Sustainable Thermo-energetic adaptation of evolutionary social housing through a sustainable envelope for arid areas

The objective of the work considers the development of a sustainable envelope for the thermo-energetic adaptation of Evolutionary Social Housing in Arid Zones. Due to the current growth of neighborhood constructions executed by the Sanjuanino Provincial Housing Institute (VSE-IPV) in Argentina, they show that they are designed to increase consumption, and they do not prove to solve the user's energy demand from the project stage. Naturally, nor contribute to energy poverty and environmental sustainability. The methodology used considers theoretical and practical studies at Urban, Housing and Construction Scales. Theoretical studies included analyzes of sectorial bioclimatic urban and architectural design, of the location, growth and climate, proposals for Passive Strategies according to bioclimatic zones. Those who guided the research to technological-constructive studies of the envelope, thermal behavior, and energy efficiency (EE), with proposals for improvements to the base and expanded prototypes considering International and National Level standards (ISO, CTE, IRAM). For the Proposed Optimized Expanded, with the incorporation of complementary external sustainable thermal insulating layers, a high EE is obtained, class B, weighted average transmittance K' m=0.41W/m2°K, with a weighted mean thermal variation τm=1.44°C. It is concluded that when the thermal insulation improvement integrates the entire envelope.

The objective of the work considers the development of a sustainable envelope for the thermo-energetic adaptation of Evolutionary Social Housing in Arid Zones. The methodology used considers theoretical and practical studies at Urban, Housing and Construction Scales. Those who guided the research to technological-constructive studies of the envelope, thermal behaviour, and energy efficiency (EE), with proposals for improvements to the base and expanded prototypes considering International and National Level standards (ISO, CTE, IRAM). Through the use as a tool for analysis, software with a background in different computer systems, internationally recognized, and applied to building energy efficiency. For these cases, the qualitative-quantitative results show reaching low EE, with classes H to F. And for the Proposed Optimized Expanded, with the incorporation of complementary external sustainable thermal insulating layers, a high EE is obtained, class B, weighted average transmittance K' m=0.41W/m2°K, with a weighted mean thermal variation τm=1.44°C. It is concluded that when the thermal insulation improvement integrates the entire envelope.

In smart grids, a smart meter communicates fine-grained information about a user's energy demand to the utility provider. A user's energy demand can be used to infer its private activities. Therefore, smart meters post a risk of violating privacy. This risk may be mitigated by using a rechargeable battery to obfuscate the user's demand. We investigate battery charging (and discharging) strategies that minimize the amount of information leaked to the grid, where information leakage is measured using mutual information. We model the energy demand as a Markov process and, after a series of simplifications, show that the problem of determining privacy-optimal charging strategies can be recast as a Markov decision process; the optimal strategy and the minimum leakage rate are given by the solution of a dynamic program. For the special case of i.i.d. demand, we explicitly characterize the optimal strategy and show that the associated minimum information leakage rate is given by a single-letter mutual information expression.

Smart Charging of Electric Vehicles (EV) is a method of optimizing the EV charging schedule. As a result, it can provide more profit for EV charging stations. This profit usually comes from reducing the peak demand charge cost while still satisfying the EV user demand. Most charging stations let EV users input their demand. However, users can intentionally or unintentionally poorly estimate their demand, leading to lower profit for EV charging stations. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end framework of Smart Charging that aims to maximize the profit of charging stations while satisfying EV user demand. Our framework consists of two main modules. First, the demand forecasting module focuses on predicting the EV user's energy demand and session duration using various machine learning techniques, e.g., XGBoost, Random Forest (RF), and TabNet. Second, the EV charging schedule optimization based on model predictive control (MPC) has been employed to optimize the charging schedule. The optimization module has been further improved by using the feedback from causal information and behavior of EV charging profiles called Constant Current Constant Voltage (CC-CV). The experiment was conducted on simulation with real EV charging data. The results show that our framework outperforms the baseline with higher profits of $616.28 a month, a 27.18% improvement. In addition, our forecasting module can avoid user biases from user inputs and predicts more accurately-the winning model is XGBoost with a symmetric mean absolute percentage error (SMAPE) of 10.72% and 11.85% for session duration and energy demand, respectively.

