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Building Energy and Sustainability
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Building Energy and Sustainability

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 13882

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Manuel V. Castilla

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Higher Polytechnic School, University of Seville, 41011 Sevilla, Spain
Interests: construction engineering; innovative technology; sustainable architecture; architectural design; renewable energy; engineering design; smart city; green construction; industrial heritage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development is a reality that is transforming the building and industrial sector. Consideration of sustainable energy use to maximise the rate of energy efficiency is urgently needed to achieve a reduction in energy consumption and emissions in construction and architecture. In this context, this Special Issue aims to facilitate progress in the knowledge of smart energies and the sustainable development of resources imposing a new way of projecting new buildings and industrial facilities. This objective can be achieved through a set of activities that address:

  • The impact of energy performance in buildings considering the implications of the efficient use of energy at an economic, environmental, and social level.
  • Life cycle analysis in the construction and architecture sector considering environmental sustainability.
  • The study of the influence of new digital technologies to obtain an efficient use of energy through simulation, modelling and visualisation to optimise the design of buildings.

Prof. Dr. Manuel V. Castilla
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5795 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Performance Strategies for the Preservation of Heritage Buildings: The Case of Puerto de Santa María
by Manuel V. Castilla
Buildings 2023, 13(5), 1196; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13051196 - 30 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1529
Abstract
Adverse impacts of industrial constructions have been central to debates on sustainable development and this issue is partly due to that the building sector is highly demanding in relation to energy efficiency. The future of an industrial building, given to its link with [...] Read more.
Adverse impacts of industrial constructions have been central to debates on sustainable development and this issue is partly due to that the building sector is highly demanding in relation to energy efficiency. The future of an industrial building, given to its link with the production process, is also connected to the activity itself. In this sense, the conservation of the original industrial activity of a wine cellar construction requires very specific values of several microclimate parameters. The accurate modelling of these values is a key tool for analysing the performance of this building typology. The main goal of this paper is to present an integrated methodology to assess and optimize the efficiency and indoor microclimate for evaluating the potential of heritage buildings and acknowledge their features for future opportunities. The integrated model proposed is based on different assessments, which are the essential benchmarks of these buildings. This approach could be also proposed to any other heritage category to evaluate, according to several parameters and aspects, the preservation of its original activity. Due to the importance of natural light in this type of construction, the article presents an application able to simulate and analyse this fundamental aspect of an old winery with the use of advanced simulation tools. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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16 pages, 5455 KiB  
Article
An Experimental Study of the Applicability of the Outdoor Air Enthalpy Difference Method for Air Source Heat Pumps in Operation through In Situ Measurements
by Jinwoong Son, Junho Hong and Taeyun Aum
Buildings 2023, 13(2), 448; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020448 - 06 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1214
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of the outdoor air enthalpy difference method for air source heat pumps (ASHP) in operation through quantitative analysis using field tests. In this context, field measurements were performed on a single ASHP, and the results were [...] Read more.
This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of the outdoor air enthalpy difference method for air source heat pumps (ASHP) in operation through quantitative analysis using field tests. In this context, field measurements were performed on a single ASHP, and the results were compared with other in situ measurement methods. The main results are as follows. The analysis of the distribution of the discharge temperature of the outdoor unit suggested that the temperature between the hub and tip on the outlet of the outdoor unit can represent the discharge temperature, enabling further simplification of measurement procedures. The mean error of the average cooling capacity using the outdoor air enthalpy difference method was 8% compared to that of the in situ refrigerant enthalpy difference method. In summary, the in situ outdoor unit air enthalpy difference method may require additional measurements to increase reliability, but considering the advantage of relatively easy measurement, it is considered suitable for short-term in situ diagnosis of ASHP performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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16 pages, 2516 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of Resource and Climate Footprints for Different Heating Systems in Building Information Modeling
by Husam Sameer, Guillaume Behem, Clemens Mostert and Stefan Bringezu
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 1824; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111824 - 31 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1614
Abstract
