It is expected that Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) will greatly improve the quality of our life because of its myriad applications for our human beings. However, one of the challenges is to design energy efficient communication protocols to support the reliable communication as well as to prolong the network lifetime. Cooperative communications have the advantage of spatial diversity to combat multipath fading, thus improving the link reliability and boosting energy efficiency. In this thesis, we investigate the energy efficient cooperative communications for WBAN. We first analyze the outage performance of three transmission schemes, namely direct transmission, single relay cooperation, and multi-relay cooperation. To minimize the energy consumption, we then study the problem of optimal power allocation with the constraint of targeted outage probability. Two strategies of power allocation are considered: power allocation with and without posture state information. Simulation results verify the accuracy of the analysis and demonstrate that: 1) power allocation making use of the posture information can reduce the energy consumption; 2) within a possible range of the channel quality in WBAN, cooperative communication is more energy efficient than direct transmission only when the path loss between the transmission pair is higher than a threshold; and 3) for most of the typical channel quality due to the fixed transceiver locations on human body, cooperative communication is effective in reducing energy consumption.

A methodology to develop an easy-to-use toolkit for the preliminary design of high performance schools in hot and humid climates was presented. The toolkit proposed in this research will allow decision makers without simulation knowledge easily to evaluate accurately energy efficient measures for K-5 schools, which would contribute to the accelerated dissemination of energy efficient design. For the development of the toolkit, first, a survey was performed to identify high performance measures available today being implemented in new K-5 school buildings. Then an existing case-study school building in a hot and humid climate was selected and analyzed to understand the energy use pattern in a school building and to be used in developing a calibrated simulation. Based on the information from the previous step, an as-built and calibrated simulation was then developed. To accomplish this, five calibration steps were performed to match the simulation results with the measured energy use. The five steps include: 1) Using an actual 2006 weather file with measured solar radiation, 2) Modifying lighting & equipment schedule using ASHRAE's RP-1093 methods, 3) Using actual equipment performance curves (i.e., scroll chiller), 4) Using the Winkelmann's method for the underground floor heat transfer, and 5) Modifying the HVAC and room setpoint temperature based on the measured field data. Next, the calibrated simulation of the case-study K-5 school was compared to an ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999 code-compliant school. In the next step, the energy savings potentials from the application of several high performance measures to an equivalent ASHRAE Standard 90.1-1999 codecompliant school. The high performance measures applied included the recommendations from the ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDG) for K- 12 and other high performance measures from the literature review as well as a daylighting strategy and solar PV and thermal systems. The results show that the net energy consumption of the final high performance school with the solar thermal and a solar PV system would be 1,162.1 MMBtu, which corresponds to the 14.9 kBtu/sqft-yr of EUI. The calculated final energy and cost savings over the code compliant school are 68.2% and 69.9%, respectively. As a final step of the research, specifications for a simplified easy-to-use toolkit were then developed, and a prototype screenshot of the toolkit was developed. The toolkit is expected to be used by non-technical decision-maker to select and evaluate high performance measures for a new school building in terms of energy and cost savings in a quick and easy way.

Network coding and duty-cycling are two popular techniques for saving energy in wireless sensor networks. To the best of our knowledge, the idea to combine these two techniques, for even more aggressive energy savings, has not been explored. One explanation is that these two techniques achieve energy efficiency through conflicting means, e.g., network coding saves energy by exploiting overhearing, whereas dutycycling saves energy by cutting idle listening and, thus, overhearing. In this thesis, we thoroughly evaluate the use of network coding in duty-cycled sensor networks. We propose a scheme called DutyCode, in which a MAC protocol implements packet streaming and allows the application to decide when a node can sleep. Additionally, a novel, efficient coding scheme decision algorithm, ECSDT, assists DutyCode to reduce further energy consumption by minimizing redundant packet transmissions, while an adaptive mode switching algorithm allows smooth and timely transition between DutyCode and the default MAC protocol, without any packet loss. We investigate our solution analytically, implement it on mote hardware, and evaluate it in a 42-node indoor testbed. Performance evaluation results show that our scheme saves 30-46% more energy than solutions that use network coding, without using duty-cycling.

