Conference Agenda

A ThermO-Drain (TOD) is a system that uses water cooled by night sky to drain the radiant heat within a building. In office buildings, ‘all air-cooled’ systems are most prevalent. The study aimed to assess the thermal comfort of occupants in a ground and two storied naturally ventilated office building in the composite climate of Nashik in India where TOD system was installed. Assessment was conducted by taking hourly readings over a 25-hour period in peak summer of May 2017. Primary data collected included Dry Bulb Temperature (DBT) and Relative Humidity (RH) indoors, surface temperature of top and bottom of roof slab and Globe temperature within the office. Secondary data for the same period was obtained from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Monthly electricity bills were used to measure the Energy Performance Index (EPI). The Tropical Summer Index (TSI), an index suggested in the National Building Code (NBC) 2016 of India, was calculated. Results show that the indoor operative temperature in the peak of summer with outdoor temperature of 36.30C was found to be close to the neutral temperature of 27.50C. The EPI of 26.5 kwh/m2/year falls within the BEE 5-star rating of below 40 kwh/m2/year.

This paper describes a project to propose a National Energy Efficiency Policy for Cambodia. The project was initiated by the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy of Cambodia (MIME). The European Union Energy Initiative Professional Dialogue Facility (euei pdf) provided funding and Integration Consulting Group management. The policy was written by a team of five experts who met in Cambodia over a period of eight months (2012-2013). The areas of expertise comprised energy efficiency in industry, consumer goods, biomass, rural electrification, and buildings. This paper will describe the author’s contribution as building expert, and will therefore focus on energy efficiency in buildings. Its purpose is to share experience with other developing countries, to solicit helpful suggestions from those with similar experience and expertise, and to promote this on-going effort.

Design of contemporary glass-box office buildings is unsuitable for the tropical climate of Uganda Overheating is commonplace in indoor spaces because glazed façades are exposed to beam radiation from all directions everyday, through the year. As a result high-energy loads are associated with space cooling. These energy loads are significant for the context where only 15% of the population has access to electricity accompanied by regular load shedding and black outs. This research posits that shading to reduce cooling energy loads coupled with PV generation can improve overall energy availability for the country.

The paper presents a proposal for a Student Centre in Northern Greece. The proposed building is located at an existing educational unit in a densely vegetated environment and includes a high level of transparency to increase contact with its surroundings. Environmental strategies focusing on energy efficiency and natural resources preservation aim to balance the effects of extensive glazing through minimising winter heat loss and summer overheating while enhancing the benefits from natural daylight and natural ventilation. The preliminary estimation of the building’s environmental performance through simulations revealed almost 47% reduction on heating and cooling loads by implementing sustainable design strategies, and more than 20KWh energy production by pv cells integrated on the building envelope, as well as appropriate daylight conditions. Further simulations demonstrate in detail energy consumption requirements, pollutant emissions, daylight levels and occupants’ comfort.

In most European countries, new energy directives on building performance have been developed as a consequence of unsustainable greenhouse gas emissions. These norms promote active and passive energy strategies to lower the environmental impact of the building sector. Among the active strategies, building envelopes with Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) have a significant potential to generate clean electricity. However, despite the numerous advantages of BIPV products, diverse barriers are preventing their large-scale implementation. Many architects complain about their poor aesthetics as well as the lack of information on existing BIPV solutions, which leads to a generalized lack of interest on BIPV among building stakeholders. Aiming at overcoming these barriers, an interdisciplinary research team has designed and constructed the Advanced Active Façade (AAF) full-scale demonstrator. The mock-up integrates active and passive energy strategies such as BIPV and low-carbon construction principles, to meet the latest façade energy requirements. The AAF demonstrator approaches BIPV integration from an architectural perspective and showcases a new BIPV panel composition which widens the range of BIPV façade design opportunities. The ultimate objective of the AAF demonstrator is to generate an active façade architectural reference, while providing architects with an assessed low-carbon façade construction system.