Cites, and the buildings of which they are comprised, consume a large proportion of the total energy produced within developed countries such as Australia. Much of this energy, particularly in Australia, is derived from fossil fuels and its consumption results in the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to an enhanced greenhouse effect causing global warming. The need to reduce the energy consumed by residential and commercial buildings is now widely recognised. This has been acknowledged by state and federal governments within Australia and has resulted in strategies intended to increase the efficiency of building construction and operation. The focus of this research has been the place where most Australians live - suburban residential buildings.Residential buildings consume energy in their operation, for space heating and cooling, water heating, refrigeration, cooking, lighting, appliance, and equipment use. However, energy, known as embodied energy, is also expended in the production of basic building materials, the manufacture of building components, the construction of buildings and their maintenance. Described as life cycle energy, the operational energy and the embodied energy accumulating throughout the lifetime of buildings, account for the total energy attributable to them. Previous studies have indicated that the embodied energy of buildings may be a significant component of their lifetime energy. Therefore, a focus solely on their operational energy efficiency may not necessarily result in lifetime energy reductions.The aim of this research, therefore, was to identify and rank the critical factors influencing the lifetime energy of typical low and medium density suburban residential buildings within temperate regions of Australia. To achieve this, several buildings, representative of the dwelling types currently constructed in the suburbs of Melbourne, were selected for study. Factors influencing operational energy and embodied energy were identified. Thermal simulations were conducted for all dwellings to determine their space heating and cooling requirements as each of the factors was varied from base case values. Residential non space heating and cooling energy was determined from Australian statistics. The embodied energy of the dwellings was calculated using methods adapted from the work of other researchers. As for space conditioning energy simulations, the embodied energy was determined for the base case and then for versions in which factors previously identified were varied. Finally, the life cycle energy requirements of the dwellings were determined for a number of low, base case and high energy scenarios. Statistical analyses of operational energy, embodied energy and life cycle energy results were used to determine and then rank the critical factors influencing each. It has been demonstrated that both user behaviour and building design and construction factors critically influence the life cycle energy requirements of the selected residential dwellings in Melbourne, Australia. As an indicator of the importance of building lifetime, factors found to be critical at one stage of the life cycle of a dwelling have been shown to become less critical at another stage. The results also demonstrate that the life cycle energy requirements of dwellings can be reduced significantly through the synergistic operation of a number of the factors identified.

abstract: Phase Change Material (PCM) plays an important role as a thermal energy storage device by utilizing its high storage density and latent heat property. One of the potential applications for PCM is in buildings by incorporating them in the envelope for energy conservation. During the summer season, the benefits are a decrease in overall energy consumption by the air conditioning unit and a time shift in peak load during the day. Experimental work was carried out by Arizona Public Service (APS) in collaboration with Phase Change Energy Solutions (PCES) Inc. with a new class of organic-based PCM. This "BioPCM" has non-flammable properties and can be safely used in buildings. The experimental setup showed maximum energy savings of about 30%, a maximum peak load shift of ~ 60 min, and maximum cost savings of about 30%. Simulation was performed to validate the experimental results. EnergyPlus was chosen as it has the capability to simulate phase change material in the building envelope. The building material properties were chosen from the ASHRAE Handbook - Fundamentals and the HVAC system used was a window-mounted heat pump. The weather file used in the simulation was customized for the year 2008 from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) website. All EnergyPlus inputs were ensured to match closely with the experimental parameters. The simulation results yielded comparable trends with the experimental energy consumption values, however time shifts were not observed. Several other parametric studies like varying PCM thermal conductivity, temperature range, location, insulation R-value and combination of different PCMs were analyzed and results are presented. It was found that a PCM with a melting point from 23 to 27 °C led to maximum energy savings and greater peak load time shift duration, and is more suitable than other PCM temperature ranges for light weight building construction in Phoenix. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2010

This diploma thesis is dedicated to the analysis of operating data from the Brewery, a former industrial building, which has been reconstructed to a student centre of the Faculty of Information Technologies. The main goal of the work was to analyze the performance of the building and to evaluate energy savings originating from the energy saving measures that were applied during the retrofit.. The first part of the thesis focuses on the particular energy saving measures and the predictions of energy savings. The second part presents the results of the monitoring of the building and the HVAC systems during the first year of the operation of the Brewery.