Review on shallow geothermal promoting energy efficiency of existing buildings in Europe

The energy-saving renovation of existing buildings has been attracted sufficient attention to reduce fossil fuels and mitigate global warming in Europe. The shallow geothermal for building cooling and heating, as an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternative, has been widely explored to promote energy efficiency of existing...

Multi-objective optimization of building-integrated microalgae photobioreactors for energy and daylighting performance

As a state-of-the-art green façade technology, building-integrated microalgae bioreactor has the potential to reduce buildings’ carbon footprint and energy consumption. The present study aims to address the knowledge gap in the energy and daylighting performance of algae photobioreactor façade. The paper first studies the effects of algae...

Techno-economic assessment of energy retrofitting educational buildings: A case study in Saudi Arabia

The buildings and construction sector accounts for the majority of the energy consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). For a sustainable future, energy consumption in the sector should be reduced and existing buildings need to be energy retrofitted. A number of studies present energy retrofitting of residential buildings in KSA;...

Use of insulation based on nanomaterials to improve energy efficiency of residential buildings in a hot desert climate

Building insulation based on nanomaterials is considered one of the most effective means of reducing energy consumption in the hot desert climate. The application of an energy-efficient insulation system can significantly decrease the energy consumed via a building’s air-conditioning system during the summer. Hence, building insulation has...

Parametric performance analysis and energy model calibration workflow integration: A scalable approach for buildings

High efficiency paradigms and rigorous normative standards for new and existing buildings are fundamental components of sustainability and energy transitions strategies today. However, optimistic assumptions and simplifications are often considered in the design phase and, even when detailed simulation tools are used, the validation of...

The relation of energy efficiency upgrades and cost of living, investigated in two cases of multi-residential buildings in the Netherlands

Purpose: Decarbonising the housing stock is one of the largest challenges in the built environment today, which is getting the attention not only from policymakers but also from social housing corporations, financial organisations and users. In line with the international Paris-Climate-Change-Conference 2015, Dutch cities and housing...

Effectiveness of energy renovations: a reassessment based on actual consumption savings

Energy renovations offer unique opportunities to increase the energy efficiency of the built environment and for the existing housing stock; they are the most important solution. Usually, energy savings are based on modeling calculations. However, recent research has shown that the predicted energy consumption differs largely from the actual...

Energy analytics for supporting built environment decarbonisation

The identification of techno-economically feasible decarbonisation paths and sustainability transitions for the built environment is a necessary task for research today and building stock renovation processes can act in synergy with innovative economic and technological development paradigms to achieve different types of benefits such as...

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...

Types of Energy Consumers in Offices

The building sector accounts for more than one-third of the total primary energy use and has significant potential for energy saving [1]. However, various physical and social factors affect the energy performance of dynamic systems, such as the indoor climate condition, the building envelope, maintenance, building equipment, operation, and...

An assessment of energy-saving solutions for the envelope design of high-rise buildings in temperate climates: A case study in the Netherlands

The building envelope is the interface between the interior of the building and the outdoor environment. A building's energy consumption to a large extent depends on certain envelope design elements. As a consequence, for achieving high levels of energy-saving in buildings, design measures with high impact should be firstly defined and then...