Buildings play an important role to meet Sustainable Development Goals, especially regarding the use of resources and greenhouse gas emissions. They are increasingly designed with energy-efficient solutions regarding their operations, while the related use of natural resources is still insufficiently considered. In this [...] Read more.
Buildings play an important role to meet Sustainable Development Goals, especially regarding the use of resources and greenhouse gas emissions. They are increasingly designed with energy-efficient solutions regarding their operations, while the related use of natural resources is still insufficiently considered. In this article, a methodology in Building Information Modeling is proposed to measure the resource and climate footprints of buildings’ heating systems. The methodology is applied to a case study building in Germany. The studied heating systems include a gas condensing boiler, ground-source heat pump, ground-source heat pump with a photo-voltaic system and air-source heat pump backed up with a gas boiler. Next to the operational energy, the production and transport of the heating systems were also studied. Results show that heating system operations have the largest impact and that the variant of ground-source heat pump combined with photovoltaics (GSHP + PV) has the lowest impact. In comparison with the gas boiler (GB), savings of 75%, 47%, 80%, and 84% are addressed to climate, material, energy, and land footprints, respectively, while the water footprint of GSHP + PV is 73% higher than that of GB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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30 pages, 7469 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Characteristic and Decoupling Relationship of Energy Consumption on China’s Construction Industry
by Chao Chen, Xiaoteng Cao, Shuaibing Zhang, Zhendong Lei and Kaixu Zhao
Buildings 2022, 12(10), 1745; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12101745 - 19 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1682
Abstract
(1) Background: The decoupling of energy consumption from economic growth in the construction industry is crucial to the sustainable development of the global construction industry. The existing studies focus on the advancements in energy efficiency by designers for building monoliths or construction techniques, [...] Read more.
(1) Background: The decoupling of energy consumption from economic growth in the construction industry is crucial to the sustainable development of the global construction industry. The existing studies focus on the advancements in energy efficiency by designers for building monoliths or construction techniques, involving no exploration of energy efficiency management from a regional perspective, which is unfavorable for the formulation of energy efficiency policies and systematic control of the construction industry by local governments. (2) Methods: From the perspective of regional management, this paper constructs an integrated analysis and application framework of “spatio-temporal characteristics + matching evaluation + policy design” based on the decoupling model and GIS tools. It studies the spatio-temporal characteristics of energy consumption in the construction industry in 30 provinces of China from 2010 to 2019, and its decoupling relationship with the economic development of the construction industry, and proposes an optimal zoning and recommendations for energy consumption in the construction industry, providing a reference for energy conservation management in the construction industry in China. (3) Results: First, the change of energy consumption amount (ECA) in the construction industry in the provinces was dominated by ascent, while the energy consumption intensity (ECI) predominantly decreased, and most provinces are still in a period of growth or plateau in energy consumption. Second, ECA and ECI had prominent spatial heterogeneity and aggregation. High-energy-consuming regions are concentrated along the coast and along the Yangtze River, while low-energy-consuming regions are mainly clustered in remote areas, such as the northeast, northwest, and southwest of China. Energy consumption shows a clear north-south difference in intensity, with high-intensity regions clustered in the north compared to low-intensity regions in the south. Third, most of the provinces were in strong negative decoupling, expansive coupling, and weak decoupling, and better decoupling regions were mainly gathered in south and central China. Nearly one half of these provinces showed decoupling degradation and only a few achieved evolution, with evolutionary regions clustered mainly in central and southern China. The northeast and northwest were the key problem areas of energy-saving transformation in China’s construction industry. (4) Conclusion: The 30 provinces were divided into three types: leader, intermediate, and laggard, and the development goals and suggestions on low energy consumption in the construction industry for three zones were put forward, significantly improving the precision of policy design and implementation. The study in this paper expands the research perspective on energy saving management in the construction industry and provides a methodology and basis for developing energy efficiency policies and plans for the construction industry in China and similar developing countries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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15 pages, 7180 KiB  
Article
The Hourly Energy Consumption Prediction by KNN for Buildings in Community Buildings
by Goopyo Hong, Gyeong-Seok Choi, Ji-Young Eum, Han Sol Lee and Daeung Danny Kim
Buildings 2022, 12(10), 1636; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12101636 - 09 Oct 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1825
Abstract
With the development of metering technologies, data mining techniques such as machine learning have been increasingly used for the prediction of building energy consumption. Among various machine learning methods, the KNN algorithm was implemented to predict the hourly energy consumption of community buildings [...] Read more.
