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This research project investigates the viability of using renewable energy sources and passive solar design in Saskatchewan, with its harsh climate, abundant energy resources, and absence of financial incentives for residential renewable energy systems. <p>An experimental Ready-To-Move (RTM) house, using passive solar design and stand-alone solar and wind power with gas generator backup, was designed and built and has been tested for a one year period from January to December, 2006.<p>The design methodology was based on well established design procedures for passive solar homes and renewable energy systems that are documented in the literature. A data collection system was used to record solar and wind charging currents, and battery status and temperature data was recorded on a daily basis. Average household loads were estimated from this data. <p>For 2006, the power generation of the solar array was 990 kWh, which was better than the expected output of 927 kWh. However, the wind generator produced only 475 kWh, which was substantially less the expected output of 1430 kWh. Average wind speeds were lower than the normal for 2006 and power production was less than the manufacturers projections for the specified wind speeds. Financial analysis showed that the lack of incentives and net metering made an off-grid system economically feasible only in remote locations where the cost of grid connection is over $20,000.

This research project investigates the viability of using renewable energy sources and passive solar design in Saskatchewan, with its harsh climate, abundant energy resources, and absence of financial incentives for residential renewable energy systems. <p>An experimental Ready-To-Move (RTM) house, using passive solar design and stand-alone solar and wind power with gas generator backup, was designed and built and has been tested for a one year period from January to December, 2006.<p>The design methodology was based on well established design procedures for passive solar homes and renewable energy systems that are documented in the literature. A data collection system was used to record solar and wind charging currents, and battery status and temperature data was recorded on a daily basis. Average household loads were estimated from this data. <p>For 2006, the power generation of the solar array was 990 kWh, which was better than the expected output of 927 kWh. However, the wind generator produced only 475 kWh, which was substantially less the expected output of 1430 kWh. Average wind speeds were lower than the normal for 2006 and power production was less than the manufacturers projections for the specified wind speeds. Financial analysis showed that the lack of incentives and net metering made an off-grid system economically feasible only in remote locations where the cost of grid connection is over $20,000.

Prompted by the energy crisis in the 1970's, European level fiscal and financial measures encourage energy efficient building design. "Mixed mode" strategies can be employed in buildings with moderate thermal loads, this approach can reduce building energy usage, and by inference, reduce C02 emissions. A mixed mode approach might employ chilled surfaces with displacement ventilation. This thesis investigates the performance and integration of one form of chilled surface design, (a sub-dew point chilled beam), within mixed mode strategies. Sub-dew point chilled beams have a surface temperature that is at or below the zone saturation temperature, this increases the cooling capacity of the chilled beam and consequently produces a latent heat transfer addition due to condensation mass transfer. This thesis describes the sensible and latent modelling approach which models the zone, sub-dew point chilled beam and mixed mode strategy thermal plant response to external disturbances. The thesis describes the use of an Enclosure Comfort Performance Indicator that acts as the objective function for the optimization of the mixed mode strategies with and without the integration of the sub-dew point chilled beam. The implementation of the Complex method for finding the operational optimums of the mixed mode strategy is described, and its effectiveness at finding the optimum solution evaluated. Normalised energy, cost and comfort performance indicators are used to assess the overall performance and integration of the sub-dew point chilled beam for different mixed mode strategies, for the ambient test conditions and for different thermal weights of building construction.

This work is concerned with the analysis of industrial energy use for the purposes of reducing that use to a minimum within the constraints imposed by the existing plant. The work is divided into two parts. Firstly, a general analysis of the energy used in an industrial plant is made for the year 1986. Based on monthly records of energy consumption and environmental parameters, it is primarily intended to heighten management awareness of energy flows and the relative contributions from each energy type towards the total annual consumption and cost. It is performed using a suite of interactive linked computer programs and the data is reduced to a graphical form for presentation in a report. The analysis is a first approximation, assuming steady state conditions with many parameters time and space averaged, but is justified by the findings that monetary savings approaching 5% of the annual energy bill could be made with changes to operational procedures alone. As a result of this work, it was revealed that the boiler-house supplying the majority of the plant with high pressure hot water for process and space heating requirements used more than half of the total annual energy requirements and that potential energy savings were likely. Secondly, a detailed analysis of the energy used by the boiler-house is- carried out. A real time monitoring and targeting system which records and displays boiler, environmental and plant parameters is developed and installed. Data gathered over a period of six months enables (i) specific cases of energy wastage resulting from operational procedures to be identified and (ii) trends of performance indicating poor energy efficiency to be traced. The system developed may be used to provide the information necessary to enable improved control. A general result which may be inferred from this work would be that the combined approaches of a topdown general analysis and a bottom-up detailed analysis of energy use can provide significant opportunities for energy conservation resulting solely from the improved operation of large energy consuming plant. The work was performed at a major manufacturing plant in the U. K. with an annual energy consumption of the order of 600 gigawatt-hours and an annual energy bill of the order of E10 million.

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This study is going to investigate the energy performance of a temporary building on campus and analyze it thoroughly to identify the trends on energy consumption. Then, it is going to select the best strategy that can improve its performance in this region. Next, a prototype design of a high energy performance building is going to be proposed to the university authorities to be constructed in the permanent campus in the second phase and, identify a list of the best strategies that are more appropriate for the climate of the city. Finely, a comparative study is going to be conducted by using energy analyses software (eQUEST) to find out the annual saving of the proposed design over the existing building.

