62,036 research outputs found
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 âintelligent buildingsâ, âdigital homeâ or âdomotic buildingsâ. 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
Energy-water-environment nexus underpinning future desalination sustainability
Energy-water-environment nexus is very important to attain COP21 goal, maintaining environment temperature increase below 2 °C, but unfortunately two third share of CO2 emission has already been used and the remaining will be exhausted by 2050. A number of technological developments in power and desalination sectors improved their efficiencies to save energy and carbon emission but still they are operating at 35% and 10% of their thermodynamic limits. Research in desalination processes contributing to fuel World population for their improved living standard and to reduce specific energy consumption and to protect environment. Recently developed highly efficient nature-inspired membranes (aquaporin & graphene) and trend in thermally driven cycle's hybridization could potentially lower then energy requirement for water purification. This paper presents a state of art review on energy, water and environment interconnection and future energy efficient desalination possibilities to save energy and protect environment
Evidences of lay peopleâs reasoning related to climate change: per country and cross country results
This deliverable is about lay citizensâ reasoning about sustainability, in particular environmental protection and climate change, in various consumption domains, and the relation of this reasoning to the day-to-day lives of the participants. It presents country and cross-country findings from all 18 STAVE trials conducted between May 2011 and February 2012 in all six PACHELBEL partner countries. Analyses demonstrate that participants in the STAVE trials predominantly display a clear awareness that citizen consumption as demonstrated in their everyday practices of energy use, mobility, waste etc. are strongly connected with issues of environmental sustainablility. The STAVE trials also demonstrated that to live sustainably is a daily challenge, and people are often not able to organize their everyday routines in an environmental-friendly manner. Frequently there is a gap between participantsâ aspirations and their practical behaviours. Significantly, the group conversations enabled participants to become aware that the self-assessed soundness of their everyday lives in terms of sustainability was at variance from the actual impact of e.g. their energy use or or mobility practices
Efficiency standards versus negotiated agreements in the electrical appliance sector
Associées à l'étiquetage énergétique, les normes d'efficacité minimum ont prouvé leur effet de stimulation de l'efficacité énergétique. Mais les normes sont souvent difficiles à mettre en place à cause de la résistance du secteur industriel. Ce papier compare les normes d'efficacité et l'étiquetage énergétique avec une démarche volontaire des industriels du secteur électro-ménager.étiquetage;appareil électroménager;efficacité énergétique;accord volontaire;norme
Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume
This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference âSustainable Consumption â Towards Action and Impactâ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines.
In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards âsustainable consumptionâ has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of âsustainable consumptionâ, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed
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Electricity Network Scenarios for Great Britain in 2050
The next fifty years are likely to see great developments in the technologies deployed in electricity systems, with consequent changes in the structure and operation of power networks. This paper, which forms a chapter in the forthcoming book Future Electricity Technologies and Systems, develops and presents six possible future electricity industry scenarios for Great Britain, focussed on the year 2050. The paper draws upon discussions of important technologies presented by expert authors in other chapters of the book to consider the impact of different combinations of key influences on the nature of the power system in 2050. For each scenario there is a discussion of the effects of the key parameters, with a description and pictorial illustration. Summary tables identify the role of the technologies presented in other chapters of the book, and list important figures of interest, such as the capacity and energy production of renewable generation technologies
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