Hundred and thousands of wireless sensor node comprise wireless sensor network (WSN), WSN can be applied in many situations, because a wireless sensor node have small size and wireless transmission advantages, the battery provide sensor node power, but the battery¡¦s power is limit, therefore, energy efficiency is a critical issue, routing protocol can make better energy consumption and loading balance, Clustering is useful routing protocol in WSN and provides the direction of energy efficiency. The ARC (Adaptive Re-Clustering) is based on clustering; ARC can reduce the whole WSN power consumption and protect less residue power cluster-head. The experiments prove that ARC can improve network reliability and extend network lifetime.

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is composed of micro sensor nodes and it represents that they are small in size and cheap in cost but own limited capacity of computation and operation time. WSN is used to detect and sense events like temperature, earthquake, creature activities, atmospheric pressure and so on. By the property of wireless data transmission, WSN can be rapidly deployed and easily built up. In other hand, lifetime of WSN has been constrained by the batteries built in each sensor node. To transmit sensed data back to the base station spends the most energy for the WSN, and thus how to operate efficiently will be the key to extend the operating time of the WSN. There are a lot of related researches that proposed many routing protocols to maximize WSN lifetime and clustering is a proven routing protocol for WSN energy efficiency. The clustering method group nearby nodes together and choose one of them as a cluster-head that will transmit data back. The most important issue of clustering method is to choose which as a cluster-head. Usually, cluster-head will be chosen by probability and normal nodes will choose their own cluster-head by distance. Global-fit and Energy-Efficient (GFEE) algorithm, which is based on global-fit concept, is proposed to enhance lifetime of WSN. GFEE not only chooses cluster-head by probability and taking turns, but also bases on residual energy. All other nodes choose their cluster-head by distance and total energy consumption. Nodes with low power should be protected by some mechanisms. Experiments approved GFEE, especially in the situations of nodes widely spread or long distance transmission.

In this work a suggested method to reduce the energy consumption of the cooling system in a data center is modelled and evaluated. Introduced is different approaches to distributed airflow control, in which different amounts of airflow can be supplied in different parts of the data center (instead of an even airflow distribution). Two different kinds of distributed airflow control are compared to a traditional approach without airflow control. The difference between the two control approaches being the type of server rack used, either traditional ones or a new kind of rack with vertically placed servers. A model capable of describing the power consumption of the data center cooling system for these different approaches to airflow control was constructed. Based on the model, MATLAB simulations of three different server work load scenarios were then carried out. It was found that introducing distributed airflow control reduced the power consumption for all scenarios and that the control approach with the new kind of rack had the largest reduction. For this case the power consumption of the cooling system could be reduced to 60% - 69% of the initial consumption, depending on the workload scenario. Also examined was the effect on the data center of different parameters and process variables (parameters held fixed with the help of feedback loops), as well as optimal set point values.

Sweden’s energy consumption is divided into three major sectors. One of them is the industry sector. One third of Sweden’s energy consumption is converted in the industries. The chemical industry is one of those industries with great energy needs. This thesis looks into energy efficiency in industry, in particular the plastics manufacturing industry. Efficiency concerning heat exchangers, their fouling resistance and also pumps. This thesis also relates to the industry in the big picture as heat exchangers and pumps are widely used and these has a great energy and environmental efficiency. This thesis presents an algorithm especially developed for this issue. The thesis has been written by dividing the work into measurements and data, implementation and analysis. The result of this thesis is an Excel-sheet that may be used to calculate the fouling resistance in a plate heat exchanger. / Sveriges energianvändning är uppdelad i tre stora sektorer. Ett av dem är industrin. En tredjedel av Sveriges energiförbrukning omvandlas inom industrierna. Kemiindustrin är av dem industrier som har stort energibehov. Detta examensarbete tar upp effektivisering inom industrin, närmre sett plasttillverkningsindustrin. Effektiviseringen berör värmeväxlare och dess foulingresistans och även pumpar. Examensarbetet kan spegla industrin i den stora bilden då värmeväxlare och pumpar finns väldigt utspritt och effektiviseras dessa har en stor energi och miljöeffektivisering gjorts. För att energieffektivisera inom detta examensarbete har en beräkningsalgoritm tagits fram. Arbetet har delats upp i mätvärden, beräkningar genomförande och analys. Resultatet blev en Excel-ark som kan användas för att beräkna foulingresistansen i en plattvärmeväxlare.

