Nexus of thermal resilience and energy efficiency in buildings: A case study of a nursing home

Extreme weather events become more frequent and severe due to climate change. Although energy efficiency technologies can influence thermal resilience of buildings, they are traditionally studied separately, and their interconnections are rarely quantified. This study developed a methodology of modeling and analysis to provide insights into the nexus of thermal resilience and energy efficiency of buildings. We conducted a case study of a real nursing home in Florida, where 12 patients died during Hurricane Irma in 2017 due to HVAC system power loss, to understand and quantify how passive and active energy efficiency measures (EEMs) can improve thermal resilience to reduce heat-exposure risk of patients. Results show that passive measures of opening windows and doors for natural ventilation, as well as miscellaneous load reduction, are very effective in eliminating the extreme dangerous occasions. However, to maintain safe conditions, active measures such as on-site power generators and thermal storage are also needed. The nursing home was further studied by changing its location to two other cities: San Francisco (mild climate) and Chicago (cold winter and hot summer). Results revealed that the EEMs' impacts on thermal resilience vary significantly by climate and building characteristics. The study also estimated the costs of EEMs to help stakeholders prioritize the measures. Passive measures that may not save energy may greatly improve thermal resilience, and thus should be considered in building design or retrofit. Findings from this study indicate energy efficiency technologies should be evaluated not only by their energy savings performance but also by their influence on a building's resilience to extreme weather events

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Toward sustainable data centers: a comprehensive energy management strategy

Data centers are major contributors to the emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and this contribution is expected to increase in the following years. This has encouraged the development of techniques to reduce the energy consumption and the environmental footprint of data centers. Whereas some of these techniques have succeeded to reduce the energy consumption of the hardware equipment of data centers (including IT, cooling, and power supply systems), we claim that sustainable data centers will be only possible if the problem is faced by means of a holistic approach that includes not only the aforementioned techniques but also intelligent and unifying solutions that enable a synergistic and energy-aware management of data centers. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of data centers that uses the energy as a driver of their management procedures. In addition, we present a holistic management architecture for sustainable data centers that implements the aforementioned strategy, and we propose design guidelines to accomplish each step of the proposed strategy, referring to related achievements and enumerating the main challenges that must be still solved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Highlights of 1976 activities

Highlights of NASA's 1976 activities are summarized. Sixteen successful launches were made. Two landings of Viking spacecraft on Mars and rollout of the space shuttle orbiter are reviewed. Applications of aerospace science to education, health care, and community services are also discussed

Review of experimental research on supercritical and transcritical thermodynamic cycles designed for heat recovery application

Supercritical operation is considered a main technique to achieve higher cycle efficiency in various thermodynamic systems. The present paper is a review of experimental investigations on supercritical operation considering both heat-to-upgraded heat and heat-to-power systems. Experimental works are reported and subsequently analyzed. Main findings can be summarized as: steam Rankine cycles does not show much studies in the literature, transcritical organic Rankine cycles are intensely investigated and few plants are already online, carbon dioxide is considered as a promising fluid for closed Brayton and Rankine cycles but its unique properties call for a new thinking in designing cycle components. Transcritical heat pumps are extensively used in domestic and industrial applications, but supercritical heat pumps with a working fluid other than CO2 are scarce. To increase the adoption rate of supercritical thermodynamic systems further research is needed on the heat transfer behavior and the optimal design of compressors and expanders with special attention to the mechanical integrity

Carbon-Footprint Policy Of The Top Ten Global Retailers: Contribution To Sustainable Development

The goal of the article is to study the policy of the most prominent ten global retailers relative to the reduction in their carbon footprint. This policy is an integral part of the environmental component of the organizational policy for sustainable development. The research has an exploratory character and is based on the analysis of public information available on the Internet about the objectives, strategies and achievements of the top ten global retailers in the field of carbon-footprint. According to the research objectives, the main results of the study reveal: the organizations that have sustainable development objectives and policies as well as carbon-footprint objectives and policies; the strategies applied for the reduction in their carbon footprint and the results obtained. Are the top ten global retailers a benchmark as regards the carbon-footprint policies? Do they represent a model which has to be followed by other retailers? Several answers may be found in the present article.sustainable development, environmental assessment, ecological footprint, carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, global retailers