Conference Agenda

This paper discusses the cooling potential of three types of green roofs, insulated, uninsulated, radiant-evaporative, evaluated with test cells. Different rules and schedules were tested for irrigation, water movement through the radiant pipes, plenum fan operation, and cooling with outside air. Results indicate that on warm days with maximum outdoor temperatures below 32 °C the uninsulated green roof will perform better and on drier days up to 44 °C and a Wet Bulb Temperature below 24 °C, the green roof with a radiant system and evaporative cooling performs better. On very warm days with high maximum temperatures above 33 °C the insulated green roof and the insulated roof (non-green) perform better. Optimum zones for the green roofs are plotted on the Building Bioclimatic Chart.

Buildings in Saudi Arabia consumes approximately 80% of the electricity generated in the country. Saudi Arabia’s hot, arid climate, with summer temperatures frequently exceeding 45°C, means that air conditioning uses nearly 50% of the country’s electricity, and virtually all the electricity is generated from fossil fuels. Passive cooling techniques could be a sustainable alternative to conventional air-conditioning systems when integrated properly within a building. A Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) tower is considered as one of the most efficient passive systems and was investigated in this study. A single storey open plan room with a PDEC tower was digitally modelled and then changes in wind direction and architectural form were simulated to see the effect on the PDEC performance. IES VE software was selected for the simulations as it can conduct a dynamic thermal simulation for PDEC systems. A weather file for Riyadh was obtained from the software Meteonorm. The study demonstrated that significant cooling can be achieved by PDEC towers, but that their effectiveness was greatly reduced by changes in wind direction linked to opening distributions in the room attached to the PDEC tower.

This research proposes a new set of equations that predict conditions at the outlet of a single stage passive downdraft evaporative cooling tower (PDECT) as well as a multi-stage passive and hybrid downdraft cooling tower (PHDCT), namely temperature drop (∆T) and air velocity (V). Equations were developed through multiple linear regression using data collected from experimental evaluation conducted during Summer, 2017 in Tempe, Arizona on built prototypes of these towers. Regression analysis indicated a strong correlation between measured and predicted data with an adjusted coefficient of determination ranging between 0.80 and 0.95.

Dry Mist technology targets basic human needs by improving micro climatic conditions to create a healthy and comfortable outdoor environment. The technology can be integrated into the design of public spaces, streetscapes, markets, playgrounds and parks to permit intense outdoor activities and to counter the effects of urban heat islands. This paper is about the results of a performance demonstration of Dry Mist Systems in the Cayman Islands. The systems have been successful tested under tropical conditions in open public spaces, plazas and restaurants.

Abstract: In Taiwan, the average of convenient store's Energy Use Intensity (EUI) is high at a 1501 (kWh/m2/year) which is 3 times higher than department stores, 7times higher than central air conditioning office buildings and 38times higher than housing due to operational hours, internal loads and a poorly designed building envelope. Unexpectedly, communities use convenience stores as thermal comfort refuges during summer. This study utilised a dataset of 251 convenience stores in Taiwan from the largest leading retailer to obtain data on the physical, construction elements, energy use and siting of convenience stores. Sample analysis results analysed the architectural features and main locations, urban setting of the convenience store for a base case design. The dynamic software IES-VE (2016) is used to simulate different envelope improvement techniques to understand cooling demand and indoor thermal performance in relation to an urban setting. The dataset energy loads were used to validate the simulation results. The simulation results show that the most efficient building envelope improvement type is an insulation roof with shading. It saves 17% of cooling load in arterial roads while saving up to 18% of cooling load in residential areas.

Energy Performances Certificates have been implemented in Spain just in the moment of the largest real estate recession, such situation does not allow to observe consumers’ preferences on energy efficient homes. This paper uses choice experiment to study the relative importance of energy efficiency in relation to other functional and quality attributes. In order to evaluate the role of framework information in the formation of household preferences the sample has been split into 2 sets and informed on the economic and environmental implications of energy efficiency using technical and illustrative units. Results suggest that households do give importance to energy efficiency mainly when they are informed in an easy-to understand way. This latter finding has important implications for the design of energy policy.

