Impact of Locally Available Thermal Insulation Structures on Space Heating Demand of High-altitude Rural Buildings: A Case Study of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a high-altitude mountainous country situated in a cold climatic zone. The age of the residential buildings, poor housing conditions and the absence of proper thermal insulation result in high heat demand and low thermal comfort in Kyrgyz houses. To maintain thermal comfort, the rural residents use traditional heating stoves to burn solid fuels during the winter months. Overconsumption of natural resources is mainly responsible for deforestation, as well as indoor and outdoor air pollution. Implementation of building thermal insulation is considered as one of the potential measures for energy conservation. In regards to this, the presented research proposes the various thermal insulation structures developed from the locally available natural materials. Further to this, it identifies the effectiveness of various thermal insulation structures on the annual space heating demand of a highaltitude single-family house located in rural Kyrgyzstan. The results show that the insulation parameter helps to save a considerable amount of space heating demand by up to 30 % in the case of existing houses and up to 70 % for newly built houses in rural Kyrgyzstan

A Parametric Study on the Feasibility of Solar-thermal Space Heating and Hot Water Preparation under Cold Climates in Central Asian Rural Areas

A large part of the Kyrgyz territory is covered by mountain ranges which result in extremely cold winter periods. The cold climatic conditions of Kyrgyzstan define heating as an essential need for Kyrgyz people. The majority of the residential buildings are constructed with poor thermal insulation or none at all, which yields high energy consumption in buildings to maintain thermal comfort. Especially in rural households, the heat demand is usually covered by solid fuels (i.e. wood, branches, coal and other solid fuels) burned in traditional stoves / boilers. The intensive use of solid fuels contributes to indoor and outdoor air pollution. Hence, there is a substantial need to provide sustainable and adequate heating services for residential buildings, particularly for the rural population. In response to this, the presented research article describes an investigation of solar resources to support space heating and domestic hot water preparation for single-family homes in rural Kyrgyzstan. Besides that, it identifies the thermal performance of typical single-family houses by considering local boundary conditions such as cold climate, highaltitude and routine behavior of the inhabitants. The determination of fuel savings by implementing solar-thermal domestic heating systems helps to explain the positive impacts on the environment. The investigation shows a significant solar-thermal energy potential available for domestic space heating and hot water preparation in Kyrgyzstan

Integrating economic considerations with operational and embodied emissions into a decision support system for the optimal ranking of building retrofit options

In the UK, 87% of dwellings and 60% of non-domestic buildings that will be standing in 2050 have already been built. Therefore, the greatest energy savings and emissions reductions will be achieved through retrofit of existing buildings. This usually involves decision-making processes targeted at reducing operational energy consumption and maintenance bills. For this reason, retrofit decisions by building stakeholders are typically driven by financial considerations. However, recent trends towards environmentally conscious design and retrofit have focused on the environmental merits of these options, emphasising a lifecycle approach to emissions reduction. Building stakeholders cannot easily quantify and compare the sustainability impacts of retrofit options since they lack the resources to perform an effective decision analysis. In part, this is due to the inadequacy of existing methods to assess and compare the cost, operational performance and environmental merit of the options. Current methods to quantify these parameters are considered in isolation when making decisions about energy conservation in buildings. To effectively manage the reduction of lifecycle environmental impacts, it is necessary to link financial cost with both operational and embodied emissions. This paper presents a robust Decision Support System which integrates economic and net environmental benefits (including embodied and operational emissions) to produce optimal decisions based on marginal abatement cost methods and Pareto optimisation. The implication of the DSS within the current climate change policies is also discussed. Overall, the methodology developed provides stakeholders with an efficient and reliable decision process that is informed by both environmental and financial considerations

Residential Building Construction Techniques and the Potential for Energy Efficiency in Central Asia: Example from High-Altitude Rural Settlement in Kyrgyzstan

Building construction in rural Kyrgyzstan is heavily dominated by earthen buildings. Old and inappropriate residential building structures contribute significantly to high domestic space heating energy consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relevant building construction techniques. However, the scant information on Kyrgyz building techniques, especially for high-altitude rural settlements, was the prime motivation to perform the presented study. The key objective of the study is to investigate residential building construction techniques in high-altitude rural Kyrgyzstan, and this was to be achieved by house visits during field trips, literature review, and pilot interviews with local people. The analysis enabled the detailed identification of individual building envelopes as well as predominant building materials to be recorded. Based on the assessment, a housing profile was created that represents the typical characteristics of traditional rural Kyrgyz houses. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the potential for energy savings in rural Kyrgyz houses of 50–70%. However, local conditions prevent people from making improvements to all domestic energy efficiency parameters simultaneously. Therefore, the study developed a ‘sequential roadmap’ to reduce domestic space heating demand in different phases based on simulation studies. Existing low-income rural Kyrgyz habitations can use the presented roadmap to reduce domestic space heating demand sequentially to overcome financial barriers and, therefore, contribute to establishing sustainable buildings in Kyrgyzstan. These results may be partially replicated in other Central Asian rural communities depending on their location and building characteristics

