abstract: The objective of this thesis is to investigate the various types of energy end-uses to be expected in future high efficiency single family residences. For this purpose, this study has analyzed monitored data from 14 houses in the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition, and segregates the energy consumption patterns in various residential end-uses (such as lights, refrigerators, washing machines, ...). The analysis was not straight-forward since these homes were operated according to schedules previously determined by the contest rules. The analysis approach allowed the isolation of the comfort energy use by the Heating, Venting and Cooling (HVAC) systems. HVAC are the biggest contributors to energy consumption during operation of a building, and therefore are a prime concern for energy performance during the building design and the operation. Both steady state and dynamic models of comfort energy use which take into account variations in indoor and outdoor temperatures, solar radiation and thermal mass of the building were explicitly considered. Steady State Inverse Models are frequently used for thermal analysis to evaluate HVAC energy performance. These are fast, accurate, offer great flexibility for mathematical modifications and can be applied to a variety of buildings. The results are presented as a horizontal study that compares energy consumption across homes to arrive at a generic rather than unique model - to be used in future discussions in the context of ultra efficient homes. It is suggested that similar analyses of the energy-use data that compare the performance of variety of ultra efficient technologies be conducted to provide more accurate indications of the consumption by end use for future single family residences. These can be used alongside the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) and the Leading Indicator for Remodeling Activity (LIRA) indices to assist in planning and policy making related to residential energy sector. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Built Environment 2014

Food-service facilities have high energy intensities compared to other commercial buildings due to their energy use for cooking and refrigeration. Assessing the energy performance of such facilities has two main purposes. The first one is to evaluate how efficient food-service facilities are and to compare the results with other similar facilities. The second objective is to get a deeper analysis of the energy uses, what enables an easier identification of the processes whose energy efficiency can be improved. This thesis gives, in a first part, a general methodology of how such an energy performance assessment could be carried out. In a second part, a Swedish restaurant – Långbro Värdshus – is taken as a case study. This case study consists in an analysis of the cooking appliances' energy use and an energy performance assessment of the whole facility. A first result of this thesis is the importance of the definition of the system before to start the assessment. Lack of information about the considered processes or how energy use is estimated makes comparison and benchmarking difficult and potentially irrelevant. A second important aspect that stands out of the study when dealing with energy efficiency is the choice of a meaningful indicator. In the case of food-service facilities the amount of energy used per meal (typically expressed in kWh/meal) seems to be the most appropriate one. As regards the energy efficiency of Långbro Värdshus, it has been estimated at 5.9 kWh/meal when considering the total energy use of the facility and at 4.1 kWh/meal without HVAC systems' energy use. Concerning the cooking appliances, the monitored data of their electricity consumption have been analysed to identify the influence of the heating technology and behaviours on the energy use. It resulted, for example, that replacing two hot plate range tops by a solid top and an induction range top enabled 38 % energy savings. Moreover, training the personnel reduced by 7 % the total energy use of the monitored cooking appliances.

The world’s energy use in buildings (residential and commercial) accounts for around 40% of the worldwide energy consumption, and space heating is the responsible for half of the energy need in the building sector. In Europe, only a small share (less than 10%) of existing buildings was built after 1990. Most of the building stock does not satisfy the recent energy technical standards; in addition there is a very low trend to construct new buildings in the last years. Renovation of the existing buildings is a feasible option to reduce the energy need in Europe, but finding the optimum solutions for a renovation is not a simple task. Each design parameter differently influences the final energy need of buildings and, furthermore, the different variables are differently correlated each other. Building refurbishment will benefit from a tool for the selection of the best measures in term of energy need. This work, through a global sensitivity analysis, aims at determining the contribution of the design parameters to the building energy demand and the correlation between the different variables. The considered parameters are related to the improvement of the thermal transmittance of both the opaque envelope and the windows, the solar transmittance of the glazing surfaces, the window size, the thermal inertia of the internal walls and the external sunshades for windows. Several dynamic simulations have been performed varying the design parameters from different starting conditions. Finally, due to the large number of cases elaborated, an inferential statistical analysis has been performed in order to identify the predominant factors and the correlation between the design parameters in a global context.