Clarifying the user's energy demand is the first step to develop integrated energy services. This paper collects multi-dimensional energy consumption data of users and builds an energy demand model for user. Firstly, users' energy consumption data is collected by the monitoring devices, authors identify and correct the abnormal data, and fill in the missing data. Secondly, authors unify the dimensions of different energy consumption data, construct consumption curves of different energies. The demands of different energies for user can be calculated by the areas enclosed by the energy consumption curve. Thirdly, based on different energy demands, the radar map can be obtained. The demand of integrated energy can be calculated by the areas of radar map. Finally, taking 6 users in central China as an example to verify the rationality of the method proposed in this paper.

As more and more new energy sources are integrated into integrated energy systems (IES), it is important to consider energy storage technologies in integrated energy planning systems so as to reduce energy costs. In this paper, combined heating and power (CHP), gas boiler (GB) and thermal storage (TS) are contained in this IES. According to the user's energy demand, an optimization model was established along with the minimum cost of the system as the objective function through the coordination and cooperation of various energy conversion equipment and energy storage equipment in the energy hub. This paper fully considers the constraint conditions and power balance conditions of various energy conversion equipment and energy storage equipment, and uses improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to finally obtain the optimal economy. Finally, an example of a comprehensive energy system is used to verify the accuracy of the algorithm.

This report presents a method for evaluating relative environmental impacts of coal transportation modes (e.g., unit trains, trucks). Impacts of each mode are evaluated (rated) for a number of categories of environmental effects (e.g., air pollution, water pollution). The overall environmental impact of each mode is determined for the coal origin (mine-mouth area), the coal or coal-energy product destination (demand point), and the line-haul route. These origin, destination, and en route impact rankings are then combined into a systemwide ranking. Thus the method accounts for the many combinations of transport modes, routes, and energy products that can satisfy a user's energy demand from a particular coal source. Impact ratings and system rankings are not highly detailed (narrowly defined). Instead, environmental impacts are given low, medium, and high ratings that are developed using environmental effects data compiled in a recent Argonne National Laboratory report entitled Data for Intermodal Comparison of Environmental Impacts of Inland Transportation Alternatives for Coal Energy (ANL/EES-TM-206). The ratings and rankings developed for this report are generic. Using the method presented, policy makers can apply these generic data and the analytical framework given to particular cases by adding their own site specific data and making some informed judgements. Separate tables of generic ratings and rankings are developed for transportation systems serving coal power plants, coal liquefaction plants, and coal gasification plants. The final chapter presents an hypothetical example of a site-specific application and adjustment of generic evaluations. 44 references, 2 figures, 14 tables.

