Papers by Keyword: Energyplus

Abstract: Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) is a device that cools or heats air as it flows through underground ducts, helping to lower energy usage while ensuring comfortable thermal conditions. This investigation is designed to assess the thermoenergetic performance of an EAHE in Social Housing (SH) when submitted to different operating and constructive parameters and suggest strategies to improve energy efficiency in buildings. The study involves thermal and energy evaluations of a device integrated into SH, exploring varying air velocity, duct length, and duct diameter. Dynamic simulations using EnergyPlus software were employed for these evaluations. The findings show that incorporating the EAHE to the SH enhances the thermoenergetic efficiency of built environments. The system's best performance was achieved by a duct measuring 34 m long and 110 mm in diameter with a 3.3 m/s airflow, striking a balance between thermal and energy considerations. This contributes to providing validated references and parameters for future projects in the pursuit of enhanced efficiency.

Abstract: The constructive elements of a building influence the demand for electrical energy, and optimal decisions can be assessed with the support of software that measures this building's demand more accurately. The objective of this research is to assess the thermal behavior of a residential dwelling located in bioclimatic zone 2 in the southern region of Brazil, seeking energy sources that contribute to improving thermal comfort. The study utilizes parameters that reduce the thermal demand for cooling and heating by installing an earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE) in the prolonged occupancy enviroments (POEs) within the building. The results obtained in the EnergyPlus software show that the adaptive comfort of the model with the Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE), compared to without it, reduces cold discomfort by 5.4% and increases thermal comfort in the building by 5.2%. Analyzing the annual temperatures of the spaces with the EAHE, it is observed that the outlet temperature of the EAHE duct remains at an average of 23.6°C and 23.8°C for the living room and bedrooms, respectively. From an energy perspective, the electrical energy consumption of the building was reduced by 29.8% when using the EAHE.

Abstract: Achieving energy efficiency of building in north part of Kazakhstan is very critical due to the large temperature difference during long harsh and severe winter and short hot summer seasons. Energy efficient building shows significant savings to homeowners including costs reduction from energy, water, waste, and lower operations and maintenance costs. In terms of building materials, lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) due to its thermal properties is often used to maintain thermal comfort levels in buildings and to reduce building energy consumption. In this paper, the potential of LWAC to improve the energy performance of building was assessed for LWAC with three different mixture proportions and a normal weight concrete (NWC) for comparison purpose. The energy saving effect of LWAC was simulated using OpenStudio software tools with an EnergyPlus engine. Moreover, annual heat loss and amount of heat transfer of construction wall of building were calculated. Results showed that LWAC can improve the energy efficiency of building and thus the use of LWAC can be a good alternative to the traditional NWC.

Abstract: Energy consumption awareness and reducing consumption are popular topics. Building energy consumption counts for almost a third of the global energy consumption and most of that is used for building heating and cooling. Building energy simulation tools are currently gaining attention and are used for optimizing the design for new and existing buildings. For O&M phase in existing buildings, the multiannual average weather data used in the simulation tools is not suitable for evaluating the performance of the building. In this study an existing building was modeled in EnergyPlus. Real on-site weather data was used for the dynamic simulation for the heating energy demand with the aim of comparing the measured energy consumption with the simulated one. The aim is to develop an early fault detection tool for building management.

Abstract: Solar Thermal Cooling System with its absorption cycle is expected to replace the conventional air conditioning system with vapor compression cycle because it is more efficient in terms of cost and energy. However, due to the heat of the sun is not always stable, the system needs to be equipped with a backup energy source, one of which is CNG. In the Manufacturing Research Center building, the lack of facilities that support availability of CNG causes large operational cost. Therefore, optimization efforts with the aim to reduce operational cost are needed. Simulation and optimization performed with EnergyPlus and GenOpt. The conclusion is that the installation of 187.5 kW electric tankless water heater is able to reduce total operational cost by 34.65% compared to system that uses combination of solar thermal and CNG and 49.69% compared with system that uses only CNG.

Abstract: The solar thermal cooling system is expected to replace the utilization of conventional cooling system, particularly the vapour compression system. This cooling system is power-efficient, refrigerant environmentally friendly and able to use the abundant potential of solar energy. Hence, the optimization of this cooling system is necessary in order to obtain the best performance. For that purpose, this study focus on the simulation phase of the solar thermal cooling system utilization in MRC FTUI building as well as the optimization of solar collector applying EnergyPlus and GenOpt software. The position and the tilt angle of solar collector set as parameter study to gain the best performance of solar collector to produce hot water, which will be used as energy source in the absorption chiller. Finally, the optimum position and the optimum tilt angle every month in a year were obtained from this study.

Abstract: Optimization design of building envelope-integrated collectors plays an important role in reducing energy consumption and improving thermal comfort. Take a passive solar house for an example, optimization design principles for passive solar house were proposed by simulation. Simulation results by changing envelope insulation thickness showed that the optimal thickness was between 30mm and 70mm for south wall, and 70mm~150mm for other façade, respectively. Meanwhile, the optimal thickness for concrete exterior walls was in the range of 200mm~300mm. Simulation of changing heat capacity proportion showed that the daily temperature difference decreased by 14oC to 5.2oC as the proportion increased doubled. However, considering the building initial investment, the arrangement of thermal mass should be determined by the building type and energy demand.

Abstract: The objective of this study is to verify energy performance of passive office building compared to existing building using computer simulation tool, EnergyPlus. S building was selected as a passive office building, which is the first passive office building in KOREA, and the building satisfy the passive house standard. The annual energy consumption data were compared to the heating and cooling load result of EnergyPlus, to verify simulation accuracy. The conditions of existing building were selected from Korean envelope standard and the categories of the conditions are the insulation thickness and glazing composition. As a result, the passive office showed 28% reduced energy consumption, compared to the existing building, with ordinary envelope under Korean building envelope standard.

Abstract: Energyplus is used to discuss the impact of double skin façade (DSF) on building lights, heating and cooling energy consumption in daylighting control mode by simulating the building lights, heating and cooling energy consumption with different height of double skin façade (DSF) and different air cavity width .Thus the influence rules on the lights, heating and cooling energy in daylighting control mode can be found.

Abstract: The biogas amounts with stable flowing rate require heating in cold weather. This study focuses on using solar energy for heating biogas digester. In this research we used energy plus building energy simulation software and real weather data for simulation the heating of biogas digester with 8760 hours simulation .The research was carried out in two parts: The first one is one biogas digester above ground without heating. The Second part of this study is a simulation of one biogas digester with solar heating by using a new design based on double plastic cover. It has shown that the use of solar energy can achieve the optimum temperature for biogas production process almost the year time. Using double plastic cover is the most suitable method with economic form for heating biogas digester above ground.