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Energy performance in buildings has become one of the most broadly debated subjects in contemporary architecture / and current legislation has emphasized its importance by requiring buildings to possess an energy performance certificate. Due to the technological advances in computational tools, it is possible to analyze the energy performance of buildings before construction starts / however most energy performance evaluation tools, requiring complex solid models and high technical knowledge in the field, can be used only during the post design phases. Since any design decision has an important effect on the energy performance of a building, evaluation tools should be used from the very beginning of the design process. In this dissertation, a building energy performance evaluation program, entitled the Energy performance Advisor (EnAd), was developed for evaluating the energy performance of buildings considering not only the legal framework of Turkey, but also the building design process. The program does not need advanced expertise, and was developed to be usable in any phase of the design process. The program, using the monthly calculation method of TS EN ISO 13790, was developed based on the European Union Directive on Energy Performance in Buildings (EPBD) and the current Turkish legislation on the subject. EnAd integrates the legal framework with the energy performance criterion into the building design process, while providing rapid feedback on energy performance and related legislation, and guiding the designer to improve design decisions. This dissertation has also shown the effects of building size, exposed surfaces, ventilation and infiltration, window-wall ratio, U-values, set-point temperatures and temperature differences between the outside and inside spaces on energy performance of buildings through generic case studies while searching the reasons for discrepancies between the results derived from the four evaluation tools, three of which is highly acknowledged energy performance evaluation tools. The validity, reliability, precision and usability of EnAd as a design-support tool has been proved through the usability and convergence tests conducted. Finally, the thesis has pointed out the importance of the use of energy performance evaluation tools from early stages of architectural design process to achieve higher performances as well as the roles of decision makers in this process.

Energy usage deriving from human activities is increasing day by day acting against the quality of the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources. The major impact of these actions is reflected on the quality of daily life. In order to face the challenge of preserving an acceptable balance between human needs and environmental status, the combination of proper design and energy simulation of buildings is the key towards smarter and more sustainable solutions. Solutions that covers a respectable percentage of the current domestic energy needs without further environmental foot printing. In the scope of this project, an existing single-family house in Southern Greece (Heraklion, Crete) is modeled using Revit ® Architecture software and then is simulated with IES® VE (plug-in) in order to give the level of energy intensity. The energy model used is fully harmonized with the new rules set by the "National Regulation for Energy Performance of Buildings - (K.En.A.K)" as it was put in force from October 2010 and onwards, and fully complies with the European Standards (EN ISO) published for the various tasks of building`s thermal performance. The structure and contents presented in this report are in full compliance with the technical directives [31, 32, 33] published by the Technical Chamber of Greece, in favour of the complex task of "Energy Certification of Buildings". The most significant capabilities of sophisticated software tools, like Revit® Architecture, IES® VE, Polysun® and PVsyst®, in favour of sustainable building design and simulation are shown throughout the whole report. Moreover, their valuable contribution is highly acknowledged by the engineers encountered with the task of studying the energy performance of existing or newly constructed buildings in Greece and issuing, the mandatory by law, "Energy Performance Certificates".

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjama Lietuvos pastatų energinio naudingumo sertifikavimo metodika pagal STR 2.01.09:2005 „Pastatų energinis naudingumas. Energinio naudingumo sertifikavimas“. Ši metodika lyginama su STR 2.09.04:2002 „Pastato šildymo sistemos galia. Energijos sąnaudos šildymui“ šilumos nuostolių skaičiavimo metodika ir su faktiniu šilumos suvartojimu. Nagrinėjamos suminės energijos sąnaudos ir energinio naudingumo kvalifikacinis rodiklis esant skirtingo aukštingumo pastatams ir jo pokytis diegiant renovacijos priemones. Taip pat atliekama renovacijos priemonių ekonominio efektyvumo analizė. Sudaromas A klasės pastato modelis. Analizuojama energinio naudingumo klasės suteikimo sistema ir pateikiamos rekomendacijos energinio naudingumo sertifikavimui Lietuvoje. / In the master thesis the methodology of building energy performance by The national building regulation STR 2.01.09:2005 „Building Energy performance. Certificate of energy performance” is analysed . The methodology is compared with heat gains calculation methodology in regulation STR 2.09.04:2002 „Capacity of building heating system. Energy input for heating“ and actual heat consumption. The total energy consumption and the energy performance qualifying index is analyzed in the buildings of different height and the difference of index after renovation. The economical efficiency analysis of recommended renovation is analysed. The model of energy performance class is analised and the recomendations for energy performance certification in Lithuania are presented.