Currently, office buildings are designed with a high window to wall ratio (WWR), without external solar protection systems (CPS), causing visual and thermal discomfort and high building’s energy consumption. Complex fenestration systems (CFS), which include an external CPS, allow the mitigation of these problems. During the design process of a building, it is very important to predict the thermal and visual behavior of the façade systems. There are many validated tools to support the buildings design process that allows evaluating their thermal and lighting performance. Most of these tools require expert knowledge in thermal and visual evaluation methods of buildings. On the other hand, the energy performance of a building highly depends highly on early façade´s design decisions. The objective of this paper is to show a new tool to support the design process of office buildings in Chile. This tool allows the simultaneous analysis of the total energy consumption (heating, cooling, and lighting) and the visual comfort conditions in the space of a building. This tool is that it is easy to use and allows reliable simulations in a very short time, which makes it useful and practical for the early stages of the office building design process.

This paper presents a brief analysis of the substitution of the main materials traditionally used in civil construction by less energy-intensive materials, their contribution to Energy Efficiency - EE and to the reduction of GHG emissions. For the analysis, the calculation method developed by Cruz (2018) was used considering three ecoindicators: energy - (kWh/m2), environmental - (tCO2/m2), and socioeconomic - relation between minimum wage and construction cost. The study does not intend to present the life cycle analysis of the construction industry or materials, considering that its focus is to perform an objective analysis through a direct method of evaluating the substantialenergy of the materials and their equivalent GHG emissions. The final results present a epresentative case in the construction of Brazilian cities: Minha Casa Minha Vida Program, selected by the strong Brazilian housing demand, scope and volume of public investment.

Due to the expectation of climate change and increasing global temperature, new building rates will face challenges. Nearly 40% of world-wide carbon emissions can be linked to building's energy consumption. Therefore, it is significant to understand how a building's energy consumption will behave under future climate change in order to reduce carbon emissions. The residential sector's demand for energy in the KSA is massive at 50%. Based on recent government initiatives of KSA, mandatory new residential buildings must meet stringent energy codes. This study investigates the effects of applying the new Saudi residential building energy codes for a detached single-family house (villa) located in Jeddah, KSA. This study aims to see how the code might perform under current and future climate change scenarios. Although the current code already shows a significant improvement in combating future climate change, a total reduction of 38% in the annual cooling demands of existing villas in Jeddah after applying the new standards will be illustrated. However, increases in cooling energy demand due to climate change still exist. Applying more passives strategies that are not included in the code would assist the researcher in knowing if there are other means to achieve significant decreases in cooling demand.

People in rural areas of Nepal have been using firewood for variety of household purposes. In this paper we analysed the firewood consumption patterns and their relationship with family size and the number of livestock rearing in the study area of Dhading district of Nepal. Investigation on periodic household firewood consumption was carried out for 24 hours for 16 households. Per-capita firewood consumption was found 639 kg/capita/year and average household firewood consumption was found 12.1 kg/family/day. We found household firewood consumption increases as increase in family size but per-capita firewood consumption decreases with increase in family size. Firewood consumption was also increased with the increase in the number of livestock reared. The rate of firewood combustion of small and big households was 1.28 kg/hour and 1.34 kg/hour respectively. Average time for firewood burning of households of small and big households was found 8.7 hours and 9.9 hours per day. Based on present information on the firewood consumption patterns of Dhading district, application of appropriate technologies for the improvements on traditional cooking stoves and improvements on the environmental and health condition of the rural people are to be done

