ventilation and electric lighting energy usage.Finally,lessons from these buildings’were defined for the three climates.Furthermore,a compari-son of building energy performance data with international benchmarks confirmed that in temperate and sub-tropical climates sustainable design strategies for high-rise buildings were performing well,as a result leading to lower energy consump-tion.However,for the tropics the design of high-rise buildings needs additional consideration.

The Mandatory Energy Efficiency Standard for Distribution Transformer soon Publicized in China

Owning to the rapid economy development in China and sharp increase of energyconsumption in recent years, energy shortage is increasingly apparent and becoming an importantobstacle to the sustainable development of our economy. With the aim to relieve the problem ofenergy shortage, the State Development and Reform Commission places the great emphasis ofenergy-saving work on improving energy efficiency of industrial energy-consuming products inenergy-saving work. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine ofthe People's Republic of China (AQSIQ) has issued and implemented two energy efficiency standardsfor three-phase induction motors and displacement air compressor, and will soon issue another twoenergy efficiency standards for clean- water centrifugal pumps and ventilation fans. The transformeris a kind of electric equipment widely used in many industries in national economy, with featuresof great amount of use, long period of operation and tremendous potential of energy-saving. So, itis necessary to develop the standard of energy efficiency for distribution transformers.

An Innovative Architectural Strategy for the Integration of Energy Issues into the Design Process of a Commercial Center in Switzerland

In a context of growing efforts to develop sustainability strategies, energy-related issues occupy central stage in the built environment. Thus, the energy performance of housings has improved radically over the past decades. Yet other types of buildings, in particular commercial centers, haven’t received the same level of interest. As a result, there is a need for effective and practical measures to decrease their energy consumption, both for heating and electricity. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate that it is possible, through coherent strategies, to integrate energy issues and bioclimatic principles into the design process of commercial centers. It analyzes the exemplary case study of Marin Commercial Center (Switzerland). The interdisciplinary approach, based on integrated design strategies, aimed at increasing the energy efficiency while keeping the cost comparable to the market cost. The main design principles include natural ventilation, nighttime cooling with energy recovery and natural lighting, as well as optimization of mechanical systems. The results of the simulations show that Marin Center attains the best energy performance observed so far among Swiss commercial centers. It also meets the Swiss Minergie standard. The paper thus questions traditional design processes and outlines the need for interdisciplinary evaluation and monitoring approaches tailored for commercial centers. Even though most crucial decisions are taken during the early stages, all phases of the process require systematic optimization strategies, especially operating stages. Recommendations include legal measures, in particular in the fields of ventilation and air-conditioning, education, professional development and technology transfer, and financial incentives for the replacement of energy intensive installations.

Evaluation of Radon Indoor Pollution Risk in High Efficiency Energy Buildings

The target of achieving high energy efficiency standard in order to comply with the EU Directives is leading to remarkable efforts to improve the performance of the building envelope. Excellent thermal insulation and airtight sealing of leakages are of the utmost importance to fulfil the expected targets. Unfortunately, airtightness produces the negative effect of increasing the indoor concentration of air pollutants like radon. Despite the seriousness of the problem is generally misconceived, long-term exposition to radon is acknowledged to be the second cause of lung cancer after smoke. The paper outlines the implications for the building sector and focuses on design and preventive criteria as well as on mitigation and remedial techniques.

New challenges for optimal design of nearly/net zero energy buildings under post-occupancy performance-based design standards and a risk-benefit based solution

