Combining diverse data sources for CEDSS, an agent-based model of domestic energy demand

CEDSS (Community Energy Demand Social Simulator) is an empirical agent-based model designed and built as part of a multi-method social science project investigating the determinants of domestic energy demand. Ideally, empirical modellers, within and beyond social simulation, would prefer to work from an integrated dataset, gatheredfor the purposes of developing the model. In practice, many have to work with less than ideal data, often including processed data from multiple sources external to the project. Moreover, what data will be required may not be clear at the start of the project. This paper describes the approach to dealing with these factors taken in developing CEDSS, and presents the completed model together with an outline of the calibration and validation procedure used. The discussion section draws together the most distinctive features of empirical data collection, processing and use for and in CEDSS, and argues that the approach taken is sufficiently robust to underpin the model’s purpose – to generate scenarios of domestic energy demand to 2049

Development of Double Mini Windmill with Smart Monitoring System

Nowadays, renewable energy is becoming the most reliable way to generate electricity in exchange with non-renewable energy which commonly comes from coals and gases. This project is about development of double mini windmill with smart monitoring system. Thus, the project addresses the development of mini wind energy with monitoring system by using Arduino UNO as main microcontroller. For the project development, the voltage and current sensors are used to monitor the mini wind energy system’s performance. The data logging shield board was used to allow the data collection system save in the micro-SD card. Data logger is a platform used to represent the data collection into Microsoft excel. Double mini windmill energy data collection was conducted to assess the wind energy performance through reading the data from the LCD of the monitoring system. The maximum power generated is 3.632W with 6.0m/s wind speed while the minimum power generated is 0.362W with 2.4m/s wind speed. The project was tested at Pantai Punggor, Batu Pahat, Johor on 9 June 2022 and 10 June 2022 while at the residential area Taman Universiti, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor the project implemented on 11 June 2022

Energy performance assessment of HVAC systems by inspection and monitoring

The paper discusses the collection and processing of energy performance data as part of the inspection of HVAC systems, aimed at identifying technically feasible and cost-effective Energy Conservation Opportunities (ECO), as required by EPBD. Case studies developed by the HARMONAC project have shown that low-cost or no-cost ECO's - mostly related to system operation and management - can be identified with an effective system monitoring. Building Management Systems (BMS) may be a powerful tool for this task, provided their HW and SW architecture is designed with adequate attention to energy monitoring. Dedicated instrumentation - such as electricity meters and temperature loggers - may also be employed as an alternative / integration to BMS monitoring. The paper also discusses the application of data analysis tools - such as "carpet plots" and "energy signatures" - to the identification of component malfunctioning, control problems, inadequate maintenance, or system schedule optimization, and to the evaluation of achieved energy saving

Developing a LCA software in Hungary

In Hungary the first steps of LCA application can be observed. The objectives of the project are to establish a fundamental online database of LCA compatibility with international software. This database can help designing from the aspect of environment and can be used in education and research. We have classified the domestic power plants on the basis of applied technology and energy sources. But data collection presents some difficulty. Complex analysis of electric- and electronic equipment would be another important scope of the system. And we would like to popularize the LCA application for the small and medium sized enterprises

LAGOVirtual: A Collaborative Environment for the Large Aperture GRB Observatory

We present the LAGOVirtual Project: an ongoing project to develop platform to collaborate in the Large Aperture GRB Observatory (LAGO). This continental-wide observatory is devised to detect high energy (around 100 GeV) component of Gamma Ray Bursts, by using the single particle technique in arrays of Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCD) at high mountain sites (Chacaltaya, Bolivia, 5300 m a.s.l., Pico Espejo, Venezuela, 4750 m a.s.l., Sierra Negra, Mexico, 4650 m a.s.l). This platform will allow LAGO collaboration to share data, and computer resources through its different sites. This environment has the possibility to generate synthetic data by simulating the showers through AIRES application and to store/preserve distributed data files collected by the WCD at the LAGO sites. The present article concerns the implementation of a prototype of LAGO-DR adapting DSpace, with a hierarchical structure (i.e. country, institution, followed by collections that contain the metadata and data files), for the captured/simulated data. This structure was generated by using the community, sub-community, collection, item model; available at the DSpace software. Each member institution-country of the project has the appropriate permissions on the system to publish information (descriptive metadata and associated data files). The platform can also associate multiple files to each item of data (data from the instruments, graphics, postprocessed-data, etc.).Comment: Second EELA-2 Conference Choroni, Venezuela, November 25th to 27th 200