With the aim of optimizing urban built environments in terms of potentially consumed and produced energy of buildings, a new methodological approach is proposed based on several urban typo-morphological archetypes. Given the complexity to obtain all their characteristics at integrating knowledge of urban planning professionals or architects in a co-design situation, both in terms of produced geometry and materials to be used, a hybrid tool with parametric modeling capabilities and operators on high-level geometric primitives is proposed inside a framework coupling all the tools necessary for energy optimization. It integrates a parametric urban morphology generator based on Rhinoceros/Grasshopper, an energetic assessments tool working at urban scale (Citysim) and a tool controlling the optimization process (ModeFrontier), which gives best urban form solutions using a multi-criteria analysis among best potential solutions inside the Pareto front. This approach appears to give an adapted way for integration of a high level of representation and knowledge on urban archetypes, thereby giving a way to deepen the exploration of new energy-optimized urban forms.

Building energy simulations carry out detailed calculations for energy prediction for each and every part of the building geometry. For the fenestrations, details about the glazing, the frame and the shading device are taken as simulation inputs. For the glazing part the typical inputs are the U-Value and the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) value for the glazing. Although the SHGC value is a standard value for a glazing type, there are different calculation methods to account for the impact of shading devices into the SHGC values. The impact of SHGC value through two different methods are studied in terms of solar gains (kWh) through fenestration and cooling energy. The results are also compared with the results of the simulation model in which the shading devices are modelled and the manufacturer’s SHGC value is considered instead of effective SHGC value. Further, the impact on cooling energy reduction is determined and compared for different latitudes, climates and overhang depth. The results show that the cooling energy reduction obtained from the methods with detailed heat transfer mechanisms are closer to the results obtained from the simulation with the physical shading device.

The building sector is responsible for significant consumption of natural resources. Sustainable buildings decrease environmental impacts such as energy consumption, soil, water and air pollution. Raw soil could be an alternative for the sustainable development of construction sector. Raw soil is cured without burning, mixed with Portland cement, pressed and stabilized producing soil-cement blocks, what are already regulated by the Brazilian Association Standardization. To increase its acceptance and verify its efficiency as a building material for social housing, it is necessary to investigate its properties and performance. The present study aimed to evaluate the performance of an external vertical sealing system composed of hollow blocks of soil-cement without structural function, following determinations of Brazilian standards, focusing on the requirements of habitability and sustainability. It was analysed tightness against rainwater, water permeability and durability through heat action and thermal shock tests. The system met limits set by standards for tightness against rainwater and heat action and thermal shock, but not for water permeability. The vertical sealing system composed of hollow blocks of soil-cement has potential for application in the construction, but there is still must be improved.

KEYWORDS: Soil-cement, Performance evaluation, Habitability, Sustainability

Generating walkable cities is a major stake for urban areas and the transformation of public open spaces, as streets, is a key process for it. Solar radiation exposure may be an important parameter for comfort of public spaces users. In the case of Quito, radiation levels are so high all years long this parameter is a strong health issue. While street refurbishment based on pedestrians and bikers’ requirements is still not a common practice in Ecuador, the present work proposes an approach of doing so based on simulating with ENVIMET two similar streets of Quito’s centre against thermal comfort and hence indirectly radiation exposure, one being highly vegetated and the other not. Simulations evaluate the energy exchange between street components considering their thermal characteristics, indicating the potential satisfaction level of pedestrians. The influence of street vegetation, especially the presence of large covering trees, is demonstrated as being strong. It allowed to propose an improvement process for the comfort deficient street, thus offering a potential larger solution for Quito’s streets configuration.

This study evaluates the building performance of an office building in London, which had issues reported concerning thermal comfort of occupants. The research aims to assess the occupants’ thermal comfort, and building performance of this building during the winter season. The study undertakes field studies including a questionnaire-based survey, and on-site monitoring as well as building simulation modelling to evaluate the building performance and to validate a simulation model to be used in the second phase of the study concerning energy efficient and cost effective retrofit proposals.