With the development of metering technologies, data mining techniques such as machine learning have been increasingly used for the prediction of building energy consumption. Among various machine learning methods, the KNN algorithm was implemented to predict the hourly energy consumption of community buildings composed of several different types of buildings. Based on the input data set, 10 similar hourly energy patterns for each season in the historic data sets were chosen, and these 10 energy consumption patterns were averaged. The prediction results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The prediction results for the summer and fall were close to the energy consumption data, while the results for the spring and winter were higher than the energy consumption data. For accuracy, a similar trend was observed. The values of CVRMSE for the summer and fall were within the acceptable range of ASHRAE guidelines 14, while higher values of CVRMSE for the spring and winter were observed. In sum, the total values of CVRMSE were within the acceptable range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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18 pages, 7206 KiB  
Article
Exploration for Spatial Sustainability of Microalgae Façades Based on Mock-Up Cultivation Settings
by Seung-Ju Choe and Seung-Hoon Han
Buildings 2022, 12(3), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030304 - 04 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2454
Abstract
Microalgae are third-generation biomasses that can be used to extract bio-fuel with various advantages from an ecological perspective. In addition, since it is cultivated in an underwater space, it can be used as a microalgae culture space by using building facades. Architectural applications [...] Read more.
Microalgae are third-generation biomasses that can be used to extract bio-fuel with various advantages from an ecological perspective. In addition, since it is cultivated in an underwater space, it can be used as a microalgae culture space by using building facades. Architectural applications of microalgae are being carried out from various points of view in other countries such as America, Israel, and Germany. As a result, successful cases (such as Germany’s BIQ House) are emerging. However, research studies related to microalgae facade are mainly conducted in terms of culture environment and efficiency. The degree of inflow concerning external resources for a microalgae facade remains unclear. The question concerning how the environment of an indoor space where microalgae facade is installed could be changed is unclear too. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the impact of the space in which the microalgae facade was installed from the perspective of the lighting environment. This study also examined effects of creating a lighting environment compared to existing windows, applicable space, and supplementary points through mock-up tests on microalgae facade. As a result, it was found that the standard microalgae facade suggested by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) could inflow 22.7–41.3% of illumination compared to general windows. If the analysis result is compared with Korean Standard A 3011 (Normal), the microalgae facade can only be applied to spaces that do not have natural light such as ‘warehouses’ and ‘stairs’. Accordingly, it is concluded that if the microalgae facade is to be used creatively, the thickness should be thinner than the standard of patent to set the standard of comfort and consider the user’s comfort in the design stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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17 pages, 4545 KiB  
Article
Indoor Daylight Performances of Optimized Transmittances with Electrochromic-Applied Kinetic Louvers
by Jae-Hyang Kim and Seung-Hoon Han
Buildings 2022, 12(3), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030263 - 24 Feb 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2328
Abstract
Windows with low visible light transmittance (VLT) and g-values are preferred to reduce the building’s energy consumption. However, low VLT and g-value can create an unpleasant indoor daylight environment. A glass with freely adjustable VLT and g-value as required has been developed and [...] Read more.
Windows with low visible light transmittance (VLT) and g-values are preferred to reduce the building’s energy consumption. However, low VLT and g-value can create an unpleasant indoor daylight environment. A glass with freely adjustable VLT and g-value as required has been developed and is called smart glass. In this study, the recently developed VLT adjustable smart glass is targeted. Some studies were conducted on the VLT adjustment status of smart windows to create an appropriate indoor lighting environment. Although research on smart glass has been conducted through ecofriendly building certification systems such as LEED in the US, BREEAM in the UK, CASBEE in Japan, and GSEED in South Korea, it was pointed out that there is a limit to creating a uniformity. Therefore, the previous study analyzed the VLT conditions to create a minimal indoor daylight environment. The purpose of this study is to propose and analyze a louver-type electrochromic façade that can create a uniform indoor illuminance. A simulation method was used, and a range of changes in indoor illuminance that could be controlled through an electrochromic louver was derived. The simulation was performed using the Rhino 6′s Grasshopper program based on the Radiance engine. Electrochromic is a class of smart glass with high VLT variable range and durability. The conditions for deriving the optimal daylight environment according to the composition, VLT, and angle of the electrochromic louver were analyzed. The evaluation was made against the criteria of LEED v4.1. Data on the composition, VLT, and angle adjustment of the electrochromic louver that can obtain a high LEED v4.1 daylight score were derived, and organized in tables. Considering the composition and angle, it was found that the daylight environment of the electrochromic louver adjusted with a VLT of 25% to 45% was excellent in composition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy and Sustainability)
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