Thermal Performance of Buildings and Building Components—Renewed Role, New Expectations, and Old Challenges

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 (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 3724

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Francis College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854, USA
Interests: heat and mass transport in building components; building energy efficiency; whole-building energy simulations; opaque building envelopes and façade systems; fenestration and window attachments; thermal insulation; air and moisture barriers; thermal energy storage; building-integrated PV and solar thermal systems; building energy dynamics; energy demand response; integration with the electric power grid
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since, more than 40% of the end-use energy and as much as 70% to 80% of electric energy consumption are caused by the building sector in different countries worldwide, energy-efficient buildings play an important role not only in local economies, but they also impact the global climate protection. Although buildings are the key driver of electricity demand, they can also be a part of the solution to peak demand issues, through special designs implementing high thermal performance envelopes, optimizing dynamic thermal response, as well as an application of thermal storage, new controls, and renewable power generation.

Static and dynamic thermal processes in buildings and building components, together with associated thermal mass effects and thermal storage, play an equally important role in overall building energy efficiency, utilization of renewable energy sources, and also in energy demand management. Building enclosures, which include both fenestration and the opaque portions of the envelope, effectively control the influence of outdoor conditions on the interior environment, reducing the heating, cooling, and lighting requirements to maintain the desired indoor conditions. The above factors directly impact the corresponding energy use and its dynamics.

It is becoming well-understood now that the current world population must significantly reduce the energy demand for operating buildings and then meet it with renewable energy sources to the greatest extent possible. This is exactly the topic where the newly-planned Special Issue: “Thermal Performance of Buildings and Building Components—Renewed Role, New Expectations, and Old Challenges” intends to make its contribution. With this note, we invite potential contributors to present your research and look forward to receiving exciting papers supporting the realization of this goal.

Dr. Jan Kosny
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Building energy efficiency
  • Performance analysis
  • Building science
  • Building materials
  • Energy storage
  • Building-integrated renewable energy sources

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 8766 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Impact of the Envelope System on Thermal Energy Demand in Hospital Buildings
by Katia Jiménez Mejía, María del Mar Barbero-Barrera and Manuel Rodríguez Pérez
Buildings 2020, 10(12), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10120250 - 19 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2840
Abstract
Construction materials and systems for the thermal building envelope have played a key role in the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings. Urban heat islands together with the upcoming rising global temperature demand construction solutions that are adapted to the specific microclimate conditions. [...] Read more.
Construction materials and systems for the thermal building envelope have played a key role in the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings. Urban heat islands together with the upcoming rising global temperature demand construction solutions that are adapted to the specific microclimate conditions. These circumstances are even more dramatic in the case of healthcare buildings where the need to preserve constant indoor temperatures is a priority for the proper recovery of patients. A new neonatal hospital, located in Madrid (Spain), has been monitored, and building energy simulations were performed to evaluate the effect of the building envelope on the energy demand. Based on the simulation results, the design of the building envelope was found to be insufficiently optimised to properly protect the building from the external heat flow. This is supported by the monitored results of the indoor temperatures, which went over the standard limit for about 50% of the hours, achieving up to 27 °C in June and July, and 28 °C in August. The results showed, on one hand, that solar radiation gains transmitted through the façade have an important impact on the indoor temperature in the analysed rooms. Heat gains through the opaque envelope showed an average of 8.37 kWh/day, followed by heat gains through the glazing with an average value of 5.29 kWh/day; while heat gains from lighting and occupancy were 5.21 kWh/day and 4.47 kWh/day, respectively. Moreover, it was shown that a design of the envelope characterised by large glass surfaces and without solar protection systems, resulted in excessive internal thermal loads that the conditioning system was not able to overcome. Full article
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