Full-duplex (FD) transmission is a promising technique for fifth generation (5G) wireless communications, enabling significant spectral efficiency (SE) improvement over existing half-duplex (HD) systems. However, FD transmission consumes higher power than HD transmission, especially for millimetre wave band. Therefore, energy efficiency (EE) for FD systems is a critical yet inadequately addressed issue. This thesis addresses the critical EE challenges and demonstrates promising solutions for implementing FD systems, as detailed in the following contributions. In the first contribution, a comprehensive EE analysis of the FD and HD amplify-and-forward (AF) relay-assisted 60 GHz dual-hop indoor wireless systems is presented. An opportunistic relay mode selection scheme is developed, where FD relay with different self-interference (SIC) techniques or HD relay is opportunistically selected. Together with transmission power adaptation, EE is maximised with given channel gains. A counter-intuitive finding is shown that, with a relatively loose maximum transmission power constraint, FD relay with two-stage SIC is preferable to both FD relay with one-stage SIC and HD relay, resulting in a higher optimised EE. A full range of power consumption sources are considered to rationalise the analysis. The effects of imperfect SIC at relay, drain efficiency and static circuit power on EE are investigated. Simulation results verify the theoretical analysis. In the second contribution, EE oriented resource allocation for FD decode-of-forward (DF) relay-assisted 60 GHz multiuser systems is investigated. In contrast to the existing SE oriented designs, the proposed scheme maximises EE for FD relay systems under cross-layer constraints, addressing the typical problems at 60 GHz. A low-complexity EE-orientated resource allocation algorithm is proposed, by which the transmission power allocation, subcarrier allocation and throughput assignment are performed jointly across multiple users. Simulation results verify the analytical results and confirm that the FD relay systems with the proposed algorithm achieve a higher EE than the FD relay systems with SE oriented approaches, while offering a comparable SE. In addition, a much lower throughput outage probability is guaranteed by the proposed resource allocation algorithm, showing its robustness against channel estimation errors. In the third contribution, it is noticed that in wireless power transfer (WPT)-aided relay systems, the SE of the source-relay link plays a dominant role in the system SE due to limited transmission power at the WPT-aided relay. A novel asymmetric protocol for WPT-aided FD DF relay systems is proposed in multiuser scenario, where the time slot durations of the two hops are designed to be uneven, to enhance the degree of freedom and hence the system SE. A corresponding dynamic resource allocation algorithm is developed by jointly optimising the time slot durations, subcarriers and transmission power at the source and the relay. Simulation results con rm that, compared to the symmetric WPT-aided FD relay (Sym-WPT-FR) and the time-switching based WPT-aided FD relay (TS-WPT-FR) systems in the literature, the proposed asymmetric WPT-aided FD relay system achieves up to twice the SE and higher robustness against the relay's location and the number of users. In the final contribution, to strike the balance between high SE and low power consumption, a hybrid duplexing strategy is developed for distributed antennas (DAs) systems, where antennas are capable of working in hybrid FD, HD, and sleeping modes. To maximise the system EE with low complexity, activation/deactivation of transmit/receive chain is first performed, by a proposed channel-gain-based DA clustering algorithm, which highlights the characteristics of distributed deployment of antennas. Based on the DAs' con figuration, a novel distributed hybrid duplexing (D-HD)-based and EE oriented algorithm is proposed to further optimise the downlink beamformer and the uplink transmission power. To rationalise the system model, self-interference at DAs, co-channel interference from uplink users to downlink users, and multiuser interference in both uplink and downlink are taken into account. Simulation results confirm that the proposed system provides significant EE and SE enhancements over the colocated FD MIMO system, showing the advantages in alleviating high path loss as well as in cutting the carbon footprint. Compared to the sole-FD DA system, the proposed system shows much higher EE with marginal loss in SE. Also, the SIC operation in the proposed system is much more simplified compared to the two benchmarks.

Given today's political targets, energy production from agricultural areas is likely to increase and therefore needs to be more sustainable. The aim of this study was thus to carry out a long‐term field trial based on the poplar short‐rotation coppice (SRC), in order to compare dry matter, energy‐use efficiency and the net energy yield obtainable from this crop in relation to different harvest frequencies (1‐, 2‐ and 3‐year cutting cycles). The results showed that poplar SRC performed very well under temperate climates as it can survive up to 12 years, providing a considerable annual biomass yield (9.9, 13.8, 16.4 t ha−1 yr−1 for annual T1, biannual T2 and triennial T3 cutting cycles, respectively). The system tested in southern Europe showed a positive energy balance characterized by a high energy efficiency. We found that the choice of harvest interval had huge consequences in terms of energy yields. In fact, the energy efficiency improved from T1 to T2 and T3, while the net energy yield increased from 172 to 299 GJ ha−1 yr−1. This study suggests that, with 3‐year harvest cycles, poplar SRC can contribute to agronomic and environmental sustainability not only in terms of its high yield and energy efficiency but also in terms of its positive influence on limiting soil tillage and on the environment, given its low pesticide and nutrient requirements.

Performance analysis and multi-objective optimization of the offshore renewable energy powered integrated energy supply system

