Recommendation on Summer energy efficiency on national building codes

The building regulations have a major role in controlling and limiting the energy consumption of the building sector. The Thermal Building Regulations of the European countries although had followed the EPBD Directive in what concerns the methodologies, differs on the re-quirements and recommendations on summer comfort and energy consumption for cooling, due to the particular conditions of each country. A review of the national building codes concerning envelope constructive solutions (opaque and transparent), thermal mass, ventilation rates, energy consumption methodology and correspondent values limits has been undertaken for the participating countries of the Keep-Cool II Project and, was extended to other countries, by consulting building codes, technical reports concerning energy use in buildings and by direct contacts with colleagues. The goal of this analysis consists on put in evidence the different strategies adopted and try to share and to supply information and experiences in so far as, the energy demand for cooling in European buildings is the energy use in the building sector with high increase rate among the other energy uses. In fact, cooling can be avoided or significantly reduced, with-out risking summer thermal comfort, by means of mature passive cooling solutions, renew-able energy sources and reducing internal heat gains. This present report summarizes, in Chapter 1, the information that has been compiled from questionnaire answers of partners of the Keep Cool II Project: Austria, France, Italy, German, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom. Chapter 2 summarizes de final remarks and conclusions of the building regulations related to summer comfort and energy for cooling in or order to contribute for the dissemination activi-ties. In the Annexes are the questionnaire (Annex A) and the systematized replies to the ques-tionnaire in a comparative form (Annex B), In the Annex C is the name of the experts that have answered to the questionnaire by country and institution. A review of the national build-ing codes for other European countries is presented In the Annex D: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia Republic, Spain

Assessement of the Portuguese building thermal code: Newly revised requirements for cooling energy needs used to prevent the overheating of buildings in the summer

In this paper, cooling energy needs are calculated by the steady-state methodology of the Portuguese building thermal code. After the first period of building code implementation, re-evaluation according to EN ISO 13790 is recommended in order to compare results with the dynamic simulation results. From these analyses, a newly revised methodology arises including a few corrections in procedure. This iterative result is sufficiently accurate to calculate the building’s cooling energy needs. Secondly, results show that the required conditions are insufficient to prevent overheating. The use of the gain utilization factor as an overheating risk index is suggested, according to an adaptive comfort protocol, and is integrated in the method used to calculate the maximum value for cooling energy needs. This proposed streamlined method depends on reference values: window-to-floor area ratio, window shading g-value, integrated solar radiation and gain utilization factor, which leads to threshold values significantly below the ones currently used. These revised requirements are more restrictive and, therefore, will act to improve a building’s thermal performance during summer. As a rule of thumb applied for Portuguese climates, the reference gain utilization factor should assume a minimum value of 0.8 for a latitude angle range of 40-41ºN, 0.6 for 38-39ºN and 0.5 for 37ºN

Solar Load Ratio and ISO 13790 methodologies: Indirect gains from sunspaces

This paper reviews and analyzes the compatibility of the simplified empirical method based on the dimensionless parameter of Solar Load Ratio (SLR) and the monthly procedure of the standard ISO 13790 for indirect gains, specifically for unconditioned zones adjacent to a conditioned zone, but separated from it by a partition wall (sunspaces). The main contribution of the work presented here is the new formulation to account SLR correlations in ISO 13790, obtained for sunspaces, but generalizable for other solar systems with known SLR functions. Simulation models are used to perform a sensitivity analysis of internal gains and heat transfer through solar collector surfaces, both issues that distinguishes ISO 13790 from Load Ratio methods. The analysis shows that internal gains can be added to the heat source term or subtracted to heat transfer term without influencing the utilization factor dependence with the gain-to-loss ratio. On the other hand, the SLR assumption that solar collector surfaces are neutral elements and, therefore, not added to the heat transfer term, results in large inconsistencies between SLR and ISO 13790 methods. The detailed monthly methodology of ISO 13790 fairly reproduces results obtained by simulation. However, predictions from the simplified monthly methodology of ISO 13790 fail in mid season months and coldest months

Towards sustainable Summer comfort

There is a growing energy demand for cooling in European buildings. It is expected that the cooled floor area will be four times higher in 2020 when compared with 1990 figures. Cooling is already the energy use in the building sector with the highest increase rate. This evidence is not contributing to the overall objective of reduction CO2 emissions. The conventional answer to this problem is to improve of the energy efficiency of cooling. However, this strategy showed limited results in terms of saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, cooling can be avoided (or the need to use energy for cooling) or significantly reduced without risking summer thermal comfort for building occupants, having thus the potential to achieve substantial reductions in energy demand. However, avoidance or even major reduction of cooling implies a new approach in building design, construction and operation phases. Different scientific and technological advances shall coherently be used and be offered to building promoters or building owners as a new service. The new adaptive comfort theory, the possibility for local adaptation for building users and facilities, the capability to intervene in the surrounding urban environment, the use of mature passive cooling solutions, of renewable energy sources and high efficiency lighting (reducing internal heat gains) are some examples of the techniques to be integrated in the new approach. Such a service should integrate different skills and competences as well as different kind of systems and equipments, from architects, building consultants and engineers, from solar shading devices, integrators of passive solutions and suppliers of very efficient lighting and office equipment