Detta är ett examenarbete på grundnivå, 15 högskolepoäng. Examensarbetet är en energikartläggning med rekommenderade energieffektiviseringsåtgärder. Energikartläggningen är baserad på ett verkligt objekt vilket är en förskola i norra Gävle. Denna skola förvaltas av Gavlefastigheter.I Sverige går cirka 40 % av energianvändningen till bostäder och service. Därför finns det stora mängder energi att spara inom denna sektor. Ett bra sätt att utreda på vart energin går i en byggnad är att göra en energikartläggning.Energikartläggningen är utförd utifrån ritningar, verkliga mätningar, schablonvärden, antaganden och litteratur.Skolan har en beräknad energianvändning på 1239 MWh per år, detta är uppdelat på ventilation, transmissionsförluster och tappvarmvatten. Efter 3 beräknade effektiviseringsåtgärder blir energibesparingen sammanlagt 612 MWh detta är 49,4 %. De åtgärder som är beräknade är tilläggsisolering, byte av ventilation och byte av fönster. Att enbart byta till FTX-ventilation sparar 522 MWh detta är en besparing på 42,1 % av den totala energianvändningen och den rekommenderade åtgärden. / This report is an energy audit with recommended energy efficient solutions recommended made on a preschool in north Gävle. This preschool is administrated by Gavlefastigheter. In Sweden almost 40 % of Sweden’s energy supply goes to the housing and service sector. This means there is a lot of potential to save energy in this field. A good way to start saving energy in a building is to do an energy audit.This energy audit is made from blueprints of the building, real measurements, standard values, assumptions, and literature.The school has a calculated energy use of 1239 MWh per year; this is divided on ventilation, transmission losses and hot tap water. A calculation with energy efficient solutions makes a total of 612 MWh or 49, 4 % in saved energy. The energy efficient savings calculated are new windows, additional insulation and changed ventilation. To only change the ventilation made for an energy saving of 522 MWh which is 42, 1 % from the total energy use in the building. To change the ventilation to an FTX-system is the recommended change to be made.

Nowadays, facility managers and related staffs are facing with much maintenance requests every day. The more complicated building system generates the more diverse and complex maintenance issues. With the limited budget and staff, not all the maintenance requests can be solved immediately. To schedule the maintenance work, facility managers first consider the impact of requested problem on system failure and life safety. Besides these two factors, the author proposed the importance of considering the energy efficiency and occupant satisfaction based on the former research for sustainability. This paper firstly tries to quantify the occupant satisfaction for normal daily maintenance requests which will provide the facility managers with suggestions on work prioritization. For a long time, it is a difficult task to quantify the occupant satisfaction, even though there are enough researches concerning the people satisfaction. In this research, author first designed a structured questionnaire including normal maintenance issues and they are measured by different factors such as thermal impact, acoustic impact, and so on. Then based on the classical disconfirmation theory, a framework was built to prioritize numerous works based on occupant satisfaction. For energy efficiency, due to the limitation of collecting real measured data, this paper referred the work from Lawrance Lab. They conducted the research to simulate the daily HVAC faults to quantify the energy impact through EnergyPlus, which provided the data of energy increase for some daily HVAC faults. An agent based model is proposed to both consider these two factors. Simulation was used to verify the framework and the result showed that the total satisfaction level and energy efficiency can be increased by 30% and 97% respectively.