Gender Equity and Renewable Energies : Thematic Background Paper

The aim of this paper is to review existing evidence on the role of renewable energies in bringing gender equity. The paper first explores the evolution of thinking on gender and energy, in particular that practitioners no longer specifically focus on women and stoves (often referred to as “household energy”). Next, the reasons why gender analysis can help those people trying to increase the dissemination of renewable energy technologies are presented. There is a brief description of the gender aspects of household energy, and how different renewable energy technologies can contribute to drudgery reduction and time saving, particularly for women. The role of women in renewable energy is analysed. The paper concludes with an analysis of lessons learnt and recommendations. However, the point has to be stressed that there is now only beginning to emerge information about gender and energy in the South, and there is very little information about the situation in the North. The data that are available are primarily in the form of case studies, mainly related to stoves programmes and rural electricity grid extension. The systematic collection of gender-disaggregated statistical data by energy ministries does not occur and it is very rare to find energy project evaluations that use gender analysis. This means that much of the analysis should be seen as only as indicative, although this does not invalidate the recommendations since many of these are linked to the general situation of women having fewer assets than men

A life cycle inventory of aluminium die casting

As part of an ongoing project, a life cycle inventory (LCI) of aluminium high pressure die casting (HPDC) has been collected. This has been conducted from the view of an individual product and also the entire process. The objective of the study was to analyse the process and suggest changes to reduce environmental impacts. One modem aluminium high pressure die casting plant located in Victoria, Australia was evaluated and modelled. Site specific data on energy and materials was gathered and the process was modelled using a typical automotive component. The paper also presents our experience and methodology used in this inventory data collection process from the real industry for LCA purposes. The inventory data collected itself reveals that the HPDC process is energy intensive and as such the major emissions were from the use of natural gas fired furnaces and from the brown coal derived electricity. It is also found the large environmental benefits of using secondary aluminium over primary aluminium in the HPDC process. A detailed LCA is being cal1ied out based on the inventory obtained.</div

Energy Conservation in Existing Housing Sites; a Comparative Case Analysis\ud in the Netherlands

The housing sector in the Netherlands is responsible for a significant fraction of primary energy use and CO2 emissions. Great energy conservation opportunities are to be found in the existing housing stock, especially in large renovation projects on existing sites. Energy conservation savings of up to 90% are technically feasible. Despite this, there is little empirical evidence available about processes that influence the achievement of energy conservation goals in such locations. Moreover, no systematic, bottom-up research on the matter is available. This paper attempts to answer questions about the factors – size, direction and significance – that explain variation in the degree of energy conservation. Four main propositions were tested, comprising the following variables: actor characteristics, policy instruments, interorganizational collaboration and context. The study used a comparative research design. Data were collected from eleven existing housing sites where renovation projects had been executed, involving 70 personal interviews, a survey, and the collection of project documents. A mixed methods approach was applied for data analysis. The results show that interorganizational, collaborative efforts, policy instruments and the presence of wealthy housing associations have a positive influence on energy conservation outcomes. The mean energy conservation was slightly less than 40%, and outcomes varied between 26.5% and 69.8%. Strikingly, planning does not have a beneficial influence and the actual outcome is lower than predicted. The results are useful for national and local government policy makers, as they clearly argue that ambitious policy goals should be tempered

IVOA Recommendation: Simple Spectral Access Protocol Version 1.1

The Simple Spectral Access (SSA) Protocol (SSAP) defines a uniform interface to remotely discover and access one dimensional spectra. SSA is a member of an integrated family of data access interfaces altogether comprising the Data Access Layer (DAL) of the IVOA. SSA is based on a more general data model capable of describing most tabular spectrophotometric data, including time series and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) as well as 1-D spectra; however the scope of the SSA interface as specified in this document is limited to simple 1-D spectra, including simple aggregations of 1-D spectra. The form of the SSA interface is simple: clients first query the global resource registry to find services of interest and then issue a data discovery query to selected services to determine what relevant data is available from each service; the candidate datasets available are described uniformly in a VOTable format document which is returned in response to the query. Finally, the client may retrieve selected datasets for analysis. Spectrum datasets returned by an SSA spectrum service may be either precomputed, archival datasets, or they may be virtual data which is computed on the fly to respond to a client request. Spectrum datasets may conform to a standard data model defined by SSA, or may be native spectra with custom project-defined content. Spectra may be returned in any of a number of standard data formats. Spectral data is generally stored externally to the VO in a format specific to each spectral data collection; currently there is no standard way to represent astronomical spectra, and virtually every project does it differently. Hence spectra may be actively mediated to the standard SSA-defined data model at access time by the service, so that client analysis programs do not have to be familiar with the idiosyncratic details of each data collection to be accessed