From Summer cooling to sustainable Summer comfort in buiding thermal regulation

The introduction of the “Energy Performance Building Directive” (EPBD) [1] and consequently the new National Building Regulation [2] in the Member States (MS) lead to a totally new legal situation concerning, requirements and procedures on the building sector. Under the scope of an EU project called Keep Cool, a survey was undertaken in order to review the energy efficiency criteria, in the national building codes, concerning summer comfort or mechanical cooling system in order to elaborate recommendations towards a sustainable summer comfort. This paper presents the results of this survey [3] carried out under the participate countries (7 countries), and the main goals were the following to update the information regarding the new national building regulations to have a first insight regarding the requirements and summer calculations adopted in each country and to identify the positive and the negative aspects of the different regulations and selection of the best practice examples, in order to draw up recommendations for introducing sustainable summer comfort measures into future national building codes. A comparative analysis has started with some very precise answers and had permitted to carry out a comparative analysis between some national building codes. A review was undertaken concerning envelope constructive solutions (opaque and transparent), thermal mass, ventilation rates and the corresponding values limits

The Guiding Principles of the profession. A comparative study of Ethical Codes promoted by PR associations

Ethics has been central to the debate about what public relations is, what it does and how it should be practiced in contemporary times. Ethical codes are a moral reference regarding the duties and rights of a profession. In this paper we reflect about the main values that guide PR practice based on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, which measures universal values that are recognized throughout all major cultures. We aim to ascertain which basic human values are portrayed on the codes of public relations associations worldwide and understand their similarities/discrepancies with the global code of ethics portrayed by the Global Alliance. A qualitative and quantitative content analysis was carried out of the codes of ethics of six national PR and communication associations (representative of the sector in Europe and Americas) and of the Global Alliance's code as an international reference institution. The codes analysed were DIRCOM, Spain; ABERJE, Brazil; APCE, Portugal; CIPR, the United Kingdom; CPRPA, Argentina; PRSA, United States; and the Global Alliance. The documents obtained were analysed according to Schwartz's "Theory of the Universal Structure of Human Values" (1999) to study the priorities of values contained in the ethical codes of the public relations associations analysed, and to highlight the motivational values that may be present in them. The researchers adapted the codes to the structure, based on the descriptions of Schwartz's typology of values, and classified them according to higher-order types and their dimensions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Solar XXI building PV systems: performance during the first two yeras of operation

The purpose of this paper is to present the results obtained in the first two years of operation of the grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems installed in the named “Solar XXI” building. One PV system, made with multicrystalline silicon modules, has a peak power of 12 kW and was installed on the façade; another system made with amorphous silicon modules has a peak power of 6 kW and was installed in the surrounding park area near the building. From 1st February 2006 until 31 July 2008, the measured daily average, of the building electrical energy consumption, was about 75 kWh and the two PV systems produced in average about 72 % of this energy. The averaged measured Performance Ratio of the systems was about 0.84 for the PV Façade and about 0.76 for the PV in the Park

Integration of all support systems in the clinical environment.

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is an approach to patient care which ensures that potential advances in health care must be tested and proven to do more good than harm before they are incorporated into medical practice. It promotes the collection, interpretation and integration of patient reported, clinician observed and research-derived evidence. For this information to be used as an integral part of medical practice, regularly updated systematic reviews such as those organised through the Cochrane Collaboration are essential. It has been argued that electronic access to information sources from the health care professional's normal work place is the only feasible way to bring EBM into routine clinical practice where it is used as a framework for determining the care of individual patients.Within the context of clinical decision-making using EBM, two sources of information are necessary. Firstly patient information, which includes treatment regimes, clinical assessments and the results of laboratory tests on a particular patient. Secondly reference information, which is the evidence base on which to justify the care delivered to that patient. It is believed that bringing patient and reference data together so that they can be accessed through a single workstation within the hospital workplace could provide an effective tool to support healthcare delivery using EBM. The concept of the clinical workstation is one that has been used to describe a single workstation which gives access to all clinical information. If this concept is applied to a workstation to support EBM, then both patient specific and reference information must be available through the workstation. This study describes work at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (RHH) in Sheffield, an acute 850-bedded teaching hospital located in an industrial city. The work aims at integrating access to reference and patient data through a single user interface - a Web browser - as a method of providing direct support for the delivery of EBM. A user-centred iterative approach to the research has been employed and in this study the user requirements and a prototype workstation to support evidence based medicine are described and evaluated

Evolução do Regulamento das Características de Comportamento Térmico dos Edifícios (RCCTE): Caso de Estudo

Nesta apresentação faz-se a aplicação, para um mesmo apartamento, do Regulamento das Características do Comportamento dos Edifícios (RCCTE) apresentando em paralelo as metodologias preconizadas nas versões do RCCTE de 1990e de 2006. A análise incide num apartamento de tipologia T1 de um Edifício localizado na cidade de Lisboa (zona climática I1-V2 Sul). O apartamento T1-A constitui uma única zona independente (RCCTE-1990) / fracção autónoma (RCCTE 2006). A caracterização térmica da envolvente para aplicação do RCCTE foi feita com base nas dois documentos do LNEC ITE 28 e ITE 50, respectivamente para o RCCTE de 1990 e para o RCCTE de 2006. Procurar-se-á relativizar o peso dos diferentes elementos da envolvente em termos das perdas e dos ganhos e por fim estimar, para ambas as versões, as necessidades nominais de energia útil para aquecimento e arrefecimento e, para a versão de 2006 ainda as necessidades nominais de energia útil para produção de água quente sanitária e de energia primária