Townhouses in a hot and humid region require an economic solution to improve their indoor thermal condition and energy efficiency. One way is by enhancing ventilation to reduce collective heat and promote cooling effect for the residents. A townhouse unit in Chonburi province, Thailand was selected as a case study to investigate effects of a ventilation system on its indoor thermal performance. Results from the field measurement during summer in 2017 showed that, with closed building condition, the use of ventilation system during 2 hours before the residents return home could not provide sufficient air velocities for comfort but effectively reduce the room temperatures and humidities. This could result in energy saving for nighttime air-conditioning system.

Productivity and Satisfaction of the building occupants is largely influenced by Thermal Comfort. Specifically, in Factory buildings where occupants are constantly exposed to excessive heat produced from machines, it is important to maintain comfortable indoor environment and therefore evaluation of the comfort conditions inside these buildings is necessary. The research aims at assessment of naturally ventilated factory buildings located inside a Factory Premise in Mumbai. Three factory buildings with similar process and architectural features having different orientation and sizes were selected for assessment. The assessment was done based on onsite measurements and thermal comfort survey of the occupants. Key reasons behind discomfort were identified. Based on this assessment and comparison with standards, design guidelines were formulated. There is further scope for validating effect of passive design strategies with the help of Building Simulation

This paper discusses how the existing urban houses in a hot humid climate of Southeast Asia can adapt to the future increase in urban temperature in the near future through building modifications. TRNSYS simulations were employed to investigate the indoor thermal environment under naturally ventilated conditions as well as to assess the effects of passive design techniques on the thermal comfort and cooling load under the current and future weather conditions in a typical row house in Hanoi, Vietnam. The results show that the passive design techniques perform well to lower the operative temperature but they are not able to satisfy the thermal comfort in the future weather condition. Further, the cooling load is predicted to increase by up to 23% in the future.

The 5-year cycle of residential planning in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) has underestimated population growth since 1991. This has resulted in the disruptive and uncontrolled expansion of settlement across the city. The outcome is a complicated mix of new spontaneous dwelling areas in the city featuring a number of distinct urban morphologies. Some previous studies have shown impacts of such urban morphologies on the comfort levels in outdoor environments. The paper examines the correlation of microclimatic conditions and constituents that create the urban spatial form of residential neighbourhoods in HCMC. A total of seven dwelling urban patterns were studied. Field measurements of physical variables were conducted in summer 2017 whilst the meteorological data were recorded. Furthermore, in studies of two urban types, the microclimatic characteristics were found to vary under different urban contexts. During warm months, the outdoor thermal conditions for pedestrians were found to have average air temperatures between 32-34°C; a range of wind flow at the occupied level from 0.1-0.9m/s, and average humidity level of 57-60% over all types surveyed. The occupants’ delight in outdoor comfort was found in formally planned dwelling blocks; meanwhile, the compact neighbourhoods were characterised by cooler temperatures but poor airflows and daylighting.

The study investigated potentials of rice husk ash (RHA) as a replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in the production of Compressed Earth Block (CEB) with a view to reducing building construction cost in Nigeria. Graded levels (i.e. 10, 20, 30 and 40%) of RHA replaced cement in the mix for CEB moulding. The results of X-ray diffraction showed that RHA contained 80% SiO2. Also, the results of the compressive strength, water absorption capacity, and bulk density testing indicated that low compressive strength, high water absorption capacity, and low bulk density exhibited by RHA-CEB make doubtful the suitability of RHA as a replacement for Ordinary Portland cement in the building construction in

This study presents an analysis of the outdoor conditions Indian cities to determine the potential for deploying natural ventilation and several low-energy cooling strategies in residential buildings to lead the country on the path of becoming an energy efficient economy. The analysis showed that the potential for natural ventilation increased substantially when the temperature limits were based on the IMAC model for mixed-mode buildings. Locations in the composite climate showed the potential for a mix of operation modes/strategies while those in warm and humid indicated dehumidification as a prominent strategy.

