90,237 research outputs found
Energy use in residential buildings: Impact of building automation control systems on energy performance and flexibility
This work shows the results of a research activity aimed at characterizing the energy habits of Italian residential users. In detail, by the energy simulation of a buildings sample, the opportunity to implement a demand/response program (DR) has been investigated. Italian residential utilities are poorly electrified and flexible loads are low. The presence of an automation system is an essential requirement for participating in a DR program and, in addition, it can allow important reductions in energy consumption. In this work the characteristics of three control systems have been defined,
based on the services incidence on energy consumptions along with a sensitivity analysis on some energy drivers. Using the procedure established by the European Standard EN 15232, the achievable
energy and economic savings have been evaluated. Finally, a financial analysis of the investments has been carried out, considering also the incentives provided by the Italian regulations. The payback
time is generally not very long: depending on the control system features it varies from 7 to 10 years; moreover, the automation system installation within dwellings is a relatively simple activity, which is
characterized by a limited execution times and by an initial expenditure ranging in 1000 € to 4000 €, related to the three sample systems
Determination of the influence of specific building regulations in smart buildings
The automation of domestic services began to be implemented in buildings since the late nineteenth century, and today we are used to terms like ‘intelligent buildings’, ‘digital home’ or ‘domotic buildings’. These concepts tell us about constructions which integrate
new technologies in order to improve comfort, optimize energy consumption or enhance the security of users. In conjunction, building regulations have been updated to suit the needs of society and to regulate these new facilities in such structures. However, we are not always
sure about how far, from the quantitative or qualitative point of view, legislation should
regulate certain aspects of the building activity. Consequently, content analysis is adopted in
this research to determine the influence of building regulations in the implementation of
new technologies in the construction process. This study includes the analysis of different
European regulations, the collection and documentation of such guidelines that have been
established and a study of the impact that all of these have had in the way we start thinking an architectural project. The achievements of the research could be explained in terms of the regulatory requirements that must be taken into account in order to achieve a successful implementation of a home automation system, and the key finding has been the confirmation of how the design of smart buildings may be promoted through specific regulatory requirements while other factors, such as the global economic situation, do not seem to affect directly the rate of penetration of home automation in construction
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Cognitive barriers during monitoring-based commissioning of buildings
Monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) is a continuous building energy management process used to optimize energy performance in buildings. Although monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) can reduce energy waste by up to 20%, many buildings still underperform due to issues such as unnoticed system faults and inefficient operational procedures. While there are technical barriers that impede the MBCx process, such as data quality, the focuses of this paper are the non-technical, behavioral and organizational, barriers that contribute to issues initiating and implementing MBCx. In particular, this paper discusses cognitive biases, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes in energy efficiency decisions, resulting in missed opportunities for energy savings. This paper provides evidence of cognitive biases in decisions during the MBCx process using qualitative data from over 40 public and private sector organizations. The results describe barriers resulting from cognitive biases, listed in descending order of occurrence, including: risk aversion, social norms, choice overload, status quo bias, information overload, professional bias, and temporal discounting. Building practitioners can use these results to better understand potential cognitive biases, in turn allowing them to establish best practices and make more informed decisions. Researchers can use these results to empirically test specific decision interventions and facilitate more energy efficient decisions
Regulating Highly Automated Robot Ecologies: Insights from Three User Studies
Highly automated robot ecologies (HARE), or societies of independent
autonomous robots or agents, are rapidly becoming an important part of much of
the world's critical infrastructure. As with human societies, regulation,
wherein a governing body designs rules and processes for the society, plays an
important role in ensuring that HARE meet societal objectives. However, to
date, a careful study of interactions between a regulator and HARE is lacking.
In this paper, we report on three user studies which give insights into how to
design systems that allow people, acting as the regulatory authority, to
effectively interact with HARE. As in the study of political systems in which
governments regulate human societies, our studies analyze how interactions
between HARE and regulators are impacted by regulatory power and individual
(robot or agent) autonomy. Our results show that regulator power, decision
support, and adaptive autonomy can each diminish the social welfare of HARE,
and hint at how these seemingly desirable mechanisms can be designed so that
they become part of successful HARE.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the 5th International Conference on
Human Agent Interaction (HAI-2017), Bielefeld, German
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Open-Source, Open-Architecture SoftwarePlatform for Plug-InElectric Vehicle SmartCharging in California
This interdisciplinary eXtensible Building Operating System–Vehicles project focuses on controlling plug-in electric vehicle charging at residential and small commercial settings using a novel and flexible open-source, open-architecture charge communication and control platform. The platform provides smart charging functionalities and benefits to the utility, homes, and businesses.This project investigates four important areas of vehicle-grid integration research, integrating technical as well as social and behavioral dimensions: smart charging user needs assessment, advanced load control platform development and testing, smart charging impacts, benefits to the power grid, and smart charging ratepayer benefits
Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting from airflow in HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems
This study focuses on the design and wind tunnel testing of a high efficiency Energy Harvesting device, based on piezoelectric materials, with possible applications for the sustainability of smart buildings, structures and infrastructures. The development of the device was supported by ESA (the European Space Agency) under a program for the space technology transfer in the period 2014-2016. The EH device harvests the airflow inside Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, using a piezoelectric component and an appropriate customizable aerodynamic appendix or fin that takes advantage of specific airflow phenomena (vortex shedding and galloping), and can be implemented for optimizing the energy consumption inside buildings. Focus is given on several relevant aspects of wind tunnel testing: different configurations for the piezoelectric bender (rectangular, cylindrical and T-shaped) are tested and compared, and the effective energy harvesting potential of a working prototype device is assessed
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