Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution

Andra Blumberga,Liva Asere

doi:10.2478/rtuect-2020-0020

Andra Blumberga, Liva Asere

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0020

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Abstract

Abstract The energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma is well known and the main drawback to operate the mechanical ventilation is electricity costs as concluded from previous studies. Educational buildings are one of the places where future taxpayers spend a lot of time. This paper aims to study an alternative solution on how to reduce energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma in educational buildings by adopting systems that use renewable energy sources. A typical education building in Latvia is taken as a case study by changing it from a consumer to prosumer. This building type has a specific electricity usage profile that makes the choice of photovoltaics (PV) power quite challenging so the various power options have been analysed and used for an electricity solution. Also, the more decentralised preference is chosen – disconnect from a public heating provider and using a local system with a pellet boiler. Educational buildings using PV can reduce the electricity tariff, but the payback periods are still not very satisfactory without subsidies. The average electricity tariff per month varies between scenarios and the best one is for the scenario with 30 kW installed power. The educational building partly using 16 kW PV system reduces not only its bill for electricity but also reduces CO2 emissions by around 36 tons. The education buildings as energy prosumers using renewable energy sources are reducing GHG emissions by having high indoor air quality.

Highlights

The largest energy consumers in Europe are buildings that account for approximately 40 % of EU energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions in the European Union [1], [2]
This paper aims to study alternative solutions on how to reduce energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma in educational buildings
The average electricity tariff per month varies between scenarios (Fig. 2) and the best one is for the scenario with 30 kW installed power, almost half of the energy flows into the grid

Summary

Introduction

The largest energy consumers in Europe are buildings that account for approximately 40 % of EU energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions in the European Union [1], [2]. The aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions is already fulfilled but the goal in regard to share of renewable energy and improvement in energy efficiency are not yet fulfilled. EU has set the target for EU countries to make energy efficient renovations annually in at least 3 % of buildings owned and occupied by central governments. As a sustainable approach to improving the energy performance of existing buildings, retrofits have become popular for the past decades. It is vital to improve energy performance of buildings, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by building refurbishment and substituting electricity production from fossil fuels with renewable sources. Orientation, size and height are spatial geometric building features that define

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