Impact of Climate Change on the Heating Demand of Buildings. A District Level Approach

There is no doubt that during recent years, the developing countries are in urgent demand of energy, which means the energy generation and the carbon emissions increase accumulatively. The 40 % of the global energy consumption per year comes from the building stock. Considering the predictions regarding future climate due to climate change, a good understanding on the energy use due to future climate is required. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of future weather in the heating demand and carbon emissions for a group of buildings at district level, focusing on two areas of London in the United Kingdom. The methodological approach involved the use of geospatial data for the case study areas, processed with Python programming language through Anaconda and Jupyter notebook, generation of an archetype dataset with energy performance data from TABULA typology and the use of Python console in QGIS to calculate the heating demand in the reference weather data, 2050 and 2100 in accordance with RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. A validated model was used for the district level heating demand calculation. On the one hand, the results suggest that a mitigation of carbon emissions under the RCP4.5 scenario will generate a small decrease on the heating demand at district level, so slightly similar levels of heating generation must continue to be provided using sustainable alternatives. On the other hand, following the RCP 8.5 scenario of carbon emission carrying on business as usual will create a significant reduction of heating demand due to the rise on temperature but with the consequent overheating in summer, which will shift the energy generation problem. The results suggest that adaptation of the energy generation must start shifting to cope with higher temperatures and a different requirement of delivered energy from heating to cooling due to the effect of climate change

Evaluating the Influence of Program Type Building Parameters on UBEM: A Case Study for the Residential Stock in Nottingham, UK

In the midst of rising concern about the implications of climate change, the European Union and the United Kingdom appears to be on the verge of establishing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The urban building energy models could inform energy analyzers and decision makers for the future results that specific comprehensive energy refurbishment strategies and energy supply infrastructure changes might have. Nonetheless, the data challenges that emerge are various. The lack of data availability and reliability, the data computing issue and data privacy are, only, some of the challenges of building energy modelling, which are intensified in urban scale. Therefore, the investigation of the influence of building parameters on the energy demand results is deemed necessary, in order both to understand the minimum data requirements for urban energy modelling, and the impact of them before the design phase for the new constructions. Therefore, this Paper’s intention is to inform stakeholders from energy analysts to data capture companies, about the influential building parameters, as regards to the Program Type, such as the infiltration, the domestic hot water and the ventilation. An UBEM physics-based approach, for the estimation of the annual energy demand, is implemented with the use of Grasshopper software, and the visualization of the results is done with the QGIS software. The case study is in Nottingham city, in UK, and the energy demand for the whole year of the dwelling stock is estimated. Then, a sensitivity analysis for the influence of the Program Type building parameters is presented. The results have shown that the most impactful parameter among the three under-tested is the infiltration (airtightness) of a dwellin

Characterization of rheological properties of rye arabinoxylans in buckwheat model systems

The aim of this investigation was to study the rheological properties (gelation profile, mixing and pastingproperties) of two rye arabinoxylans (AXs) (water-extracted (WEAXs), calcium hydroxide-extracted (CEAXs)) in buckwheat model systems using wholemeal and white flour. To promote gelation in these systems, pyranose 2-oxidase (POx) was added. AX characterization in solution showed a higher gelation profile for the CEAXs (G\u2019: 0.48 Pa, G\u2019\u2019: 0.25 Pa) compared with the WEAXs (G\u2019: 0.21 Pa, G\u2019\u2019: 0.14 Pa), probably due to differences in chemical and structural properties. In buckwheat batter systems, highest rheological properties were achieved when POx was added to the control flours (for wholemeal flour: G\u2019: 40.1 kPa, G\u2019\u2019: 8.6 kPa; for white flour: G\u2019: 18.7 kPa, G\u2019\u2019: 1.4 kPa), whereas most AX concentrations improved these properties to a lower degree. Nearly all wholemeal flour systems reached higher viscoelastic properties when containing CEAXs (G\u2019: 20.0e35.1 kPa; G\u2019\u2019: 4.2e6.7 kPa), while WEAXs improved the majority of these properties in systems made with white flour (G\u2019: 10.4e12.7 kPa; G\u2019\u2019: 2.2-2.3 kPa). No additional effect was seen in the batter viscoelasticity when POx was combined with these AXs. Pasting and mixing properties of the flour systems were mostly reduced by the addition of AXs, while the presence of POx displayed little or no further effect. These observations indicate that AXs could be applied as natural structure-forming agents in GF bread, when used in the right amount