As the demand for urban living space has expanded dramatically in China, high-rise/high-density residential quarters gradually evolved into an inevitable urban living pattern. Because gated residential quarters have given rise to a series of urban social and economical problems, a recent trend in residential development is the so-called open residential neighbourhoods (ORN) or open urban block. Due to smaller plot size, mixed functions and more open geometry, the microclimatic effect of building form, layout and greenery can be different with that of typical gated housing quarters in Shanghai under the hot-summer cold-winter building climate zone. By selecting a typical block as object, this paper conducted parameterized numerical simulation to verify and quantify the impact of different building layout and greenery type on outdoor microclimate of ORN, and to provide reference for optimizing the layout of high density residential quarters, as well as design strategies for the actual planning and evaluation process.

Evaporative cooling has been proved as one of the most efficiency strategies to cool down air temperature. In this paper, the performance of a device that combine the sun protection with fresh ventilation using evaporative cooling is presented. This strategy has been used as heat exchanger in vertical set up, but this configuration precludes the solar protection. The experimental trial was taken in Colima, Mexico, where the climate is classified as hot sub-humid Aw0, according to Köppen. In the experimental stage, two equal devices were compared. One of the remained as control and the other one using water to apply the indirect evaporative cooling as a case. The maximum difference of temperature between the entrance air and the exit was of 8 K° in the experimental cell versus 5.5 K° of the reference cell. Indirect evaporative cooling strategy improves the reduction of heat exchange around the device. This allows to used louvers to block solar radiation and to pre-cold the air before introducing it to the space.

Currently, the approach to social housing development in Chile has proved incapable of ensuring appropriate living standards. Demolishing housing blocks to replace them with new buildings is economically inefficient, environmentally damaging and socially unacceptable. This research focuses on the CORVI 1010-1020 housing block type that was massively built between 1968 and 1978. Today it is possible to find more than 2,000 of these buildings—with no significant design variations—throughout Chile, hence between latitudes 18°S and 53°S of extremely diverse climates.

This paper analyses the impact of different energy retrofitting strategies in the thermal performance of these buildings. Building energy simulation is used to evaluate three scenarios, i.e., the original design, a retrofitting proposal that meets the current code, and an expansion proposal that increases both thermal performance and life quality conditions. Simulations focused on three cities with contrasting climates: hot-arid (Arica, 18°27'S), mediterranean (Santiago, 33°27′S) and tundra (Punta Arenas, 53°08′S). Operational energy demand, accumulated hours of thermal discomfort, and payback time periods are considered for comparative analysis.

Results evidence that proposals´ cost-effectiveness increases in colder climatic conditions; overall, this study demonstrates that retrofitting these buildings can help achieving significant heating and cooling energy savings and improving indoor thermal comfort conditions.

The successful deployment of distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems requires assessment of the potential of possible installations for electricity generation. Exposure to solar radiation in dense urban locations must account for shading by adjacent structures, at high spatial and temporal resolution. 3D modelling of the shadows cast by buildings is carried out with a new R package that can simulate the shadows cast on vertical surfaces (typically walls) or horizontal ones (typically roofs), given a database of obstacles representing buildings in the form of extruded polygons, and the sun’s position at any desired time interval. The methodology is demonstrated for a case-study neighbourhood in Rishon-LeZion, Israel, with diverse building typologies, but is suitable for any location, using the open-source code developed. The simulation shows which building typologies offer the greatest solar potential, calculated per dwelling, building plot area or for the entire neighbourhood. Although roofs are preferable to vertical surfaces, some facades can still make a substantial contribution to the overall solar potential of urban buildings.

This study focuses on developing a BIPV pre-design computational platform combining visual impact assessment, building simulation and energy system optimization. The outdoor exposed surface of a pavilion court building block is evaluated through a physiologically reliable indicator of visibility that determines three scenarios of PV coverage ratio. Solar PV generation and demand for heating and electricity are simulated on hourly basis. Hourly PV energy that does not match electricity needs is used to fit a multi energy hub featuring PV panels, a battery bank and an internal combustion generator. A Pareto optimization is conducted considering levelized cost of energy and grid integration level, without showing a dominant solution: this outcome encourages the development of a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) tool.

