Non Infantile Desmoplastic Astrocytoma: a case Report

Desmoplastic infantile astrocytomas (DIA) are huge cerebral masses with cystic and solid components in infants with a benigncourse. Less than 50 cases of have been reported in the literature and most of the cases are children below 24 months. We arepresenting a rare case of DIA which presented at the age of 4 years with vomiting and headache in neurosurgical OPD. He wasdiagnosed with a huge left temporal parietal tumor with midline shift which on histopathological examination was confirmedas DIA. Patient was operated and had good recovery and was followed up for two years

An Analysis of Maximum Residential Energy-Efficiency in Hot and Humid Climates

Energy-efficient building design involves minimizing the energy use and optimizing the performance of individual systems and components of the building. The benefits of energyefficient design, in the residential sector, are direct and tangible, provided that design strategies with a substantial combined energy and cost-saving potential are adopted. Many studies have been performed to evaluate the energy-saving potential and the costeffectiveness of various design options, and to identify conditions for optimizing the performance of building systems and components. The results of these studies, published in various resources, were analyzed discretely using different techniques, and were reported using different bases for comparison. Considering the complex interaction of, and energy flows through various building components, it is difficult to directly compare/combine the results from various studies to determine the energy-saving potential of combination of strategies, and to select an appropriate set of strategies for making design decisions. Therefore, this thesis develops a comprehensive survey and analysis of energy-efficient design strategies and their energy-saving potential, in isolation as well as in combination, using a DOE-2 simulation model of a prototype house in the hot and humid climate of Houston, Texas. Optimized strategies that included building configuration, materials/ assembly for building envelop components, and efficient mechanical and electrical systems, equipment and appliances, were applied in combination that could minimize the annual energy use. Application of these strategies is expected to allow downsizing systems and equipment and to confirm their operation at their rated performance, resulting in additional installation and operation cost savings. The study is concluded by outlining the procedures for selecting optimized set of strategies, and by developing guidelines for achieving maximum energy-efficiency in singlefamily detached houses in hot and humid climates. Thus, this study will facilitate the selection of energy-saving measures for their individual or combined application for developing energyefficient residences in hot and humid climates

An Analysis of Off-grid, Off-pipe Housing in Six U.S. Climates

This dissertation addresses the issues of climate change and depletion of non-renewable resources of energy and water, and aims at eliminating the use of non-renewable resources of energy and water for the building operation in single-family detached residences in the U.S. With this aim, this study investigated the feasibility of the off-grid, off-pipe design approach in six climate locations across the U.S. to achieve self-sufficiency in a house for building energy, indoor water use, and household wastewater and sewage disposal using only on-site available renewable resources. For the analysis, a 2,500 ft2, 2000/2001 International Energy Conservation Code standard reference house with typical building and usage characteristics was selected as the base case. The six U.S. climate locations included: Minneapolis, MN, Boulder, CO, Atlanta, GA, Houston, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and Los Angeles, CA. The renewable resources considered for this study included: solar radiation, wind, biomass for building energy needs; rainwater for indoor water use. In addition, the building site was considered for the disposal of household wastewater and sewage. The selected climate locations provided different scenarios in terms of base-case building energy needs and availability of renewable resources. Depending on these, energy and water efficiency measures were selected for reducing the building needs. For the reduced building needs, the sizing of systems for self-sufficiency was performed, including: solar thermal system for building’s space heating and water heating needs, photovoltaic and wind power systems for building’s electricity needs; rainwater harvesting system for indoor water needs; and septic system for the on-site disposal of household wastewater and sewage. In this manner, an integrated analysis procedure was developed for the analysis and design of off-grid, off-pipe homes, and was demonstrated for six U.S. climate locations. The results of the analysis indicated that achieving self-sufficiency for energy, water and sewage disposal was possible is all climates provided the systems for the collection and storage of renewable resources were large. On the other hand, the utilization of these systems was small for locations, where the year-to-year and seasonal variations in the weather conditions and availability of climate resources was large. For increased system utilization, minimization of the peak building needs, utilization of harvested energy for secondary purposes, and considering alternative systems for such applications are preferred

Cooling season full and part load performance evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system using an occupancy simulated research building

