Bioclimatic House Research Articles

An Intelligent Regression-Based Approach for Predicting a Geothermal Heat Exchanger’s Behavior in a Bioclimatic House Context

Growing dependence on fossil fuels is one of the critical factors accelerating climate change, a global concern that can destabilize ecosystems and economies worldwide. In this context, renewable energy is emerging as a sustainable and environmentally responsible alternative. Among the options, geothermal energy stands out for its ability to provide heat and electricity consistently and efficiently, offering a feasible solution to reduce the carbon footprint and promote more sustainable development in a globalized economy. In this work, a machine learning approach is proposed to predict the behavior of a horizontal heat exchanger from a bioclimatic house. First, a correlation analysis was conducted for optimal feature selection. Then, several regression techniques were applied to predict the output temperature of the geothermal exchanger. Satisfactory prediction results were obtained in different scenarios over the whole dataset. Also, a significant correlation between several sensors was concluded.

Biodiversity burdens in Spanish conventional and low-impact single-family homes

Biodiversity loss caused by housing is not a well-defined sector of environmental impact. This research quantifies effects on biodiversity of an average Spanish Single-Family House (SFH) with 180 m2 of built surface. The current Spanish SFH stock GWP amounts to 1.16 Gt CO2eq in a 50-year life cycle, 40 % of which is embodied in the building materials and the 60 % are emissions due to the use of the building. This stock also impacts with 10.2 Gt 1,4-DCB the land, water and human health. SFHs also drive 6052 species extinct in a 50 year life cycle, and account for 3.03 M years of life lost due to premature death or lived with a disability. Divided by the 16 M people living in Spanish SFHs, each one lost 0.19 years of their lives (68.1 days) due to their home's impacts on human health.The article compares a reference conventional building against three low-impact cases, to understand how different building techniques and materials influence environmental outcomes that keep biodiversity loss the lowest possible. Scenarios include a standard brick and concrete house as Scenario 0 (SC0, Base), a timber Passivhaus as Scenario 1 (SC1), a straw-bale house with renewable energies as Scenario 2 (SC2), and an earth bioclimatic house as Scenario 3 (SC3). An initial Global Warming Potential (GWP) analysis was performed to relate previous building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies with biodiversity metrics. Three main biodiversity metrics; ecotoxicity (as midpoint indicator), biodiversity loss and damage to human health (both as endpoint indicators) have been considered.Compared to SC0 with 1292 kgCO2-eq·m−2 (516 embodied) of GWP, we found that SC1 emitted −47.0 % of that, SC2–41.4 % and SC3–80.9 %. Concerning ecotoxicity, where SC0 has 11,399 kg 1,4 DCB, the results are −27.9 % in SC1, −19.2 % in SC2, and −45.6 % in SC3. Regarding biodiversity loss, where SC0 has 7.54 E−06 species.yr·m−2, the impacts are −30.9 % in SC1, −32.6 % in SC2, and −58.6 % in SC3.Human health damage in SC0 being 3.37 E−03 DALY, has been reduced in the timber home (SC1) is −44.2 %, of the Straw SFH (SC2) −39.2 %, and of the earth house (SC3) −67.1 %.This article shows that with current existing technological solutions GWP could be reduced in −80.9 %, ecotoxicity in −45.6 %, biodiversity loss in −58.6 % and human health in −67.1 %. Spanish Single-Family Houses built in timber, earth or straw-bale are real alternatives to current cement traditional building.

Influence of passive solar gains on the energy consumption of a typical house in Algiers

The purpose of a bioclimatic house is to make every effort to reduce the need for heating and cooling. For this a well studied architecture of the house is essential: - the positioning of windows to capture the maximum solar radiation, - Good thermal insulation of the house to reduce heat loss. This study focuses on the effect of solar and internal heat gain on the energy consumption of a typical well insulated house. The degree day’s method is used to determine the heat losses by transmission and ventilation according to international standards on thermal insulation of building (NBN B62-301), the results are very interesting and promising. By including the solar and internal gains, which vary from 900 to 1400 kWh, the energy consumption decreases significantly. The thermal load for heat reaches 60 kWh, but by including the free thermal gains, 10 kWh of energy can be saved daily.

