This master´s thesis analyses the importance of living in own property, the possibilities of financing, especially construction saving loans and mortgages. I mention the current situation on the market of loans and mortgages and the estate market. In second part i describe the work of financial advisor and i include offered products, i suggest to clients the best possibilities of how to finance their property. I suggest options, compare them and recommend the most convenient one.

The aim of the thesis is the energy rating of buildings. The introduction included the issues of the topic, including normative and legislative regulations, process energy performance certificates along with energy audits for residential building. The object is evaluated in terms of energy, economic and environmental. Within the energy audit was designed and evaluated austerity measures.

For many companies, energy efficiency starts with production. For this reason, special consideration must be given to the production operation as a whole as well as its sub-areas. The strict legal requirements, as well as the companies`green policies which are defined as a result of these, create complex challenges, which SMC meets with expertise and passion as a manufacturer, partner and solution provider in electric and pneumatic automation technology. On the basis of an actual customer requirement, SMC Germany has developed an innovation in the field of pneumatic energy efficiency: The Air Saving Circuit for double acting pneumatic cylinders , under the working title of Air Saving Box . The underlying idea and focus of the solution was to make good use of the compressed air generated in existing cylinders, instead of simply allowing it to go to waste. The Air Saving Box enables significant energy savings in production. Based on this customised solution, SMC has also developed an industry-independent concept that can also be integrated into existing applications.

Electrical energy has become a very important and integrated part of the current era. Electricity cost saving interventions, such as load shifting, form part of demand side management (DSM) interventions. DSM interventions have been successfully implemented in the past to ensure reliable supply of electricity during the Eskom peak periods. It has been established that there is a need to implement an electricity cost saving intervention on a large water distribution utility. This dissertation focuses on the integration of electricity cost saving interventions on a water distribution utility. An investigation methodology, as well as an integration strategy for implementing an electricity cost saving intervention were developed. This study expands on the importance of an integrated approach. It further discusses the shortcomings of the current control philosophies of a large water distribution utility in South Africa. A load shifting project was implemented as an electricity cost saving intervention on a large water distribution utility in South Africa. The proposed integrated strategy was simulated and an optimised approach developed. It was found that the implementation of the strategy was limited due to process constraints and increasing water demand. Utilising the large combined installed capacity of the pumps in the water distribution utility and the storage capacity, the strategy was implemented and cost savings obtained. It was concluded that load shifting was possible on individual pumping stations in the water distribution utility subsystems, and could, therefore, be quantified to an integrated approach. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Electrical energy has become a very important and integrated part of the current era. Electricity cost saving interventions, such as load shifting, form part of demand side management (DSM) interventions. DSM interventions have been successfully implemented in the past to ensure reliable supply of electricity during the Eskom peak periods. It has been established that there is a need to implement an electricity cost saving intervention on a large water distribution utility. This dissertation focuses on the integration of electricity cost saving interventions on a water distribution utility. An investigation methodology, as well as an integration strategy for implementing an electricity cost saving intervention were developed. This study expands on the importance of an integrated approach. It further discusses the shortcomings of the current control philosophies of a large water distribution utility in South Africa. A load shifting project was implemented as an electricity cost saving intervention on a large water distribution utility in South Africa. The proposed integrated strategy was simulated and an optimised approach developed. It was found that the implementation of the strategy was limited due to process constraints and increasing water demand. Utilising the large combined installed capacity of the pumps in the water distribution utility and the storage capacity, the strategy was implemented and cost savings obtained. It was concluded that load shifting was possible on individual pumping stations in the water distribution utility subsystems, and could, therefore, be quantified to an integrated approach. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this figure is expected to increase. The worldwide trend is in the direction of urbanization. Building sustainable cities is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) initiated by United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. In the anthropocene of human induced climate change, what makes a city sustainable? This paper takes Beijing as the case study, uses building smart infrastructures and lowering ecological footprints as the main thread, uses a mixed research method of questionnaires, interviews and site survey, and discusses four aspects -- transportation, waste management, green spaces and energy saving buildings -- from employees’ perspectives of how to a build a sustainable city. This paper also discusses the relations between smart infrastructure and the resilience of a city, and relations between lowering ecological footprints and a green city, and draws a conclusion that a resilient and green city is a sustainable city. We can build a sustainable Beijing only through vigorously developed public transportation, well managed waste, the development of diversified green spaces, and buildings that efficiently use natural resources as energy supplies.