VRF systems are touted for their superior part-load performance compared to conventional systems. This study compares both the full and part-load performance of a VRF system with a conventional RTU VAV system in a multi-zone office building with emulated occupancy. To accomplish this, full and part-load conditions (i.e., 100%, 75% and 50% loads) in the building are maintained alternately by conditioning either the entire building or selected zones, and emulating the occupancy, accordingly. During the study period, each system is operated alternately under each of the three load conditions for 2-3 days, and the system parameters, indoor and outdoor conditions, loads, and energy use are monitored.  The cooling season performance and energy use of both systems was monitored during the summer of 2015. System performance is compared in terms of weather-normalized HVAC energy consumption and seasonal average COP. In addition, the ability of each system to maintain the indoor temperature in the conditioned zones is also evaluated. Based on the analysis, the energy savings for the VRF system compared with the RTU system for the cooling season are estimated to be 29%, 36%, and 46% under the 100%, 75%, and 50% load conditions, respectively. The average cooling COP was ~4.0-4.5, 3.9, and 3.7 for the VRF system and 3.1, 2.9, 2.5 for the RTU system under the 100%, 75% and 50% load conditions. Both systems maintained the indoor temperature very well. However, the VRF system maintained the indoor temperature in a slightly tighter range compared to the RTU system

Domestic Dishwasher Simulated Energy Efficiency Evaluation Using Thermoelectric Heat Pump for Water Heating and Dish Drying

A quasi-steady state, coupled thermoelectric and heat transfer model heat and mass transfer lumped model was developed to predict the energy consumption and drying performance of domestic dishwashers. A numerical finite element solution was applied, assuming that the following components could each be treated as a lumped thermal capacitance: dish load, tub, wash water, and air in tub. The model was used to predict the energy consumption savings of heating water using a thermoelectric heat pump that extracts heat from the surrounding air, and the drying performance of circulating tub air through the cold and then hot side of TE modules

Validation of the International Code Compliant Calculator (IC3) Using the RESNET Verification Procedures (No. 07-003)

This report presents results from the testing and validation of the Energy System's Laboratory's web-based software tool--International Code Compliance Calculator (IC3), v3.3, using the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) verification procedures - RESNET Publication No. 07-003. The IC3 software is a web-based tool to demonstrate compliance of single-family residences with the Texas Building Energy Performance Standards (TBEPS) (i.e., the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) with the 2001 Supplement and 2006 National Appliance Energy Conservation Act (NAECA) revisions). The user-interface of IC3 was designed to ensure simple and quick input through reduced user input fields and present a simplified output by only reporting the code-compliance as a percent above or below code for locations in Texas

Case Study of the Maplewood Park Multifamily Retrofit for Energy Efficiency

This is a case study that focuses on the renovation of Maplewood market apartments in Georgia

Impact analysis of heating electrification in US buildings with geothermal heat pumps

Few studies have investigated the impacts of large-scale deployment of geothermal heat pumps (GHPs, also called ground source heat pumps) on the electric grid. GHPs utilize the ground as a heat source to warm buildings more efficiently than other space-heating systems. The coupling with the ground offers seasonal thermal storage so that GHPs can also cool buildings in summer more efficiently than other space-cooling systems. This study simulated the performance of GHP systems for various commercial and residential buildings in 15 climate zones in the United States. Combined with the latest End-Use Load Profiles of the US building stock and grid modeling, this study aims to assess the impacts of a national deployment of GHP systems on the US electric grid in terms of energy consumption, emissions, and operational resilience. The preliminary results show that the GHP deployment can save 429 billion kWh of electricity (a 19% reduction from baseline) and reduce carbon emissions by 496 million tons per year (a 31 % reduction from baseline). A geographical view of the results indicates that retrofitting existing HVAC systems with new GHP systems can lead to further reductions in annual electricity consumption and peak electricity demand in the southern regions of the United States than in other parts of the country. On the other hand, GHP retrofits result in higher percentages of site energy savings and carbon emission reduction in the north (cold climates) than in the south (warm climates)

Recommendations for 15% Above-Code Energy Efficiency Measures on Implementing Houston Amendments to Multifamily Residential Buildings in Houston, Texas

This paper presents results from an analysis of the energy saving potential for multifamily residential buildings in Houston. In this analysis, the energy efficient measures were proposed by the building officials with the City of Houston and analyzed by the Energy Systems Laboratory using a code-compliant calculator. Along with the options proposed by the officials, additional measures were selected from the 15% above code energy analysis conducted by the Energy Systems Laboratory for residential houses across the State of Texas. A total of 16 measures based on their energy savings above a code-compliant residence were selected. These measures were categorized into five groups: renewable power options, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fenestration, envelope, lighting and domestic hot water (DHW) options. The analysis was performed using a simulation model of an International Energy Conservation Code (IECC 2000 with 2001 supplement)-compliant, single-family residence in Houston, Texas. Two sets of simulations based on the choice of heating fuel type were considered. Individual measures were then categorized into 3 groups: 2 to 5%, 5 to 10%, and above 10% energy savings above base case. Individual measures from the three categories were then chosen to form group measures whose combined energy savings is above 15%. Six group measures were simulated for the electric/gas base case building and five group measures for the all-electric base case building. The cost of implementing the individual measures was also calculated along with simple payback period