The purpose of this research is to develop methods that reduce energy consumption in a residential building in a hot and humid climate region (Thailand) using efficient architectural building components and renewable energy (solar energy) to produce electricity, domestic hot water, and supplemental cooling by night sky radiation. Improving the architectural building components, including building materials, is an option to reduce energy consumption in a building. Using renewable energy sources is another option to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy. In residential buildings, solar energy has been utilized for space heating and domestic hot water using active solar collector systems and for generating electricity using photovoltaic (PV) systems. One photovoltaic system, the hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collector system, has been developed by several researchers over the last 20 years. The hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collector system is a combination photovoltaic (for producing electricity) and solar thermal collector (for producing hot water). Theoretical and experimental studies of this collector have highlighted the advantages of the hybrid PV-T collector system over separate systems of PV and solar collector in term of system efficiency and economics. Unfortunately, very little experimental data exists that demonstrates the advantages of a combined system. Therefore, one of the objectives of this study conducted was an experimental study of this system as an auxiliary energy source for a residential building. Night sky radiation has also been studied as a cooling strategy. However, no attempt so far could be found to integrate it to a hybrid PV-T collector system. The night sky radiation strategy could be operated with the hybrid PV/T collector system by using existing resources that are already present in the solar system. The integration of the night sky radiation into the hybrid PV-T collector system should yield more productivity of the system than the operation of the Hybrid PVT system alone. The research methods used in this work included instrumentation of a case-study house in Thailand, an experimental PV-T collector system, and a calibrated building thermal simulation. A typical contemporary Thai residential building was selected as a case-study house. Its energy use and local weather data were measured and analyzed. Published energy use of Thai residential buildings was also analyzed as well to determine average energy consumption. A calibrated computer model of the case-study building was constructed using the DOE-2 program. A field experiment of the thermal PV system was constructed to test its ability to simultaneously produce electricity and hot water in the daytime, and shed heat at night as a cooling strategy (i.e., night sky radiation). The resultant electricity and hot water produced by the hybrid PV-T collector system helped to reduce the use of non-renewable energy. The cooling produced by the night sky radiation also has to potential to reduce the cooling load. The evaluation of the case-study house and results of the field experiment helped to quantify the potential reduction of energy use in Thai residential buildings. This research provided the following benefits: 1) experimental results of a hybrid PV-T solar collector system that demonstrates its performance compared to typical system of separate photovoltaic and solar collector, 2) results of night sky radiation experiments using a photovoltaic panel as a radiator to demonstrate the performance of this new space cooling strategy, and 3) useful data from the case-study house simulation results and guidelines to assist others in transferring the results to other projects.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / Climate change and resource availability are arguably the two biggest challenges humanity faces going forward. An unprecedented body of scientific work has been compiled over the past thirty years that indicates humans have and continue to be the largest driver of these environmental concerns, and therefore must also be responsible for any solutions. Buildings and their construction account for nearly 40% of the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Water consumption by both buildings and thermoelectric power generation is also an issue, especially in the Southwest and Western United States. Green building has been gaining steam in the U.S. for the past two decades, but the primary focus has been in the commercial and industrial sectors. The residential markets have not seen the efficiency gains, primarily due to the perception that the cost isn’t worth the benefit. This project examines the need, feasibility, and potential benefits of sustainably retrofitting existing homes as an alternative to new construction. It provides a broad definition of sustainability and then focuses into a more narrow description of its application within the built environment. Using precedents, 3D modeling, and energy simulation software it compares the energy and water savings of a retrofit versus a base case as well as the performance of the average Southern Arizona home. Finally, this capstone project provides a professional cost estimate for the implementation of the proposed changes and a side-by-side look at the available “green” housing market, the utility cost savings for the homeowner, and the environmental benefits of individual as well as large-scale adoption of sustainable retrofitting practices.

Recent advances in wireless sensor networks have led to an emergence of many routing protocols. Limited battery capacity of sensor nodes makes energy efficiency a major and challenge problem in wireless sensor networks. Thus, the routing protocols for wireless sensor networks must be energy efficient in order to maximise the network lifetime. In this thesis, we developed a centralised clustering, energy-efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks. Our protocol consists of a cluster head selection algorithm, a cluster formation scheme and a routing algorithm for the data transmission between cluster heads and the base station. The cluster head selection algorithm is performed by the base station using global information of the network. This algorithm aiming at choosing cluster heads that ensure both the intra-cluster data transmission and inter-cluster data transmission are energy-efficient. The cluster formation scheme is accomplished by exchanging messages between non-cluster-head nodes and the cluster head to ensure a balanced energy load among cluster heads. The routing algorithm is based on the optimal transmission range for the data transmission between cluster heads and the base station using multi-hop. The performance of our routing protocol is evaluated by comparing with three existing routing protocols on a simulation platform. The simulation results show that our protocol can achieve better performance in terms of energy efficiency and network lifetime. Because of the centralised algorithm and multi-hop routing, there is a small communication overhead and transmission delay when using our protocol. Since our protocol can save energy and prolong network lifetime, it is well suited for applications where energy and network lifetime are the primary considerations and small overhead and time delay can be tolerated. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1456494 / Thesis (M.Eng.Sc.) - University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2009