One of the challenges in construction of nearly and net ZEBs is how to truly achieve the nearly and net energy goals after building occupancy.Traditional building design standards and practices are mostly based on design performance evaluation,but practices show that many designed nearly/net ZEBs failed to achieve the energy goals after building occupancy.To facilitate the practical achievement of nearly and net ZEBs,recently most of the newly-released ZEB design standards have turned to post-occupancy performance evaluation,posing great challenges to nearly and net ZEB design.However,the detailed challenges have not be comprehensively investigated,and effective optimal design methods which can facilitate the achievement of nearly and net ZEBs under these standards are still absent.In this study,new challenges of nearly and net ZEB design under the post-occupancy performance-based design standards are fully investigated,and a risk-benefit based optimal design method is proposed to facilitate the achievement of nearly and net ZEBs under these standards.The newly-released ZEB standard in China is taken as an example to investigate the challenges and test the proposed method.Results show that nearly and net ZEBs designed using conventional design method have high risk in achieving energy goals under these standards due to high risk in satisfying the requirement regarding non-renewable primary energy consumption after building occupancy.The proposed design method is effective to facilitate achieving energy goals under these standards based on the risk that decision-makers would like to take.

Conceptual Issues in the Qualification of Intelligent Buildings

The reality of global warming must have been settled by now while the incidence of same has in very recent times adopted unprecedented dimensions. The global community continues to look for ways to combat the impact of climate change and technology is looked upon to deliver the innovations that would ensure a better tomorrow today. Rapid advancement of Information Technology (IT), is now transforming the way we create and interact with the built environment with the notion of Intelligent Buildings (IBs) underscoring its main features. However, these IBs utilize systems that require energy, and fossil fuels are currently the world’s primary energy sources;they can also irreparably harm the environment, exacerbating climate change. What then is the true essence of IBs? This paper, through review of existing literature, attempts to explore some issues associated with the conceptualization of IBs, highlighting how they are similar with other notional options that deliver the same benefits but without the needed IT systems or the energy required in running them. It also discusses the need to focus on less energy demanding and management approaches at design or occupancy of buildings as a way to reduce the demand and thus consumption of fossil fuels across the world.

USING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHODS TO GUIDE ARCHITECTURAL DECISION-MAKING FOR SUSTAINABLE PREFABRICATED MODULAR BUILDINGS

Within this work,life cycle assessment modeling is used to determine top design priorities and quantitatively inform sustainable design decision-making for a prefabricated modular building.A case-study life-cycle assessment was performed for a 5,000 ft2 prefabricated commercial building constructed in San Francisco,California,and scenario analysis was run examining the life cycle environmental impacts of various energy and material design substitutions,and a structural design change.Results show that even for a highly energy-efficient modular building,the top design priority is still minimizing operational energy impacts,since this strongly dominates the building life cycle’s environmental impacts.However,as an energy-efficient building approaches net zero energy,manufacturing-phase impacts are dominant,and a new set of design priorities emerges.Transportation and end-of-life disposal impacts were of low to negligible importance in both cases.

Optimized Simulation Design of Double Glass Curtain Wall Shading System in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone

The glass curtain wall is widely favored by the owners for its good appearance modeling efthct. In using process, however, excessive energy consumption, low level indoor eomtort and other problems of glass curtain wall are often exposed. Aiming at office buildings in hot Summer and cold Winter zone, taking the optimization of thermal comfort of double glass curtain wall in the summer and the reduetion of building energy consumption throughout the year as the breakthrough point, using the method of energy simulation analysis, through changing the size of internal shading component in the simulated room, this paper analyzes and summarizes the variation law of its energy consumption value, to explore the relatively reasonable design plan of shading systems of the building with glass curtain wall.

Model of Next Generation Energy-Efficient Design Software for Buildings

Energy-efficient design for buildings (EEDB) is a vital step towards building energy-saving. In order to greatly improve the EEDB, the next generation EEDB software that makes use of latest technologies needs to be developed. This paper mainly focuses on establishing the model of the next generation EEDB software. Based on the investigation of literatures and the interviews to the designers, the requirements on the next generation EEDB software were identified, where the lifecycle assessment on both energy consumption and environmental impacts, 3D graphics support, and building information modeling (BIM) support were stressed. Then the workflow for using the next generation EEDB software was established. Finally, based on the workflow, the framework model for the software was proposed, and the partial models and the corresponding functions were systematically analyzed. The model lays a solid foundation for developing the next generation EEDB software.