As urban populations are to increase by 2.6 billion by 2050, and the built environment accounts for over half global CO2 emissions, new methods are being investigated to reduce building energy use. Integrating plants into our built environment could help reduce temperatures and improve air quality, and thus reduce the need for ventilation, heating and air conditioning. Hydroponics allow to grow a high density of plants with little maintenance, weight and water use. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the potential advantages and viability of integrating numerous hydroponic modules in an office building. It presents in a first part the implementation of 50 hydroponic modules in an office building in Cambridge. The second part discusses the qualitative and quantitative monitoring of the impact of plants on the office. Finally, a model of interactions between the plants and the building environment is presented, and initial results of running a plant module in building energy simulation software TRNSYS are shown. Creating the model alongside the implementation project allowed to gain further insights into the impacts on environmental conditions, building energy use, and occupants of integrating a large density of plants into a building.

In buildings, coupling photovoltaic (PV) systems with electric storage (ES) enables to increase the building’s energy autonomy. However, if ES does extend the self-consumption of onsite renewable, it also increases the life cycle environmental impact of the stored energy. As a result, there is a threshold where the GHG emission benefits of using an ES starts to compensate its own embedded and operational impact. In this study, a methodology to assess this neutral global warming potential target of an ES is proposed and extended to the primary energy and its non-renewable part. The methodology is tested on a case study consisting of a feasibility project of a building located in Switzerland. When the surplus renewable energy that cannot be used directly neither stored onsite is exportable to the grid, the operational benefits of the ES cannot balance its embedded impact anymore. The neutral targets are greatly affected by the characteristics of the grid mix providing electricity to the building. While the mitigation of GHG emissions in buildings by the use of an ES may be efficient in countries like Germany that has a carbon-intensive mix, it might be technologically impossible with a low-carbon electricity provision, like in France for instance.

The concern about the increasing consumption related to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning applications in the residential sector, and the subsequent increase of the greenhouse gases emissions, has led to the search for solutions that can mitigate these adverse effects. Thermal energy storage with phase change materials is presented as an attractive solution because it allows storing large amounts of energy in small volumes; this solution can be adapted to meet the cooling and heating needs of a building. In this work, we detail the design, manufacture, and experimental tests of a prototype for an air-PCM unit, consisting of a tube bundle geometry. These tests were carried out on a plus energy house located in the South of France, during the summertime of 2017. Thermal performance was evaluated through indicators such as the indoor air temperature and the operating time of the unit. The results suggest that the air-PCM unit limits the indoor temperature rise during the unit operating time, keeping a temperature value around the upper thermal comfort limit.

An office building offers several opportunities to integrate Building integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) elements. Shading blinds form combines perfectly two functions: preventing part of the irradiation from reaching a glazed surface controlling the inner comfort conditions, as well as producing solar electricity. In regions where high irradiation is available and less demanding climates from the point of view of heating loads, this application is particularly advantageous for this kind of building. Nevertheless, at low latitudes locations, due to relative position of sun rays, the increasing effect of self-shading must be carefully analyzed - there is a delicate balance between optimal tilt angle and latitude to achieve a surface suited to integrate BIPV shadowing components. A methodology and practical results have been presented, easily possible to be used to design such devices in office buildings in Brazil, and, to a certain extent, in other countries at similar latitudes. Also, contribute to the further development of knowledge in this so far unexplored producing and saving energy saving strategy.