Residential buildings in the United States are responsible for the consumption of 38% of electricity, and for much of the fluctuations in the power demands on the electric grid, particularly in hot climates. Residential buildings are also where occupants spend nearly 69% of their time. As “smart” technologies, including electric grid-connected devices and home energy management systems are increasingly available and installed in buildings, this research focuses on the use of these technologies combined with available energy use data in accomplishing three main objectives. The research aims to: (a) better understand how residential buildings currently use electricity, (b) evaluate the use of these smart technologies and data to reduce buildings’ electricity use and their contribution to peak loads, and (c) develop a methodology to assess the impacts of these operational changes on occupant thermal comfort. Specifically this study focuses on two of the most significant electricity consumers in residential buildings: large appliances, including refrigerators, clothes washers, clothes dryers and dishwashers, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. First, to develop an improved understanding of current electricity use patterns of large appliances and residential HVAC systems, this research analyzes a large set of field-collected data. This dataset includes highly granular electricity consumption information for residential buildings located in a hot and humid climate. The results show that refrigerators have the most reliable and consistent use, while the three user-dependent appliances varied more greatly among houses and by time-of-day. In addition, the daily use patterns of appliances vary in shape depending on a number of factors, particularly whether or not the occupants work from home, which contrasts with common residential building energy modeling assumptions. For the all-air central HVAC systems studied, the average annual HVAC duty cycle was found to be approximately 20%, and varied significantly depending on the season, time of day, and type of residential building. Duty cycle was also correlated to monthly energy use. This information provides an improvement to previously assumed values in indoor air modeling studies. Overall, the work presented here enhances the knowledge of how the largest consumers of residential buildings, large appliances and HVAC, operate and use energy, and identifies influential factors that affect these use patterns. The methodologies developed can be applied to determine use patterns for other energy consuming devices and types of buildings, to further expand the body of knowledge in this area. Expanding on this knowledge of current energy use, smart large appliances and residential HVAC systems are investigated for use in reducing peak electric grid loads, and building energy use, respectively. This includes a combination of laboratory testing, field-collected data, and modeling. For appliance peak load reduction, refrigerators are found to have a good demand response potential, in part due to the nearly 100% of residential buildings that have one or more of these appliances, and the predictability of their energy consumption behavior. Dryers provide less consistent energy use across all homes, but have a higher individual peak power demand during afternoon and evening peak use times. These characteristics also make dryers also a good candidate for demand response. The study of continuous commissioning of HVAC systems using energy data found that both runtime and energy use are increased, and cooling capacity and efficiency are reduced due to the presence of faults or inefficiencies. The correction of these faults have an estimated 1.4% to 5.7% annual impact on a residential building’s electricity use in a cooling-dominated climate such as the one studied. Overall, appliance peak load reduction results are useful for utility companies and policy makers in identifying what smart appliance may provide the most peak energy reduction potential through demand response programs. The results of the HVAC study provides a methodology that can be used with energy use data, to determine if an HVAC system has the characteristics implying an inefficiency may be present, and to quantify the annual savings resulting from its correction. The final aspect of this research focuses on the development of a tool to enable an assessment the effect of operational changes of a building associated with energy and peak load reduction on occupant comfort. This is accomplished by developing a methodology that uses the response surface methodology (RSM), combined with building performance data as input, and uncertainly analysis. A second-order RSM model constructed using a full-factorial design was generally found to provide strong agreement to in and out-of-sample building simulation data when evaluating the Average Percent of People Dissatisfied (PPD[subscript avg]). This 5-step methodology was applied to assess occupant thermal comfort in a residential building due to a 1-hour demand response event and a time-of-use pricing rate schedule for a variety of residential building characteristics. This methodology provides a model that can quickly assess, over a continuous range of values for each of the studied design variables, the effect on occupant comfort. This may be useful for building designers and operators who wish to quickly assess the effect of a change in building operations on occupants. / text