Formulation and Thermomechanical Characterization of Earth-based Biosourced Composites: Cases of Clay-Hibiscus cannabinus L. Fiber, Clay-sawdust and Clay- Oryza sativa Husk

This work concerns the technical study of implementation, thermal and mechanical characterization of a composite material based on clay and plant fibers, in order to meet the need for bioclimatic and sustainable houses. The objective was to find the proportions of clay and fibers to obtain a mixture that would give better thermal properties. A characterization of the thermal properties was made thanks to the KD2 Pro analyzer on samples of various formulas of mixture clay-plant fibers. The results obtained showed that the thermal properties such as thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the clay-fiber mixture samples decrease with the increase of the fiber content in the mixture. Thus, the thermal conductivity of the samples varies from 0.85 to 0.65 W/m.K; from 0.88 to 0.72 W/m.K and from 0.83 to 0.75 W/m.K respectively with Hibiscus cannabinus L. fiber, sawdust and Oryza sativa husk. As for the thermal diffusivity, it varies from 0.37 to 0.25 mm2/s; from 0.45 to 0.30 mm2/s and from 0.47 to 0.27 mm2/s respectively with the addition of Hibiscus cannabinus L. fibers, sawdust and Oryza sativa husk. In sum, the earth samples stabilized with Hibiscus cannabinus L. fibers offer better thermal properties for the construction of bioclimatic houses.

Design and implementation of a bioclimatic housing prototype for the Bolivian highlands

The Mechanical - Electromechanical Engineering research institute, made up of a multidisciplinary team, designs and implements a bioclimatic housing prototype for the Bolivian highlands, located near the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level. This project was developed and implemented with financing from the Swiss Cooperation for Bolivia, within the Climate Change Adaptation projects.
 The design process includes: the sociocultural study of the inhabitants of the region, where direct information is collected from the peasants on the conception of housing in their culture and ancestral construction characteristics of their houses. Subsequently, the climate of the region (temperatures, solar radiation, winds and relative humidity) is characterized with the help of a meteorological station, which provided historical records of 5 years. Those data were sufficient to be able to carry out a reliable characterization, with which the Typical Meteorological Year is determined. Likewise, local construction materials that may be useful in the design are studied, analyzing their thermal and mechanical properties in the laboratory.
 Finally, with all the information described, an architectural design is carried out taking into account bioclimatic aspects, ways of harnessing solar energy, distribution of the room and a viable construction cost for the economic reality of the region. The developed architectural model is optimized in an energy simulation program (Siter Vs. 1.2), achieving energy savings of 65%. The software used is owned property of the research institute
 The house has been monitored with temperature sensors for about a year and six months, to date it shows good results, where the correct functioning of the elements and constructive forms is evidenced, reflecting a temperature inside the house of around 10 °C above room temperature 24 hours a day.

Intelligent model for active power prediction of a small wind turbine

Abstract In this study, a hybrid model based on intelligent techniques is developed to predict the active power generated in a bioclimatic house by a low power wind turbine. Contrary to other researches that predict the generated power taking into account the speed and the direction of the wind, the model developed in this paper only uses the speed of the wind, measured mainly in a weather station from the government meteorological agency (MeteoGalicia). The wind speed is measured at different heights, against the usual measurements in others researches, which uses the wind speed and the direction measured in a weather station on the wind turbine nacelle. The prediction is performed 30 minutes ahead, what ensures that the Building Management System knows the energy generated by the low power wind turbine 30 minutes before, and it can adapt the consumption of different equipment in the house to optimize the power use. The main objective is to allow the Building Management System to optimize the uses of energy, taking into account the predicted amount of energy that will be produced and the energy consumed in the house. The developed model uses a hybrid topology with four clusters to improve the prediction, achieving an error lower than 6.5% for Mean Absolute Error measured in a final test. To perform this test, part of the original dataset was isolated from the beginning of the training process to check the model with a dataset that is not used before, simulating the model as it is receiving new data.

A comparative analysis of intelligent techniques to predict energy generated by a small wind turbine from atmospheric variables

Abstract The harmful consequences of fossil fuels use has resulted in the promotion of clean and renewable energies. During the past decades, green technologies have experienced a strong development, paying especial attention to wind energy, that covers a significant share of the electric energy demand. In this context, the main efforts are focused on the optimization of wind generator facilities, not only in the mechanic design but also in the energy management. Then, the present work deals with the prediction of the energy generated in a small wind turbine placed in a bioclimatic house located on the north west region of Spain. This includes an analysis of the characteristics of the atmospheric variables registered during the turbine operation for a period of one year and an exploratory examination of a range of regression techniques in order to assess the suitability of using the registered information to predict the installation’s power generation levels on the short term. The study detailed in this work proves that this objective is an attainable one with a good degree of accuracy.