Building portfolio management on campus and metropolitan scale involves decisions about energy retrofits, energy resource pooling, and investments in shared energy systems, such as district cooling, community PV and wind power, CHP systems, geothermal systems etc. There are currently no tools that help a portfolio/campus manager make these decisions by rapid comparison of variants. The research has developed an energy supply network management tool at the campus scale. The underlying network energy performance (NEP) model uses (1) an existing energy performance toolkit to quantify the energy performance of building energy consumers on hourly basis, and (2) added modules to calculate hourly average energy generation from a wide variety of energy supply systems. The NEP model supports macro decisions at the generation side (decisions about adding or retrofitting campus wide systems) and consumption side (planning of new building design and retrofit measures). It allows testing different supply topologies by inspecting which consumer nodes should connect to which local suppliers and to which global suppliers, i.e. the electricity and gas utility grids. A prototype software implementation allows a portfolio or campus manager to define the demand and supply nodes on campus scale and manipulate the connections between them through a graphical interface. The NEP model maintains the network topology which is represented by a directed graph with the supply and demand nodes as vertices and their connections as arcs. Every change in the graph automatically triggers an update of the energy generation and consumption pattern, the results of which are shown on campus wide energy performance dashboards. The dissertation shows how the NEP model supports decision making with respect to large-scale building energy system design with a case study of the Georgia Tech campus evaluating the following three assertions: 1. The normative calculations at the individual building scale are accurate enough to support the network energy performance analysis 2. The NEP model supports the study of the tradeoffs between local building retrofits and campus wide energy interventions in renewable systems, under different circumstances 3. The NEP approach is a viable basis for routine campus asset management policies.

This thesis of problem with sell realty. Namely, have energy performance certification of building (EPCB) influence to price of detached house. In the firt part thesis is solved EPCB (when we need it, who can perform it and the calculation for a particular detached house). In the second part is valued the building using the market compared to the development of database house. After comparing the results achieved and the informations we determined, whether EPCB affect the price of the detached house or not.

Today, buildings consume 40% of total energy demand in the EU and are responsible for 36% of GHG emissions. For this reason, and due to the delicate situation of climate change that planet Earth is experiencing, solutions are being sought to make the building sector more sustainable. In the current project, the use of natural materials has been chosen as a solution in line with the EU 2050 long-term strategy. This research broadens the knowledge on sustainable building with natural materials as an alternative to conventional construction. To this end, first, an extensive state of the art has been carried out to gather information and identify research gaps on natural building materials and energy efficiency, proving the suitability of natural construction materials. Special emphasis has been put on straw bale construction and rammed earth construction, which have been studied individually. In addition, geometrically identical building models of both building techniques have been developed and simulated in Stockholm and Valencia in order to see how they would perform in different climates. Total energy demand for the straw-bale building of 140.22 kWh/(m2·year) in the case of Stockholm and 37.05 kWh/(m2·year) in the case of Valencia has been obtained. For the rammed earth building, a total demand of 301.82 kWh/(m2·year) has been obtained in Stockholm and 78.66 kWh/(m2·year) in Valencia. Once passive measures are applied in the different models, a reduction in demand for the straw bale building of 77.8% and 36.3% has been achieved for Stockholm and Valencia, respectively. In the rammed earth building, in contrast, the demand has been reduced by 86.3% in Stockholm and 73.9% in Valencia. Heat recovery ventilation and high insulation level have been identified as imperative needs in Stockholm, in contrast to Valencia. Other improvement strategies such as windows substitution, air permeability improvement, or natural ventilation for cooling have been implemented. Apart from that, better performance of the straw-bale buildings has been identified for both climates. Additionally, focusing on thermal inertia, its influence has been identified as not completely significant in terms of annual demand in the simulated climates.