Assessing the Domestic Energy Use and Thermal Comfort of Occupants in a Post-war Social Housing Development Estate in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus

Many existing buildings in Cyprus—including high-density residential tower blocks, which account for approximately 56% of the total housing stock in addition to other existing buildings—do not meet current energy-efficiency standards for the European Union (EU). As a result, many of these structures face the threat of overheating and careful planning to implement holistic retrofitting schemes is needed. The aim of the present study was to fill a research gap in this area by developing an evidence-based framework for energy-policy decision-making mechanisms related to the integration of European energy-efficiency standards. The present study investigates 36 base-case representative archetype medium-rise residential tower blocks in a post-war social-housing estate in the coastal city of Famagusta, Cyprus, where the climate is subtropical and partly semi arid, and focuses on the development of energy policies and regulations through an exploratory case-study approach. A socio-technical-systems approach was employed to develop a bottom-up energy-policy framework for the Cypriot residential sector, and complex socio-technical associations between building energy use and occupants were examined. Household feedback was collected, existing adaptive thermal-comfort models for naturally ventilated multi-family buildings and households were investigated, an innovative framework that combines an assessment methodology with existing thermal-comfort benchmark criterion was developed, and a building-diagnostic and thermal-performance-oriented approach was proposed. The questionnaire survey revealed that 80% of the study respondents were slightly comfortable in temperatures in the range of 28,50–31,50°C, and the study findings were implemented to develop policy design that considers the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to energy-and-recovery plans; implications on domestic energy use in the south-eastern Mediterranean climate are expected to influence future trends in EU countries.The dataset has been donated to the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.6078/D1F671, as part of the PhD thesis entitled 'Assessing the Domestic Energy Use and Thermal Comfort of Occupants in a Post-war Social Housing Development Estate in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. The PhD researcher developed a novel benchmarking criteria for the neutral adaptive thermal comfort in the South-eastern Mediterranean climate of Cyprus and the dataset of this PhD thesis is a valuable contribution to the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II. The field study in the South-eastern Mediterranean climate of Cyprus is a unique context and a noteworthy addition to this public resource

Supplementary material for 'Assessing the Domestic Energy Use and Thermal Comfort of Occupants in a Post-war Social Housing Development Estate in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus'

This supplementary material is an adjunct research output of the PhD thesis entitled 'Assessing the Domestic Energy Use and Thermal Comfort of Occupants in a Post-war Social Housing Development Estate in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus'. Available at: https://doi.org/10.15123/uel.8q71

Assessing the Domestic Energy Use and Thermal Comfort of Occupants in a Post-war Social Housing Development Estate in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus

Efforts to retrofit post-war residential buildings have gained increasing momentum recently, especially after the European Union called for a zero carbon–emission target by 2050. This study presents a novel methodological framework for determining the most effective energy policy for implementing the EPBD mandates and improving the energy efficiency of existing post-war social housing stock in the South-eastern Mediterranean climate of Cyprus. The study examines how energy policy and regulation is carried out in this area through analysis of nationally representative archetype buildings in the coastal city of Famagusta where the weather is subtropical (Csa) and partly semi-arid (Bsa). The developed empirical framework integrates the socio-technical-systems (STS) approach and provides data about households through field interviews to better understand the relations between sociodemographic characteristics, energy use and thermal comfort. The in-vivo experiences of householders’ thermal-sensation votes is assessed to predict individual aspects of adaptive thermal comfort and its relevance to overheating. Data is collected from in-situ measurements, including recordings of household indoor-air temperatures integrated with thermal-imaging surveys and heatflux measurements of building fabric elements, along with concurrent on-site monitoring of environmental conditions and a review of household energy bills to accurately determine actual energy use. The results reveal that in a non-retrofitted building, cooling and heating comprise the greatest proportion (73%) of total energy consumption. Applications for six passive cooling design strategies are then analysed, and after the life-cycle cost assessment of each is considered, off-site modular building applications are developed. After building optimisation, it is found that approximately an 81% savings related to cooling consumption can be achieved, which suggests that design, ventilation, and servicing strategies, combined with passive shading systems, can improve the energy efficiency and indoor-air quality of residential buildings

Passive Cooling Design Strategies for Retrofit of Residential Tower Blocks in Northern Cyprus