Clustering Techniques Selection for a Hybrid Regression Model: A Case Study Based on a Solar Thermal System

This work addresses the performance comparison between four clustering techniques with the objective of achieving strong hybrid models in supervised learning tasks. A real dataset from a bio-climatic house named Sotavento placed on experimental wind farm and located in Xermade (Lugo) in Galicia (Spain) has been collected. Authors have chosen the thermal solar generation system in order to study how works applying several cluster methods followed by a regression technique to predict the output temperature of the system. With the objective of defining the quality of each clustering method two possible solutions have been implemented. The first one is based on three unsupervised learning metrics (Silhouette, Calinski-Harabasz and Davies-Bouldin) while the second one, employs the most common error measurements for a regression algorithm such as Multi Layer Perceptron.

Low-cost portable system for measuring thermal conductivity of building

The developed system allows to measure the thermal conductivity of solid materials used as thermal insulators in building bioclimatic houses on high Andean zones. A unidirectional heat flow model through a sample of dimensions 4.0 cm x 4.2 cm x 1.35 cm has been considered. K-type thermocouples were used to measure the temperature’s gradient. The obtained values were: 0.97 Wm−1°C−1 for glass, 0.38 Wm−1°C−1 in the ignimbrite, 0.58 Wm−1°C−1 for the roof brick and 0.34 Wm−1°C−1 in the adobe with Stipa ichu. These materials have been evaluated considering their abundance and use in house building on the Arequipa department high zones.

An intelligent system for harmonic distortions detection in wind generator power electronic devices

The high concern about climate change has boosted the promotion of renewable energy systems, being the wind power one of the key generation possibilities in this field. In this context, with the aim of ensuring the energy efficiency, the present work deals with the fault detection in the power electronic circuits of a wind generator system placed in a bioclimatic house. To do so, different outliers that emulate harmonic distortion appearance are tested. To implement a system capable of detecting this anomalous situations, six different one-class techniques are used, whose performance is thoroughly analyzed, offering interesting performance.

Energy efficiency in mass-built housing and demonstrative bioclimatic models in a hot-dry climate zone

The residential sector is one of the biggest consumers of electric energy, especially in zones with extreme dry-hot climates such as Mexicali. The implementation of NOM-020- ENER-2011 energy efficiency standards for the envelope of the dwelling is essential to provide thermal comfort with a lower energy consumption. The goal of this article is to evaluate the application of energy efficiency standards in three housing models: The first one was a prototype of mass-built housing (commercial model) and the remaining were demonstrative dwelling prototypes built with bioclimatic criteria. The analysis was made with the digital calculation tools provided by the Secretary of Energy and the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy. The results showed that for the commercial dwelling to reach the energy efficiency standards, it is required to diminish the overall heat transfer coefficient. Therefore, it was achievable to improve the energetic efficiency by including the bioclimatic housing criteria. Although important efforts have been made to optimize the housing design, they have not been effective enough to improve the energy efficiency of the mass-built housing.

The Citizens’ Views on Adaptation to Bioclimatic Housing Design: Case Study from Greece

Bioclimatic housing design is regarded as an important pillar towards energy policies. Additionally, it is closely affiliated with the performance of energy efficiency of buildings. The citizens’ views and their adaptation to energy saving practices can be utilized as an important data base in order to design, improve and properly manage urbanization and environmental challenges in the residential sector. For the capitalization of the citizens’ views in Orestiada, the newest city in Greece, simple random sampling was applied on data that were collected via personal interviews and with the use of a structured questionnaire. Reliability and factor analyses were applied for the data processing along with hierarchical log-linear analysis. The latter was utilized for the statistical clustering of citizens into given distinct groups—clusters, arising by factor analysis. The main findings revealed that the citizens are merely aware of bioclimatic principles, while only a small percentage of 28.8% adopts some primary bioclimatic disciplines. Conclusively, it should be noted that there is a need for effective planning towards empowerment on energy efficiency in the residential sector of the city. Notwithstanding, it should not be disregarded the need for the incorporation of conceptual frameworks in urban planning. This is an approach that prerequisites public awareness and the stakeholders’ participation in decision making processes.