This editorial introduces a special issue of the International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation (IJBPA). The special issue focuses on housing adaptations for healthy ageing by looking at the conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches. Housing adaptation is an intervention to modify permanent physical home features to reduce environmental barriers and restore independent living. Adaptations promote independence, make it easier and safer for disabled and older people to live in their homes, and bridge inequalities, leading to a fairer society. It also restores confidence, dignity, self-respect, and their rights to accessible and adaptable housing. As the aged population is currently at its highest level in human history, healthy ageing and independent living are crucial for the elderly and people with disabilities. Ageing in place, a global concern, presents diverse challenges across different countries, each met with unique solutions.Against this backdrop, in 2022, we proposed launching a special issue on housing adaptations for healthy ageing: conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches. The aim is to explore the global community’s best practices/experiences in housing adaptations for healthy ageing across the globe. We encouraged the contributors to share the best practices worldwide, promoting independent living, the use of technology, the influence of stakeholders, promoting housing adaptation through building design and technologies, and promoting conceptual, theoretical and practical advances.The published papers within this special issue span various countries and delve into diverse topics such as design applications, energy renovation, innovative technology, and practical solutions for both the public and private sectors. Ten high-quality research papers were submitted during the call for papers, with a rigorous peer review process resulting in the acceptance of six outstanding contributions. These accepted papers cover a range of themes, including the application of technology, streamlined housing adaptation processes, the significance of energy renovation, evolving architectural designs, drivers and barriers of home modifications supporting healthy ageing, private residential design in Sub-Saharan Africa, smart home suitability indicators and the development of housing adaptations register with user matching functionalities.We sincerely thank the editors, Dr Mark Shelbourn and Professor David Proverbs, for providing the opportunity to examine this very important area of research. We are also grateful to the authors who made scholarly contributions and the reviewers who contributed immensely to maintaining journal quality standards. The special issue allows us to engage in extensive discussions on housing adaptation from a conceptual, theoretical and practical point of view. It serves as a platform to discuss the best practices and the use of innovations in assistive technology in delivering housing adaptations for elderly and disabled people. We anticipate that the special issue will raise awareness of modern advances in the theory, concepts, policy, governance and best practices in housing adaptation. The special issue will also serve as an intersection and means of knowledge sharing and inspire connections among scholars and practitioners who generate and support global housing adaptations. We hope this special issue will offer readers new perspectives, ideas, and novel approaches to address the challenges and opportunities arising from housing adaptation. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the Emerald Publishing team for their support and effective logistical assistance in making this special issue a success.

Purpose Energy consumption, coupled with the adaptation of smart student housing continues to rise. However, little is known about compliance with heating and cooling systems in smart student housing in sub-Saharan African countries. This study assessed the heating and cooling systems and their perceived usefulness in student housing in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach Mixed research approaches were used to determine the compliance and perceived usefulness of heating and cooling systems of student housing based on Ghana Building Standards, 2018, ASHRAE 55, ISO, standards. Survey and semi-structured interviews were used and analyzed through descriptive mean scores and thematic representations. Findings The study found high compliance with mechanical cooling services as compared to smart hot and cold-water systems. Lack of readiness to adopt smart heating and cooling systems was attributed to cost, user demand and fear of energy consumption, and maintenance. The perceived usefulness of heating, cooling and mechanical systems was largely operational and socio-physically dependent. Practical implications Technically, the violation of a complete package of hot and cold cooling and heating systems readiness has implications on student housing energy operation cost, user comfort and convenience and feedback to the student housing market. Originality/value The study contributes to studies on smart readiness in buildings and its implication on energy efficiency from the student housing perspective. Further, the addition of perceived usefulness in the study deviates from large studies that focus on technical smart readiness.

Combining retrofitting techniques, renewable energy resources and regulations for residential buildings to achieve energy efficiency in gated communities