This research investigates potential passive design strategies for improving the thermal performance of existing residential tower block (RTB) in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. In a Mediterranean island that experiences hot and humid temperatures throughout the year, residential buildings need to be adaptable to the climate in order to improve the thermal comfort of occupants. The current housing stock includes a prevalence of high density, medium and low-rise residential tower block developments without implementing any insulation materials. The objective of this study is to develop and test passive cooling design strategies into retrofitting ill-performing residential tower blocks in the coastal city of Famagusta. As an initial step, the performance of a case study was modelled and simulated via employing Integrated Environmental Solutions - Virtual Environment (IES-VE) software add-ins Apache-Sim Dynamic Thermal Simulation. The results from the base case model were analyzed according to the adaptive comfort of CIBSE Technical Memorandum 52 guidelines: The Limits of Thermal Comfort – Avoiding Overheating in European Buildings. The spaces studied (living room and bedrooms) within the case study sample flats were observed to exceed the acceptable limits of thermal comfort; particularly living rooms with this zone exceeding the upper limit for overheating by up to 9 hours daily. The main reasons for the problematic thermal performance were identified as resulting from: infiltration through the building fabric, the lack of sufficient ventilation through the living spaces and excessive heat gains through the large areas of glazing. The internal operating temperatures of the simulated flats remain high throughout the day and night in a typical summer day, ranging from a maximum of 36.5°C to a minimum of 28.5°C. The study also analyses the effectiveness of two basic passive cooling strategies (shading and night ventilation) of 3 sample flats sharing the same orientation, and floor plan but located at different levels within the RTBs. Furthermore, the implications in the seasonal cooling and assessment when considering the adoption of climate-related set-point temperatures (i.e. adaptive comfort approach), beyond the assumed common standard, are also evaluated

An Investigation of Urban Process and Mass Housing Estates Development Through Topographical Formations in Urban Peripheries: A Case Study of Famagusta, Cyprus

Problems in mass housing estates in Famagusta, Cyprus, have been an issue for urban planning and policy interventions for many years. Neighbourhoods were designed featuring modernist residential tower blocks and suburban row houses with insufficient green areas and no consideration of either the climatic features of the built site or of urban planning, regulations or law. This study discusses ongoing, uncontrolled construction trying to change the contemporary urban environment, based on the features of housing and urbanism. It investigates whether the natural landscape and extensions to topography have played decisive roles in the construction of mass housing estate developments and uses of the rural periphery of this city. The study develops a base case of urban transformation models representing the morphological characteristics of buildings from three distinct construction eras (the 1970s, 1990s and 2010s). The information collected is enriched and verified by site surveys. Through three case studies, the types of buildings in each era are analysed and evaluated in relation to a number of environmental factors, including analyses of the different context layers, to ascertain the existing strength of the urban block development configurations as well as to evaluate their shortcomings under the threat of urban sprawl. The findings not only provide ground research for developing urban retrofit scenarios, but also employ sustainable planning tools based on those urban processes

Assessing overheating risk and thermal comfort in state-of-the-art prototype houses that combat exacerbated climate change in UK

There is growing evidence that terraced houses—thermally lightweight, well insulated, naturally ventilated with three exposed wall surfaces—are at risk of overheating, especially in south-eastern England. The aim of this study is to evaluate the building performance and develop a reliable building simulation, which will be employed in the second phase of the study: developing affordable and feasible passive design strategies to support the energy-efficient building systems of the construction industry. This paper reports on the results from the first phase of the study where a quantitative methodology, including indoor and outdoor environmental monitoring, in-situ measurements and building simulation modelling, was adopted. The performance of a case study was modelled and simulated via employing Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) software suite. The results from the base-case were analysed according to the adaptive thermal comfort of Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Technical Memorandum 52 guidelines: The Limits of Thermal Comfort—Avoiding Overheating in European Buildings. The spaces studied within the case study house were observed to exceed the acceptable limits of thermal comfort; particularly, the large bedroom within this zone exceeded the upper limit for overheating up to 11 hours daily. Furthermore, the results from the monitoring study indicate a high risk of summertime overheating across all the case study settings, especially during short-term peaks in outdoor temperatures. The main reasons for the problematic thermal performance were identified as well-insulated and fully air-tight building fabric, the lack of sufficient ventilation through the living spaces and excessive heat gains through the composite cladding material

Assessing Energy use and Overheating risk for Retrofitting A Residential Tower Block Prototype in Northern Cyprus