Evaluación por termografía infrarroja de componentes prefabricados no con-vencionales para techo en clima cálido subhúmedo

<p>En este documento se presenta la evaluación experimental por termografía infrarroja de componentes prefabricados no convencionales para techos en la Ciudad de Tuxtla Gutiérrez Chiapas en México, las cubiertas no convencionales evaluadas son Techo Verde con componente Domotej (TVD), Techo Domotej (TD) y Termolosa (TL). Dichas tecnologías se diseñaron por en el Cuerpo Académico “Componentes y Condicionantes de la Vivienda” (COCOVI) en el marco de la línea de investigación “Transferencia Tecnológica para la Vivienda Bioclimática”, ante la necesidad evidenciada de tecnologías no convencionales de techo para la vivienda de los grupos sociales de menores ingresos en México, factibles de ser realizados mediante un proceso de autoconstrucción o producción social de vivienda. Esto nos exige caracterizarlo térmicamente para mejorar y a su vez generar directrices que permitan mejorarlo. El diagnóstico se realizó de forma experimental con una cámara infrarroja y termopares, obteniendo en ambos la temperatura superficial interior, además se midió las condiciones climáticas exteriores del sitio con una estación climática móvil. El periodo de evaluación fue en el mes de junio, periodo crítico para las condiciones locales (clima cálido subhúmedo). Se identificó mejores condiciones térmicas del Techo Verde Domotej y Termolosa, también se indentificaron distintas temperaturas debido a la forma curva de los componentes TVD y TD.</p>

Thermal simulation of the ground source heat pump used for energy needs of a bioclimatic house in Tlemcen City (western ALGERIA)

ABSTRACT This paper presents a validation by simulation of feasibility analysis for the installation of the ground source heat pump systems that have been proposed the modeling study for use in Algeria. We design and calculate the energy needs of an example building with the COMSOL Multiphysics software and Geo TSOL Basic. The study addresses heating needs for the climate conditions of western Algeria, in one of North Africa’s biggest cities. The houses energy needs are assumed to be covered by a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system coupled with solar panels. The GSHP consists of a vertical ground heat exchanger and water-to-water heat pumps and is analyzed using an in-house developed and validated code. Energy consumption was calculated and validated by a simulation of the building’s properties. Results show that installation of the ground source heat pump system substantially reduces the building’s energy consumption. Finally, an economic analysis of the proposed system for construction practices in Algeria was carried out. The main novelty of this article, being that the study was conducted to seek a solution to reduce the energy bill of a house located in a city of a country Natural Gas Producer. Algeria is one of the 10 largest producers of natural gas in the world. More than 80% of the energy bill of a house located in Algeria, is due to the consumption of gas (Heating, Hot Water and Cooking), the electricity is mainly used in summer for air conditioning. The use of renewable energy will cost more than the use of natural gas. It is for this main cause that renewable energies are struggling to develop in Algeria, the cost of gas is very low. The economic analysis shows that in countries like Algeria, where the cost of conventional energy is heavily subsidized, solar thermal is not competitive with natural gas. It is only by coupling the GSHP with solar collectors that solar can take off and attract households. As a result, the only renewable way to compete with natural gas is the combination of GSHP with solar collectors. The only solution adopted to reduce the energy bill in a house located in Algeria, is the solution presented in this article. This is the first technical–economic study of how a GSHP could contribute to the energy needs of buildings in the city of Tlemcen ALGERIA.

GIS-based approach to identify climatic zoning: A hierarchical clustering on principal component analysis

In tropical environments, the design of bioclimatic houses adapted to their environment represents a crucial issue when considering thermal comfort and limiting energy consumption. A preliminary aspect of such design endeavors is the acquisition of accurate knowledge regarding the climatic conditions in each region of the studied territory. The objective of this paper is to propose a climatic zoning for Madagascar from a database of 47 meteorological stations by performing hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC). The results are then combined with spatial interpolation using geographic information system (GIS) tools, enabling us to define three climate zones corresponding to dry, humid and highland areas. These results make it possible to define standard meteorological files to evaluate the thermal performance of traditional Malagasy houses. Regardless of the type of house and the areas considered, the percentage of thermal comfort according to the Givoni bioclimatic chart varies from average values of 20% without ventilation to 70% with an air velocity of 1 m/s. In summary, Madagascar's traditional habitat typologies have adapted over time to the constraints of their environment.

A Fault Detection System for a Geothermal Heat Exchanger Sensor Based on Intelligent Techniques.

This paper proposes a methodology for dealing with an issue of crucial practical importance in real engineering systems such as fault detection and recovery of a sensor. The main goal is to define a strategy to identify a malfunctioning sensor and to establish the correct measurement value in those cases. As study case, we use the data collected from a geothermal heat exchanger installed as part of the heat pump installation in a bioclimatic house. The sensor behaviour is modeled by using six different machine learning techniques: Random decision forests, gradient boosting, extremely randomized trees, adaptive boosting, k-nearest neighbors, and shallow neural networks. The achieved results suggest that this methodology is a very satisfactory solution for this kind of systems.