The increased global energy demand and pollution of environment due to the consumption of fossil fuels require utilization of energy generated from renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal and solar power. As the contribution of these energy resources grows the energy storage systems with high energy densities, efficiencies and long cycle life become increasingly important. Energy storage systems are needed at times of high energy demand by storing energy when in excess. In this regard supercapacitors (SCs) are considered as the most promising energy storage devices due to their high power density, short characteristic time constant, excellent coulombic reversibility (98% or higher), high energy efficiency (92 – 94%), long cycle life (over 106 cycles) and wide operation temperature range [1-3]. Porous carbon materials are the most promising electrode materials for portable SCs due to the high surface area, good electrical conductivity, good chemical stability, low gravimetric density and low cost [4,5]. The electrical energy accumulated in SCs depends on the electrochemically active surface area and, thus, on the porosity and hierarchical porous structure of a carbon material. In addition, the presence of mesopores in porous carbon materials determines the power density of SCs having a strong effect on the rate of mass transfer and adsorption rate of charge carriers inside the hierarchical porous matrix. Therefore, the characteristics of micro- and mesoporous carbon materials (especially the ratio of micropore and mesopore surface areas and pore volumes) have to be optimized to improve further the specific energy and power density of EDLCs [4,5]. The objective of this study was to investigate the applicability limits of carbon material derived from granulated white sugar (GWS carbon) by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) method combined with subsequent zinc chloride activation step of hydrochar, for SC electrodes. Synthesized GWS carbon material was used as an electrode material in SC cell filled with 1 M triethylmethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TEMABF4) solution in acetonitrile (AN) or 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquid (EMImBF4) as the electrolytes. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), constant current charge/discharge (CC), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and constant power discharge (CP) methods were used to study the electrochemical performance of EDLC. The EIS, CV and CC measurement results show that the values of specific capacitance are somewhat higher for EMImBF4 (135 F g-1) electrolyte compared to the TEMABF4 in AN (110 F g-1). The CP test results show that at low constant power values the stored energy is higher for EDLC based on EMImBF4 ionic liquid (48 W h kg-1) compared with EDLC based on TEMABF4 in AN electrolyte (39 W h kg-1). However, the best capacitance retention, shortest relaxation time constant and substantially higher energy density delivered at higher constant power values were established for SC cell in 1 M TEMABF4 solution in AN due to the lower viscosity and higher electrical conductivity compared to the ionic liquid based electrolyte [5]. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the EU through the European Regional Development Fund (Centers of Excellence, 2014-2020.4.01.15-0011 and 3.2.0101–0030, TeRa project SLOKT12026T. Higher education specialization stipends in smart specialization growth areas 2014-2020.4.02.16-0026) and Institutional Research Grant IUT20–13. This work was partially supported by Estonian Research Council grants PUT1033 and PUT55.

In recent years, energy consumption of the civilian sector has been increased. And after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Japanese government has intensified the effort to safeguards against disasters by creating smart community which is a high energy efficiency and a considering the BCP (Business Continuity Plan). To plan the energy efficient smart communities, it is necessary to predict the energy demand accurately in the community. There are many researches which investigate the energy consumption, but there isn't any reserch for energy demand of educational facilities. The purpose of this study is to clarify the energy demand rate for each usage in educational facilities which are necessary to plan smart community by electricity and gas consumption measurement. The subject for facilities of this study is six schools which include four municipal elementary schools and two municipal junior high schools in Setagaya ward, Tokyo (Table 1). In this report, we examined the energy consumption and energy demand rate for each usage from the monthly energy consumption data in the past three years, the annual consumption data of energy and the information from the questionnaire survey. In order to organize the entire energy demand in each school, we collected the monthly energy usage of power and gas from the detailed billing. Gas meters are equipped separately for kitchen, air-conditioning and hot water supply. And in order to analyze the energy demand pattern, we conducted the annual measurement of power per minute and recording of gas meters per hour for two days in every month on weekday. The result of organizing the energy consumption data indicates the tendency of larger energy consumption at the schools has large number of students and the newly-built schools (Figure 2). And five schools of six is evaluated as the average energy consumption of the school of DECC energy database (Figure 3). The result of organizing the energy demand rate of the lighting and outlet, cooling and heating in the educational facility is confirmed less than “offices”, “hospitals”, “hotels” and “store” of bibliography 1 (Figure 7-14). The energy demand rate except for the hot water supply is equivalent amount of demand rate of the "Housing". The amount of energy used for hot water supply is very low as described in the preceding bibliography 5. The energy demand rate for lighting and outlet tends to increase in proportion to the completion year. And the energy demand rate for heating and cooling tends to increase in proportion to the total floor area. And the energy demand rate for hot water supply of the school tends to increase in proportion to the number of students (Figure15 to 18). These results show the energy demand rate for each usage of yearly, monthly and hourly that can be used for demand forecast to plan smart community. It is possible to simulate the existing or new elementary and junior high schools energy demand by these data (Table 4, 6 and 7). On a final note, this study is intended for municipal elementary and junior high schools in limited areas, so further research is regarded to confirm the accuracy of the results.