Design and control optimization of energy systems of smart buildings today and in the near future

Buildings contribute to a major part of energy consumption in urban areas, especially in areas like Hong Kong which is full of high-rise buildings. Smart buildings with high efficiency can reduce the energy consumption largely and help achieve green cities or smart cities. Design and control optimization of building energy systems therefore plays a significant role to obtain the optimal performance. This paper introduces a general methodology for the design and control optimization of building energy systems in the life cycle. When the design scheme of building energy systems is optimized, primary steps and related issues are introduced. To improve the operation performance, the optimal control strategies that can be used by different systems are presented and key issues are discussed. To demonstrate the effect of the methods, the energy system of a high-rise building is introduced. The design on the chilled water pump system and cooling towers is improved. The control strategies for chillers,pumps and fresh air systems are optimized. The energy saving and cost from the design and control optimization methods are analyzed. The presented methodology will provide users and stakeholders an effective approach to improve the energy efficiency of building energy systems and promote the development of smart buildings and smart cities.

Neighborhood and Adaptation to Climate Change： A Case Study of Adelaide

Extreme weather is expected to be widespread by the year 2100 due to changes in precipitation and temperature, and rising sea levels. It is expected that there will be more heat waves, floods, bush fires, coastal erosion and drought. Unfortunately, Australia is vulnerable to climate change due its hot and dry climate and as the driest state; changes are already being felt in South Australia. There is an urgent need to start adapting to climate change to cope with present and predicted climate change in the future by changing or adjusting building regulations, land use plans, and land subdivision regulations. This paper aims to provide design guidelines for adaptation to climate change at the neighborhood level. A case study method was adopted to achieve the aim of this paper. The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage presents the current design of neighborhood and its adopted design parameters for climate change. The second part provides the design guidelines for adaptation to climate change at the neighborhood level. The case study has a well oriented grid iron layout that serves as the basis of orienting and sitting future buildings that can adapt to climate change. However, the orientation of roads is good, it will be necessary to reconfigure elements of landscaping and built environment in order to address climate change in built environment by modifying design elements.

Optimization of Office Building Façades in a Warm Summer Continental Climate

A typical office building model with conventional use and contemporary building systems was developed for fa?ade optimization in continental climate. Wall, glazing area and window parameters were taken as the main variables. The objective function of optimization task described in this article is the minimization of cooling and heating energy con-sumption. The office building fa?ades optimization was carried out using a combination of IDA Indoor Climate and Energy 4.5 and GenOpt. The process is described in detail so that the approach may be emulated. A hybrid multidimen-sional optimization algorithm GPSPSOCCHJ was used in calculation process. The optimization results are presented in four quick selection charts to assist architects, designers and real estate developers make suitable early stage fa?ade selection decisions.

MULTIFAMILY AFFORDABLE HOUSING THAT IS HEALTHY,EFFICIENT,COST EFFECTIVE AND LEED PLATINUM

INTRODUCTION A developer who had chronic asthma as a child built the first LEED^(■)(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)Platinum certified apartment complex in Idaho.He has also heard from two residents that their asthma no longer resulted in attacks due to eliminating triggers in the interior environment.Eight years and a dozen multifamily affordable housing projects later,the LEED consultant on these projects has gathered insight on best practices,lessons learned and strate-gies that result in resident,owner and project team satisfaction.Ten projects have achieved LEED Platinum certification(two more are still under construction,but are on track for Platinum),and the HERS(Home Energy Rating System)scores are as low as 48.Feedback has been collected on what works,what doesn’t and what matters most:from low energy bills to living in a healthy home and not having asthma attacks.These projects debunk the assumptions that energy effi-ciency adds too much cost or that green homes are only for the wealthy.