This study evaluates the energy performance of a residential tower block (RTB) development in Northern Cyprus in providing thermal comfort for its occupants. Severe summer temperature conditions in the coastal city of Famagusta includes significant daily oscillations in air temperature (14°C-45°C) and high levels of solar radiation, which contributes to the overheating of thermally inefficient building envelopes. Notably, 43% of the domestic buildings in Northern Cyprus are RTBs. As could be expected in residential buildings located in a hot and humid climate the cooling and heating comprise the largest part of the total energy consumption (73%). The aim of this is to investigate the applicability of passive design elements for the case study using three representative residential tower blocks (RTBs) each representing a different orientation (south-west, south-east and north-west). The research adopts a ‘quantitative’ research design; primarily building performance evaluation using modelling and simulation. The selected three RTBs are modelled using Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) software where extensive dynamic thermal simulations have been produced to test passive design measures applied to improve thermal comfort and energy performance. This paper presents an analysis of the thermal performance of the three RTBs before different retrofit scenarios are applied to optimize the buildings energy performance and occupants’ thermal comfort. According to the results of the dynamic thermal simulation, cooling energy consumption saving of around 81% are achieved. The findings demonstrate the necessity to consider passive design strategies for effective retrofitting of existing RTB developments in Northern Cyprus

Energy Performance Development of Non-regulated Retrofit Mass Housing Estates in Northern Cyprus

This research project was undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C). The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity; to explore how and why occupants decide to change building components and to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient materials. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This research paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 16 housing estates in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders

An Analysis of the Development of Modular Building Design Elements to Improve Thermal Performance of a Representative High Rise Residential Estate in the Coastline City of Famagusta, Cyprus

Passive design strategies can reduce heating and cooling demands with integration of more efficient building systems as well as the potential to integrate modular off-site construction technology and its technical systems to offset overall energy consumption. This study evaluates the energy performance of the nationally representative post-war social housing estate in the southeastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus where the weather is subtropical (Csa) and partly semi-arid (Bsh). This study employed a mixed methods research design approach which was based on a thorough field study that consisted of a questionnaire survey conducted with residents of the social housing estate in the hottest summer month of August, to explore the occupants’ thermal sensation votes (TSVs), their habitual adaptive behaviour, and home energy performance concurrently. On-site environmental monitoring was performed, and in-situ measurements of each occupied space were recorded to identify ‘neutral’ adaptive thermal comfort. The selected representative high-rise residential development was modelled using Integrated Environmental Solutions’ Virtual Environment (IES-VE) software, where extensive dynamic thermal simulations have been produced to assess existing energy performance and energy effectiveness of retrofitting strategies. The results demonstrated that a moderate–strong relationship was found between orientation and reasons for thermal discomfort (χ2 = 49,327, p < 0.001, Cramer’s V = 0.405). Individual levels of thermal comfort were not limited to household socio-demographic characteristics, however; environmental factors were also determinants in the development of adaptive thermal-comfort theory. Furthermore, the occupants’ TSVs indicated that in a southeastern Mediterranean climate, 28.5 °C is considered a neutral temperature, and the upper limit of the indoor-air thermal-comfort range is 31.5 °C

Techno-Economic Analysis of State-of-the-Art Carbon Capture Technologies and Their Applications: Scient Metric Review

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a serious hazard to human life and the ecosystem. This is the reason that many measures have been put in place by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to re-duce the anthropogenic-derived CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Today, the potential of re-newable energy sources has led to an increased interest in investment in carbon capture and stor-age technologies worldwide. The aim of this paper is to investigate state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and their derivations for the identification of effective methods during the implementation of evidence-based energy policies. To this extent, this study reviews the current methods in three concepts: post-combustion; pre-combustion; and oxy-fuel combustion processes. The objective of this study is to explore the knowledge gap in recent carbon capture methods and provide a comparison between the most influential methods with high potential to aid in carbon capture. The study presents the importance of using all available technologies during the post-combustion process. To accomplish this, an ontological approach was adopted to analyze the feasibility of the CCS technologies available on the market. The study findings demonstrate that priority should be given to the applicability of certain methods for both industrial and do-mestic applications. On the contrary, the study also suggests that using the post-combustion method has the greatest potential, whereas other studies recommend the efficiency of the oxy-fuel process. Furthermore, the study findings also highlight the importance of using life cycle assess-ment (LCA) methods for the implementation of carbon capture technologies in buildings. This study contributes to the energy policy design related to carbon capture technologies in buildings