Ground-Coupled Heat and Moisture Transfer from Buildings; Part1: Analysis and Modeling (preprint)

Ground-heat transfer is tightly coupled with soil-moisture transfer. The coupling is threefold: heat is transferred by thermal conduction and by moisture transfer; the thermal properties of soil are strong functions of the moisture content; and moisture phase change includes latent heat effects and changes in thermal and hydraulic properties. A heat and moisture transfer model was developed to study the ground-coupled heat and moisture transfer from buildings. The model also includes detailed considerations of the atmospheric boundary conditions, including precipitation. Solutions for the soil temperature distribution are obtained using a finite element procedure. The model compared well with the seasonal variation of measured ground temperatures

Establishing Benchmarks for DOE Commercial Building R&D and Program Evaluation: Preprint

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program and the DOE research laboratories conduct a great deal of research on building technologies. However, differences in models and simulation tools used by various research groups make it difficult to compare results among studies. The authors have developed a set of 22 hypothetical benchmark buildings and weighting factors for nine locations across the country, for a total of 198 buildings

Zero Energy Buildings: A Critical Look at the Definition; Preprint

A net zero-energy building (ZEB) is a residential or commercial building with greatly reduced energy needs through efficiency gains such that the balance of energy needs can be supplied with renewable technologies. Despite the excitement over the phrase ''zero energy'', we lack a common definition, or even a common understanding, of what it means. In this paper, we use a sample of current generation low-energy buildings to explore the concept of zero energy: what it means, why a clear and measurable definition is needed, and how we have progressed toward the ZEB goal

Lessons Learned from Case Studies of Six High-Performance Buildings

Commercial buildings have a significant impact on energy use and the environment. They account for approximately 18% (17.9 quads) of the total primary energy consumption in the United States (DOE 2005). The energy used by the building sector continues to increase, primarily because new buildings are added to the national building stock faster than old buildings are retired. Energy consumption by commercial buildings will continue to increase until buildings can be designed to produce more energy than they consume. As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program has established a goal to create the technology and knowledge base for marketable zero-energy commercial buildings (ZEBs) by 2025

Evaluating the Performance and Economics of Transpired Solar Collectors for Commercial Applications: Preprint

Using transpired solar collectors to preheat ventilation air has recently become recognized as an economic alternative for integrating renewable energy into commercial buildings in heating climates. The collectors have relatively low installed costs and operate on simple principles. Theory and performance testing have shown that solar collection efficiency can exceed 70% of incident solar. However, implementation and current absorber designs have adversely affected the efficiency and associated economics from this initial analysis. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has actively studied this technology and monitored performance at several installations. A calibrated model that uses typical meteorological weather data to determine absorber plate efficiency resulted from this work. With this model, an economic analysis across heating climates was done to show the effects of collector size, tilt, azimuth, and absorptivity. The analysis relates the internal rate of return of a system based on the cost of the installed absorber area. In general, colder and higher latitude climates return a higher rate of return because the heating season extends into months with good solar resource

II.2 Description of processes and corrections from observation to delivery

This book is dedicated to all the people interested in the CoRoT mission and the beautiful data that were delivered during its six year duration. Either amateurs, professional, young or senior researchers, they will find treasures not only at the time of this publication but also in the future twenty or thirty years. It presents the data in their final version, explains how they have been obtained, how to handle them, describes the tools necessary to understand them, and where to find them. It also highlights the most striking first results obtained up to now. CoRoT has opened several unexpected directions of research and certainly new ones still to be discovered

DOE Commercial Building Benchmark Models: Preprint

To provide a consistent baseline of comparison and save time conducting such simulations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a set of standard benchmark building models. This paper will provide an executive summary overview of these benchmark buildings, and how they can save building analysts valuable time. Fully documented and implemented to use with the EnergyPlus energy simulation program, the benchmark models are publicly available and new versions will be created to maintain compatibility with new releases of EnergyPlus. The benchmark buildings will form the basis for research on specific building technologies, energy code development, appliance standards, and measurement of progress toward DOE energy goals. Having a common starting point allows us to better share and compare research results and move forward to make more energy efficient buildings

The mathematical simulation of the temperature fields of building envelopes under permanent frozen soil conditions

The physical-mathematical model of the thermal state of the aired technical underground taking into account the air exchange and design features of construction under permanent frozen soil conditions has been suggested. The computational scheme of the temperature fields prediction of building envelopes of projected buildings and soil under and nearby buildings has been developed. The numerical simulation of the temperature fields of building envelopes changes was conducted during a year. The results of the numerical simulation showed that the heat coming from the technical undergrounds and through the walls does not influence the temperature field of the soil neither under a building nor at a distance from it

On Coalition Formation with Heterogeneous Agents

We propose a framework to analyze coalition formation with heterogeneous agents. Existing literature defines stability conditions that do not ensure that, once an agent decides to sign an agreement, the enlarged coalition is feasible. Defining the concepts of refraction and exchanging, we set up conditions of existence and enlargement of a coalition with heterogeneous agents. We use the concept of exchanging agents to give necessary conditions for internal stability and show that refraction is a sufficient condition for the failure of an enlargement of the coalition. With heterogeneous agents we can get a situation where a group of members of an unstable coalition does not deviate, neither within the coalition nor within the extended coalition. Hence, the possibilities of agreement are richer than in the standard analysis with homogeneous agents. Examples of industrial economics are used for illustration, and an application to climate change negotiations is discussed in more detail

Optimal Afforestation Contracts with Asymmetric Information on Private Environmental Benefits

We investigate the problem of subsidising afforestation when private information exists with respect to the level of private utility derived from the project. We develop a simple model that allows for an intelligent design of contracts when information is asymmetric. The model involves the Principal and two groups of agents (landowners): a green' group deriving high private utility from the projects and a conventional' group deriving lower utility. Afforestation projects may be produced in different environmental quality, and we distinguish between two cases, a high quality and a low quality project. We find that the optimal set of contracts under asymmetric information involves two different contracts. One in which green landowners are somewhat overcompensated for projects of high quality, and one where conventional landowners are offered contracts including lower quality projects, compared to the symmetric case, but with compensation equal to his indifference payment. It is the ability to reduce quality requirements along with subsidies offered that allows for revelation of the private information. Finally, we discus how the results obtained may be used in the implementation of incentive schemes