This paper is presenting the application of Power Regenerative Boom(PRB) system to excavator. In order to increase the fuel efficiency of the excavator, potential energy of the front structure is recuperated by the hydraulic hybrid system with electric-hydraulic control, during boom down motion. Charged energy into accumulator is reused after boom down motion, the pressurized oil goes to hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor is mounted on the engine PTO(Power Take-Off), therefore output torque of the hydraulic motor assists the diesel engine directy, it leads to decrease fuel consumption of diesel engine. After the system design and simulation investigation, the presented system was installed into Doosan’s 38ton excavator, DX380LC-3 model, and the energy saving result was verified by a digging and dumping repetition test. The test result shows that fuel consumption was dramatically decreased by 5.0 L/hr compared to the standard DX380LC-3.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African financial sector is developed by world standards, surpassing those of other emerging and developed countries. However, despite all this development in the financial sector, the country has low levels of savings. This contradicts some of the available literature which explains the link between financial development and savings. Based on this background, the study empirically examines the relationship between financial development and savings mobilization in South Africa, employing the Johansen cointegration test for the period 1980 to 2012. Based on the lifecycle hypothesis, a model linking savings and its determinants was specified. The empirical results revealed that there is a long-term relationship between savings and the other variables used in the model. The different measures which were employed to measure financial development were found to be positive and significant, implying that financial sector development impacts positively on savings. An interesting observation from the empirical results is the negative relationship between the rate of interest and savings which implies that South Africans are net borrowers as the income effect surpasses the substitution effect. This in part explains the low levels of savings being experienced by the country since an increase in the rate of interest results in people paying more to service their debt and hence a reduction in savings.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A high savings culture is important for sustainable economic development of any country. Whilst Botswana has one of the highest gross national savings in sub-Saharan Africa, the same cannot be said regarding household savings. Household savings in Botswana have grown at a very slow pace between 2003 and 2012, a worrisome trend given the importance of savings. The main objective of the research assignment was to determine the factors that influence households saving behaviour in Botswana. A probit econometric model was used to find out what factors influence households to choose to save and which ones influence them not to save. Saving behaviour was measured by whether an individual has saved money with a financial institution within the past 12 months. The individual characteristics that were modelled for influence on households saving behaviour were age, income level, education level, gender, formal credit, informal credit, insurance and property ownership. The results indicated that, as suggested by theory and empirical evidence, age, income level and education level have a positive and significant influence on households saving behaviour, whereas, also in line with theory, formal and informal credit and insurance have a negative and significant influence on households saving behaviour. Being female also has a negative but insignificant influence on households saving behaviour. Contrary to expectations, property ownership, which was used as proxy for non-financial assets, has a positive influence on household saving behaviour, although the influence is not significant.

This research presents the design and evaluation of an intervention that introduces modification of time perceptions as one of the solutions to promote sustainable behaviours. It is demonstrated in this thesis that unnecessary energy use is often caused by temporal tensions, defined as the relation between actions to be performed and available time. This research proposes that it is possible to deliberately reduce temporal tensions, and this can motivate people to behave more sustainably. Persuasive technology and human-computer interaction provided the tools needed to manipulate time perceptions and therefore bring about changes in the specific behaviours that result in unnecessary energy usage. Previous studies indicate that behaviours play an important role in energy consumption. From the different domains of energy use that could be examined, cooking was chosen to be the platform where the studies on behaviour change and energy use would take place. How behaviours influence energy use motivated the design of empirical studies to understand behaviours related to domestic energy use and identify what are the determinants of these behaviours. Each determinant was related to a strategy to be included on a behaviour change intervention. A wider survey was developed to understand students acceptance of a set of proposed energy saving techniques, and resulted in a vast volume of information about user preferences and intentions to perform the suggested energy saving behaviours for cooking. It emerged that participants rushed into the cooking tasks without much deliberation, consequently not following preparation procedures and thus using more energy. Information gathered during the first studies also showed that participants behaviours were partially motivated by the need to speed up the cooking process in order to reduce boredom when they were waiting for the food to cook, consequently resulting in extra energy usage. The knowledge gathered from the preceding steps and a literature review informed the design of strategies to modify the non-sustainable behaviours and promote energy saving. A user-centred design process involving an idea generation session and scenario analysis was used to provide a set of strategies to be embedded in an intervention, containing the specific methods to tackle the correspondent determinants of behaviours. The specific needs of the cooking activity indicated that an electronic intervention was an adequate platform to be implemented and tested. Two high resolution working prototypes of the electronic interventions were developed as mobile phone applications. The final study comprised the evaluation of the proposed interventions in improving aspects of the cooking activity, the acceptance of the interventions and effectiveness in promoting energy saving.