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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 4601

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Dr. Domenico Curto

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Department of Engineering, Energy Section, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: applied physics; HVAC; sea wave; renewable energy; energy efficiency; marine energies; energy plan
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Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Franzitta

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Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: HVAC; energy efficiency; energy saving in final users; sea wave; renewable energy
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Prof. Dr. Francesca Romana D'Ambrosio

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Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Palermo, Italy
Interests: HVAC, Indoor comfort, Energy saving in final users, NZEB
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We want to invite you to submit your latest research to this Special Issue on “Energy-Saving Approaches in Non-Residential Buildings”.

As is well known, the building sector is one of the most energy-consuming sectors in developed countries. It accounts for 40% of the total energy consumption of the EU member states, and 36% of their CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, about 35% of buildings in the EU are over 50 years old.

To achieve the international targets on the limitation of CO₂ emissions, new solutions and strategies should be implemented. In the literature, residential buildings are usually considered as case studies because of their large spread on the territory and consequently the required energy demand.

In this Issue, attention is focused on non-residential buildings or large buildings, because they are usually characterized by a high and more regular energy demand. Consequently, each retrofit solution can potentially produce high benefits for the environment.

The following topics are suggested:

Proposal of new technologies to reduce the energy demand;
Optimization of load profiles for lighting and HVAC plants;
Case studies on COVID-related changes to the management of ventilation plants;
Economic analyses on retrofit solutions;
Integration of renewable energy sources;
Adoption of new materials.

Dr. Domenico Curto
Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Franzitta
Prof. Dr. Francesca Romana D'Ambrosio
Guest Editors

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

Keywords

Large buildings
non-residential buildings
energy saving
HVAC
retrofit solutions

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2540 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Effect of Spherical Aluminum Particles on the Photothermal Performance of a Solar Air Collector

by Chunbo Li, Yuwei Dong, Xuelong Fu, Yanzong Wang and Qunyong Zhang

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14107; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114107 - 28 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1048

Abstract

Recently, radiation-absorbing phase change material (PCM) for thermal storage that can discharge thermal energy on demand when no radiation is present has been developed and tested indoors. Organic materials with limited thermal conductivity slow down the thermal response processes when charging and discharging. For various industrial applications, much research is devoted to the introduction of solar collectors with the best possible integration of solar thermal collector and PCM in terms of both shape and material. In this study, the performance of a solar collector is examined in relation to the additive effects of aluminum particles in spherical capsules. For the transfer fluid temperature with the behavior of the heat storage, a mathematical model of the solar collector was created. The integrated system consists of two primary steps: a first phase that involves an isolated duct covered in glass, and a second step that involves an array of spherical capsules used as storage. The solar air collector is 1.32 m in width and 2.450 m in length. The PCM unit has a 7.7 cm diameter, 0.15 cm thickness, and is filled with a paraffin wax with concentrations between 0.1 and 0.5 weight of nanoparticle aluminum powder. The air mass flow rate varies from 0.03 kg/s up to 0.09 kg/s, while the temperature varied from 30 to 35 °C. The results obtained from experiments agreed with the predicted results. The reduction in charging time was approximately 70% as the cooling rate increased. The improvement of efficiency of thermal storage reached 76.8% and 71%, at mass flow rates 0.07 kg/s and 0.05 kg/s for pure paraffin wax. The overall thermal storage performance for the system was enhanced from 21.7% to 78.9%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Saving Approaches in Non-Residential Buildings)

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13 pages, 2327 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Retrofit. A Case Study—Santi Romano Dormitory on the Palermo University

by Domenico Curto, Vincenzo Franzitta, Andrea Guercio and Domenico Panno

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13524; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413524 - 07 Dec 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2325

Abstract

Electrical and thermal consumption related to buildings, whether civil, commercial, public, or of any other kind, is very much in focus today. With today’s targets for energy savings, reduction of consumption, and environmental impact, it is necessary to carry out energy retrofits to modernize installations and their management. The realization of an effective improvement requires a careful analysis of the case study because each category of building has different requirements such as different load profiles and different installations and needs. This was carried out by studying the electrical and thermal load profiles. A good initial energy audit can provide the retrofit solutions capable of achieving the reduction of energy consumption and the emission of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere. A case study, carried out by the Department of Engineering of Palermo, showed how it is possible to perform an energy retrofit to modernize the energy system of the student dormitory at the University of Palermo. The paper presented a study carried out by programming a series of interlinked calculations in Microsoft Excel. In order to quantify the energy savings of the structure under examination, it is necessary to enter some input data, thanks to which all the formulas implemented in the calculation software were automatically completed. The programming of the calculations makes it possible to carry out an energy retrofit with interventions on the building envelope and the installations. The desire to program an automated calculation by modifying only the input data is intended to replicate a study on other buildings with the same peculiarities. In this way, it is possible to verify which retrofit hypotheses would be useful to upgrade old public administration buildings. In the analyzed case study, 65% of electrical energy and 33% of thermal energy could be saved by replacing generation systems, installing a co-generator, replacing windows, and replacing lamps with LED ones. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Saving Approaches in Non-Residential Buildings)

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