Energy efficient design optimization of a bioclimatic house

The global energy context of the year 2018 makes us pessimistic about the future. The geopolitical, environmental and socio-economic aspects are linked to the political tensions of countries that hold and manipulate the global energy market. These countries are haunted by the population growth, the depletion of fossil resources and the global economic crisis. Each country is trying to find reasonable solutions to deal with this crisis. Unfortunately, these solutions always have direct negative repercussions on the population and on the environment. In this paper we present a case study developed in Algeria and inspired by the current and critical socio-economic situation of the country, in particular, the application of energy-saving techniques to an existing building. The investigation was conducted by using both simulation software and real interventions. We analyse some of the major components, such as building’s orientation and exposure to daylight which have significant impact on energy consumption. We present the concept of Building Performance Simulation Analysis, using Autodesk ECOTECT Analysis and COMSOL Multiphysics software, and give full consideration to various ecological energy-saving methods. Using our models, we present a possible solution for retrofitting a building to minimize its energy consumption. The results are useful for both building energy conversation and creating a comfortable living environment in future.

Standard economic bioclimatic solar individual houses – four hypostases

In the present Romanian architectural practice for individual houses and/or residential areas, designing the architectural objects in order to function together with the nature seems to be neglected. This happens despite a great variety of bioclimatic solutions materialized in the traditional houses of all the Romanian geographical regions, in an old and rich history of traditional architecture. The approach starts with a historical overview, analyzing several examples of traditional houses in all the regions of Romania so as to identify the traditional bioclimatic solutions used to better adapt the architecture to the environment. This constitutes the source of inspiration for the four modern standard economic bioclimatic (solar) houses designed for the geographical and climatic parameters of Braşov, Romania, and destined for the middle class families. The concept is simple, based on modesty, involving minimum costs for building and using the houses, as well as for a comfortable life. The projects also offer all the premises for an efficient use of complementary systems for producing and storing energy from the environment (if opted for). The aim is to optimize the relation between the natural and the built environment in order to maximize the comfort, efficiency and economy in all the aspects of a family living in a bioclimatic house (form, function, building materials, equipments, living space, quality of life, etc.). In this respect, the architecture of the four standard economic bioclimatic (solar) individual houses presented represents a neutral and simple so-called “extruded box”, as an interface between humans and environment, as a chance to better explore ourselves.

Full-scale field investigation of a bio-climatic house under Thailand tropical climate

The main objective of this paper is to present a full-scale field experimental investigation of a Bio-Climatic House (BCH) under the tropical climate of Thailand. The BCH included several innovative building envelope configurations, i.e., a Roof Solar Collector (RSC), a Bio-Climatic Roof (BCR), a Modified Trombe Wall (MTW), and a Glazed Solar Chimney Wall (GSCW) with the aim of maximizing natural ventilation for heat gain and indoor heat accumulation reduction as well as to improve the indoor air condition while providing appropriate natural daylighting. The field experimentation was set up to measure the indoor temperature, relative humidity, illuminance, and air velocity inside the BCH in the summer, rainy and winter seasons in 2014. Construction cost was also analyzed and presented. The experimental results demonstrate that the BCH design could efficiently operate year-round under the tropical climate conditions of Thailand; it reduced indoor air temperature by 2–3 °C compared to that of ambient air temperature and the indoor relative humidity was also lower than the ambient conditions by 10%–20%. The indoor illuminance varied between 450 and 700, 450–800, and 450–765 lx in winter, summer, and rainy, respectively. The indoor air velocity was in the range of 0.04–0.09 m/s and the corresponding ACH in the range of 9–14. Finally, economic analysis revealed that with labor and material costs of 560 USD/m2 and 1120 USD/m2, a payback period of approximately 7.39 years would be feasible. Therefore, the BCH with RSC, BCR, and MTW applications is an appropriate building envelope technology for residential house integration and deserves promotion in a tropical climate region.

Minimisation of energy consumption of a bioclimatic building based on heat balance study and stand-alone PV system sizing using LLP

ABSTRACTBioclimatic buildings are very comfortable habitats for significant savings in the consumption of daily energy. They help to protect the environment by preventing the emission of dust and pollutant gases into the atmosphere. In this paper, a sizing method is proposed that ensures a suitable internal climate with adequate comfort. First, a simple algorithm is used for the estimation of the heat balance and performance of a typical bioclimatic house in the region of Laghouat, Algeria. Second, the load demand is assured using an optimal stand-alone photovoltaic system sizing method based on the loss of load probability method (LLP) while ensuring the minimum cost of the system. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method that can be used to develop an optimal building sizing project in all its dimensions, in particular to reduce the overall budget of the operation.