不同类型公共建筑超低能耗设计实践与思考——以上海市3个工程项目为例

目前,上海市超低能耗建筑案例主要以居住建筑为主,公共建筑较少。结合工程设计实践,通过对3栋不同类型(酒店、学校、商业综合体)的超低能耗公共建筑的设计进行分析总结,得到超低能耗公共建筑的设计原则、基于功能特征的超低能耗设计技术策略以及参数化手段辅助超低能耗建筑设计的可行性。得出超低能耗建筑的设计策略应该追随建筑功能和形式,并可以通过参数化工具辅助设计寻找最优方案的思考,以期为其他超低能耗公共建筑的设计提供一定参考。

基于节能导向的寒冷地区医院建筑形态多目标寻优技术研究

建筑设计行业面临着能源需求不断增长的挑战,建筑模拟被广泛用于后期设计阶段.虽然早期阶段的设计已被证实会对建筑的整体性能产生重要影响,其在早期阶段设计决策对最终的建筑性能和成本有重大影响,但其应用仍然是有限的.本文提出了一种新的设计模拟方法,以节能导向为目标,遗传算法Octopus为工具,参数化模拟Grasshopper为平台,寒冷地区为背景,将参数化建模与多目标优化结合起来,以便实现快速迭代和权衡分析.综合考虑医院建筑功能的特殊性和多项限制条件,从总图布局、建筑单体和建筑局部三个方面分别进行变量控制,将节能纳入早期建筑设计的考虑要素中,并将医院建筑形态多目标寻优技术应用于实际工程项目中,有助于建立一套目标导向-自动寻优-设计决策的仿真模拟框架,该框架有利于主动、智能和基于经验的建筑仿真模拟,有助于在建筑设计早期做出决策.

基于建筑本源的绿色建筑通风形式设计研究与实践

基于建筑本源的绿色建筑设计方法是以建筑本源理论创作为基础,以绿色建筑的显性要素与隐性要素协同为出发点,以建筑师的建筑创作为视角,强化通过显性要素的绿色技术创作、地域性建构、设计节能等内容,最大限度地建构与挖掘绿色建筑本源创作基础,并基于此形成适宜的隐性要素关联匹配的绿色建筑创作新方法。讨论了一种基于建筑本源的绿色建筑通风形式设计研究,提出绿色建筑是具备生态意义的显性要素和隐性要素的集合,剖面、平面和层间3类的通风原型是一种显性要素基础性生态装置,而合院建筑的通风则是一种复杂形体下的上述通风原型的集合呈现。以上海市某合院建筑为例,在项目实践中对其通风形式设计进行探讨,具备了实际的示范意义,为相关项目的设计提供参考。

“双碳”目标下建筑节能设计探究

目前,在双碳目标与全球绿色低碳转型的大方向下,建筑产业的节能降碳仍面临着巨大挑战。因此,在建筑设计的过程中,考虑材料能耗、资源再利用以及空间使用的持续性成为建筑设计的重要指标。从建筑设计角度出发,结合低碳材料的节能效果,分析低碳材料应用,总结双碳目标下的建筑设计要素,从而提升人居空间的情感需求,提升空间的使用效率,从而达到节约资源、保护环境的目的。

北京市某公共建筑综合节能改造与能效评估

以北京市东城区某综合园区为例,根据园区现状对其围护结构热工性能、供暖空调、建筑照明及用水器具进行节能诊断及能耗分析。结果显示:建筑供暖耗热量及照明耗电量占比分别为58.96%和10.24%,为挖掘改造潜力并确定基准能耗提供了依据;通过围护结构保温层加装、门窗更换、高效空调设备更换、照明灯具更换及节水器具更换等节能技改措施进行综合节能改造,计算改造后能耗;将不同能源类型能耗归一化为标煤,经测算,改造后项目节能量约为71.0 tce,综合节能率35.52%,减少向大气排放二氧化碳175.38 t,节能减排效果显著,为类似地区公建节能改造提供了借鉴和参考。本次能评估多采用理论模拟计算方法,还需改造后实际运行数据对比支撑。