In the design practice simulation methods are already widely used to support the understanding of energy performance and to help designers in reducing energy demand during the design process. However, energy simulation tools are largely limited to the individual building level, and urban microclimate conditions and variations in local wind, solar radiation, and air temperature patterns in which buildings express their energy performance are largely overlooked. In order to include microclimatic data in the computation of space cooling and heating consumption and enlarge the scale of analysis from single buildings to district scale, a new simulation method has been developed. The proposed coupling procedure links the microclimate software ENVI-met and the City Energy Analyst energy simulation tool and it is employed in the energy assessment of a urban re-development project in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. The results show that, considering microclimatic boundary conditions, the average hourly energy loads vary for daytime and night-time peaks and moreover a variation can be noticed in terms of total space heating and cooling consumption on the hottest and coldest day of a typical year.

This paper focuses on the trends of 24/7 occupied IT offices in the Northern part of India. The rise of the IT Industry in India has resulted in an adaptation of the office spaces to the international trends of constructing glass box with deep plans and high glazing ratios coupled with aluminium composite panels with less considerations to the environmental and occupant needs. Such buildings are invariably dependant on air conditioning which results in huge energy expenditure. Fieldwork and Survey conducted for analysis illustrate the trends of the building typology which can be used as a basis for potential design solutions for IT offices being constructed in Delhi NCR by understanding the factors affecting the high energy demands and the spatial relationships.

This paper presents findings about interactions of occupants’ thermal feelings and adaptive actions within office buildings from a two-week longitudinal survey in Harbin, a north-east city in China with hot summers and severely cold winters. Measurements of the indoor and outdoor environmental changes and occupants’ window opening behaviours were conducted in six mixed-mode office rooms with fans or air conditioning cooling facilities. Thermal feelings and personal characteristics were gained via a panel questionnaire with 67 subjects from these offices to relate the thermal feeling with adaptions and physical conditions. The results showed the common use of the cooling device simultaneously with window opening behaviour, and an extremely high probability of window opening in office rooms with fans during the summer. Common patterns of the predictors for summer period in the severe cold area are identified in the analysis, while only gender for offices with fans and outdoor temperature, indoor and outdoor relative humidity for offices with air-conditioning were important variables in determining the state of the window opening. By comparing of the window opening changes with environmental factors for different thermal feelings, the mechanism of the interaction of occupant and offices building in summer season was further clarified.

The building footprint is likely to increase five-folds by 2030. These buildings consume a large chunk o energy in the form of electricity for running systems like air conditioning, artificial lighting, and equipment to name a few. The energy consumption in building sector can be decreased. This can be done by carrying out building performance evaluation studies, which will help in understanding the energy losses inside a building. This research focuses on developing an affordable monitoring and sensing system for building performance evaluation studies. Different hardware and software platforms are explored, and component selection was done after comparative analysis based on various aspects. The aspects considered for selection include: specifications, the ease of use, cost, and complexity of the system. The expected outcome is a methodology tailored for custom needs of the user, and a prototype for building performance evaluation studies.

The study addresses issues of the detection of built-up areas based on satellite images and prediction of changes in spatial planning using artificial neural networks. Using satellite images from the Landsat satellite, the authors have developed a built-up areas detection model using a combination of indexes such as NDBI, NDVI and MNDWI. The quality of classification was empirically verified on the basis of a set of randomly selected image points. Forecasts of changes in spatial planning were carried out with the use of two types of neural networks: MLP and RBF. For MLPs, the activation functions, such as logistic, hyperbolic tangent, Gaussian and sine, were tested. In total, more than 5.000 different models of artificial neural network have been built and verified. The simulations covered two areas diversified in terms of building density – fragments of the cities of Lodz and Zgierz located in central Poland in central Europe. Developed model provided changes in built-up areas between 1998 and 2006. In order to confirm the quality of model’s operation, the authors calculated percentage correctness of the area classification, which was 94.06% for the area with a higher degree of urbanization and 91.86% for the less urbanized area.

The semi-outdoor space is an important space in the hot-humid climate for preventing indoor environments from overheating and reducing building air-conditioning energy consumption. This paper presents a case study to find out the uncomfortable locations in a university building through field measurement, and proposes strategies for improving the thermal environment in the thermally uncomfortable locations. The improvement effect of the proposed strategies was analyzed using a microclimate simulation tool (ENVI-met) in terms of PMV and etc.