Steam storage systems for flexible biomass CHP plants - Evaluation and initial model based calculation

Within the present study a novel concept for the demand-oriented power generation of a solid-biomass fueled combined heat and power (CHP) plant is investigated. The integration of a novel steam storage system into the plants process enables a decoupling of the steam (boiler) and the power generation (steam turbine). By buffering the steam, the power output of the turbine can be adjusted without changing the rated thermal capacity of the plant. The storage system consist of combination of steam accumulator and concrete storage. An initial model based simulation study is performed to identify the fundamental behavior of this system, integrated in a biomass CHP plant. The operation principle has proved their technical feasibility and seems to be applicable at a commercial scale. According to the modelling results flexible short term power generation in a time range from 15 min to several hours is applicable. A load-range of almost the plant's rated capacity can be achieved. The properties of the proposed concept are competitive to available energy storage systems

Operational vs. Embodied Emissions in Buildings — A Review of Current Trends

Global awareness of environmental impacts such as climate change and depletion of ozone layer has increased significantly in the last few years and the implication for emissions reductions in buildings are widely acknowledged. The goal, therefore, is to design and construct buildings with minimum environmental impacts. Lifecycle emissions resulting from buildings consist of two components: operational and embodied emissions. A great deal of effort has been put into reducing the former as it is assumed that it is higher than the latter. However, studies have revealed the growing significance of embodied emissions in buildings but its importance is often underestimated in lifecycle emissions analysis. This paper takes a retrospective approach to critically review the relationship between embodied and operational emissions over the lifecycle of buildings. This is done to highlight and demonstrate the increasing proportion of embodied emissions that is one consequence of efforts to decrease operational emissions. The paper draws on a wide array of issues, including complications concerning embodied emissions computation and also discusses the benefits that come with its consideration. The implication of neglecting embodied emissions and the need for an urgent policy framework within the current climate of energy and climate change policies are also discussed

Optimal Ranking of Retrofit Options for Emissions Reduction in Non-Domestic Buildings-A Review

Measures for reducing emissions in buildings, including renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency measures and inducements to change behaviour are widely available today. In practice, due to financial costs, project timelines and other constraints, their implementation is unlikely to be achieved in a single operation. There is therefore the need for a robust decision-making methodology with which optimal choices can be made regarding the prioritisation of the measures. Such a methodology will take into account multiple and sometimes competitive objectives such as energy consumption, financial costs, environmental impacts and the interactions of measures. This paper, written to support a poster, gives an overview of relevant literature in this field, a proposed research methodology and some thoughts on how measures of financial costs and both embodied and operational emissions can be combined into a robust way. This will allow ranking and sequencing of retrofit options to reduce emissions in non-domestic buildings in a cost-effective manner

Efficiency analysis methodology. Deliverable D4.1

This deliverable describes the various elements of a methodology for modelling the energy generated and used by the different parts of an industrial energy system, in REEMAIN. This is necessary to analyse the efficiency of the industrial energy system in order to identify the improvements that can be delivered by the integration of renewable energy systems, the use of technology for waste energy capture and the derivation of more energy efficient manufacturing schedules.Chapter 1 of the deliverable presents the resource networks methodology developed by Fraunhofer IWU, which is a conceptual tool to deal with the complexity of integrating renewable energy systems into manufacturing systems, while respecting the realities of material flows, processing requirements, grid constraints and personnel capabilities. Chapter 2 describes a means by which energy demand profiles may be conceptualised, captured from reality and modelled. This chapter also explains how the different combinations of heating and cooling requirements of processes within the factory give rise to a range of demand profiles whose shape can significantly impact the efficiency of energy systems. This is why the concept of rough-cut demand modelling developed in D3.3 is so important to REEMAIN. The chapter closes with a description of the use of discrete event simulation as a tool for modelling industrial energy demand. Chapter 3 covers the various theories and empirical approaches that underpin the models of the renewable energy technologies selected for inclusion in REEMAIN, including solar PV, solar thermal collectors, solar concentrators, hot water storage, Lithium-ion batteries, solar cooling systems, combined heating, power and cooling and the organic Rankine Cycle. Chapter 4 explains how these discrete models of selected technologies may be integrated to create a model of an energy system that can be used to explore the dynamic efficiency of the complete energy system. Chapter 5 describes and compares a range of commercially available modelling tools that may be used to create dynamic models of the energy supply technologies, the components of new energy systems and the demand from the factory; as well as the means of exchanging data between different tools. Finally chapter 6 consolidates the previous chapters by presenting the results of discussions between the authors in the form of a suggested modelling approach that will be developed and refined through the rest of the tasks within work package 4