Model Predictive Control in buildings with thermal and visual comfort constraints

Model Predictive Control can cope with conflicting control objectives in building energy managements. In terms of user satisfaction, visual comfort has been proven in several studies to be a crucial factor, however thermal comfort is typically considered the only important aspect. Besides human well-being, visual comfort strongly impacts the...

A data-driven agent-based model of occupants’ thermal comfort behaviors for the planning of district-scale flexible work arrangements

In a global context of increasing flexibility in the way workplaces and the districts in which they are located are used, there is a need for occupant-driven approaches to plan urban energy systems. Several authors have suggested the use of agent-based models (ABM) of building occupants in urban building energy simulations due to their...

Ventilation and thermal conditions in secondary schools in the Netherlands: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention measures

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of ventilation was widely stressed and new protocols of ventilation were implemented in school buildings worldwide. In the Netherlands, schools were recommended to keep the windows and doors open, and after a national lockdown more stringent measures such as reduction of occupancy were introduced. In...

Proposal for the assessment of thermal indoor climate based on the thermal acceptability, in addition to the thermal (dis)satisfied.

For the sake of energy and cost savings, it is sometimes necessary to maintain the indoor climate in a room at conditions that deviate from optimal thermal comfort. More important than thermal sensation is how a change in conditions will affect the thermal acceptability of a space and whether the percentage of people who are (dis)satisfied with...

Performance evaluation of ventilative cooling systems for buildings under different control parameters and strategies

Ventilative cooling is an energy-saving technology to diminish thermal discomfort and overheating risk of buildings, meanwhile achieving high indoor air quality (IAQ). However, there is still no optimal control strategy in practice, which considerably limits its application. This study developed a typical office building model to evaluate the...

Tweedehuid facade en thermische activatie bouwkundige constructie

In de utiliteitsbouw hebben duurzaam en energiezuinig bouwen een sterke invloed op het ontwerp van de gevel en de klimaatinstallatie. In bepaalde situaties kan het raadzaam zijn om een zogeheten tweedehuid façade toe te passen. Hierbij wordt de gevel niet – zoals bij de klimaatgevel – met binnenlucht, maar met buitenlucht geventileerd. Om na te...

Thermal comfort perception and indoor climate: Results from the OPSCHALER project

The average energy consumption for heating of dwellings in the Netherlands has been decreasing over the last decades as a result of increasing thermal performance of new and renovated dwellings. However, this decrease is found to be lower than energy performance models predicted. One of the possible reasons is the behaviour of the residents,...

Robustness Assessment Method for Future Climate Uncertainties

Energy-efficient buildings tend to cause thermal discomfort due to overheating during summers. With the advent of climate change and increasing outdoor temperatures, the risk of overheating will be exacerbated. Henceforth, the building design must be future proof or robust for climate change. Passive design strategies applied to the building...

A systematic literature review on smart and personalized ventilation using CO₂ concentration monitoring and control

Smart and personalized ventilation systems have been demonstrated with high performance in creating a healthy and energy-efficient indoor environment, but they have been rarely comprehensively summarized and explored in previous studies. With the progressive development of various terminal devices and control technologies, personalized...

CFD modeling of the building integrated with a novel design of a one-sided wind-catcher with water spray: Focus on thermal comfort

The rising energy demand for buildings has enhanced public awareness of sustainable energy sources and technologies. In particular, natural ventilation systems such as wind-catchers have attracted considerable new attention. A new wind-catcher design with single-stage direct-air evaporative cooling was proposed for indoor air conditioning. An...

Advancement on Thermal Comfort in Educational Buildings: Current Issues and Way Forward

The thermal environment in educational buildings is crucial to improve students’ health and productivity, as they spend a considerable amount of time in classrooms. Due to the complexity of educational buildings, research performed has been heterogeneous and standards for thermal comfort are based on office studies with adults. Moreover, they...

Test rooms to study human comfort in buildings: A review of controlled experiments and facilities

Occupants’ comfort perception affects building energy consumptions. To improve the understanding of human comfort, which is crucial to reduce energy demand, laboratory experiments with humans in controlled environments (test rooms) are fundamental, but their potential also depends on the characteristic of each research facility. Nowadays, there...

The impact of using Closed Cavity Façades (CCF) on buildings' thermal and visual performance

Glazing is a critical buildings element as it is the most vulnerable envelope part to heat gain and heat loss accounting for around 50% of a building's energy consumption. However, conventional glazing technologies have relatively low-performance characteristics which cause significant heat losses during winter and undesired heat gain in...

The role of sky view factor and urban street greenery in human thermal comfort and heat stress in a desert climate

The aim of this study was to understand the effect of urban street greenery type and arrangements on thermal comfort and heat stress in summer. Field measurements and computer simulations were carried out on East-West (E-W) and North-South (N-S) oriented streets in Isfahan, Iran. Through the field measurements in July 2014, 17 different streets...

Sustainable High-rises: Design Strategies for Energy-efficient and Comfortable Tall Office Buildings in Various Climates

With the aim to limit the number of ineffective designs, this dissertation has investigated the impact of architectural design strategies on improving the energy performance of and thermal comfort in high-rise office buildings in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical climates. As the starting-point of this research, a comparative study between...

Impact of climate change: Environmental assessment of passive solutions in a single-family home in Southern Spain

According to the IPCC Climate Change projections by 2050 temperatures in southern Spain will have increased noticeably during the summer. Housing-in its current form-will not be able to provide a suitable response to this new climate scenario, and will in turn prompt an increase in cooling energy consumption and a series of problems relating...

In-situ real time measurements of thermal comfort and comparison with the adaptive comfort theory in Dutch residential dwellings

Indoor thermal comfort is generally assessed using the PMV or the adaptive model. This research presents the results obtained by in-situ real time measurements of thermal comfort and thermal comfort perception in 17 residential dwellings in the Netherlands. The study demonstrates the new possibilities offered by relatively cheap, sensor-rich...

Joint energy demand and thermal comfort optimization in photovoltaic-equipped interconnected microgrids

Electrical smart microgrids equipped with small-scale renewable-energy generation systems are emerging progressively as an alternative or an enhancement to the central electrical grid: due to the intermittent nature of the renewable energy sources, appropriate algorithms are required to integrate these two typologies of grids and, in particular,...