Laterite stone is an integral part of vernacular architecture in konkan belt of India. Procurement of these stones involve quarrying by small scale industries that have no further action plan in disposal of the scrap generated during the stone cutting. The paper looks at utilising the laterite quarry scrap to make blocks and exploring the opportunities the material holds in terms of its thermal properties, environmental factor, economic factor and structural factor. To establish the thermal properties of the scrap block in comparison to laterite stone and concrete block, a wall module of the respective material was built to determine a comparative decrement factor and time lag. The paper recommends the use of scrap, utilising locally available material, curbing the pollution generated and providing a cost-effective solution for the locals.

Non-atomizing misting systems have typically been employed to alleviate the problem of thermal heat stress among occupants and have been shown to be effective especially in temperate countries. However, its impact in tropical countries is not widely studied and it is the same for the impact of the water temperature on reducing air and skin temperature. Using CFD simulation models, this paper seeks to address these gaps. A Langrangian-Eulerian approach is adopted using the Steady K-Epsilon turbulence model and Discrete Phase Model in Ansys Fluent software. Inputs for misting spray and modelling human skin are adopted from other published papers, and Grid Independence studies are also conducted. The results show that Misting sprays can cool the air temperature by up to 4.5oC, based on a hot afternoon condition in Singapore and there is an almost linear relationship between water temperature and cooling effect. At 3m downstream from nozzle, a 45oC water temperature leads to neither decrease nor increase in air temperature. Skin temperatures can also be reduced by a maximum of 3oC. Due to thermal properties of water, even 95oC water temperature only increases air temperature by less than 4oC.

3DFOGTECH© is a water enhancement technology applied in fog collection. This study is focus on geo-climatic data collection in selected fog sites, including design and structural test. 3DFOGTECH© is a portable, lightweight and modular polyhedral space-frame with light-coloured and water-repellent textile screens that collects condensed water drops in 360° from fog promoted by physical surface effects such as cooling, coalescence and condensation following the multi-directionality of winds, without any active energy demand. It offers autonomous water management in water-stressed areas with frequent dense fog events. Previous experiments made by author and collaborators (2010-16) were focused in obtaining efficient forms and designs through lighter space-frames and affordable hydrophobic meshes to secure clean water for drinking and irrigation. 3DFOGTECH© can harvest at least six times more water than planar fog collectors. Tubular frames are made with aluminium, which is a light, strong, durable and recycling material, whilst modular meshes are made with textiles treated with water-repellent coating solutions, light coloured surfaces and natural, synthetic or remanufactured polymers. Advanced design, connectors and structural prototypes are tested digitally and physically. 3DFOGTECH© is an applied research project co-financed by EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie and ACCIO TecnioSpring Plus programmes.

The East Ukraine military conflict has caused a large-scale devastation and displacement of millions of people. Most of the families are forced to live in the conditions unfit for human habitation. This paper is based on a research aimed at defining a settlement strategy for the Ukrainian internally displaced persons (IDPs). The study assumed that the displaced families can be settled in the existing rural houses that have been abandoned due to demographical process. The refurbishment of these houses has the potential to satisfy the required needs. Due to the local cold climate, energy efficiency retrofitting solutions, in particular for heat conservation, were studied and assessed with computational simulation.

This work deals with the particulars of urban design in hot climate cities, where direct solar radiation leads to high temperature. This paper considers old part of Jeddah city as a compact neighborhood case study. We address the correlation between Sky View Factor (SVF) and direct solar radiation by orientation, value and time interval in the old Jeddah area, with the aim of adjusting future morphology in order to enhance outdoor thermal conditions. Results show that the sky view factor (SVF) could be an indicator of solar access in an urban morphology. The objective of this study is to identify and discuss the relationship between canyon geometry (size, orientation) and SVF to see how it impacts solar radiation within the urban street.