Buildings In Germany Research Articles

Open modeling of electricity and heat demand curves for all residential buildings in Germany

Energy system modeling has been following the energy transition to investigate challenges and opportunities of future energy systems on all grid levels. Necessary input for sector-coupled energy system models are residential electricity and heat demand curves. The increasing importance of distribution grids and their modeling requires demand profiles in high spatial resolution.This paper presents a method to assign pre-generated electricity and heat demand curves to georeferenced residential buildings in Germany. We aim at overcoming fundamental shortcomings of the Standard Load Profiles and enable new possibilities for the modeling of distribution grids. Our approach provides a large variety in residential load profiles which spatially correspond to official socio-demographic data. All used input data sets as well as implemented methodology and the resulting profiles are publicly available under open source and open data licences to enable further use. Our results are validated on different aggregation levels as well as compared and discussed with the commonly used Standard Load Profiles.

Next generation of life cycle related benchmarks for low carbon residential buildings in Germany

Germany’s national climate targets are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and set the ambitious goal of becoming net zero emissions by 2045. The construction and real estate sector play an important role for sustainable development. In a cross-sectoral approach operational and embodied emissions of buildings account for 40% of GHG emissions in Germany. In order to contribute to climate protection, it is necessary to both pursue a strategy for decarbonizing the national building stock and to develop benchmarks for assessing greenhouse gas emissions in the life cycle of individual buildings. In Germany, benchmarks are used in sustainability assessment systems for more than 10 years to assess primary energy non-renewable (PENRT) and global warming potential (GWP) in the life cycle of buildings. Therefore, these need to be regularly reviewed and further developed in order to (1) adapt them to more ambitious reduction targets, (2) consider the current database, (3) include the state of standardization, and (4) follow the state of scientific discussion on methodological issues. This paper identifies new benchmarks for PENRT and GWP and shows the scale of current levels of performance. These can form the basis for funding programs and contribute to the discussion on the introduction of binding legal requirements.

A Temporal Perspective in Eco2 Building Design

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector has great potential and responsibility for reducing its considerable resource consumption and high share of global emissions. However, economic factors are often cited as barriers to more environmentally friendly solutions in building design. Hence, environmental and economic life cycle assessment (LCA and LCC) are of utmost importance in building design. They serve as the base methodologies for what we call the “Eco2” framework. In this context, monetary valuation of multiple environmental impacts allows to integrate the results as a basis for design decisions. A case study representative of small-scale office buildings in Germany illustrates the Eco2 framework and shows the influence of temporal parameters (discount rates and price changes), as well as of differing monetary valuation, on the ranking of design options. Varying the temporal parameters affects the ranking of different solutions for the structure and finishes of the case study building but not for its mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems and operation. However, the ratio of environmental life cycle cost (eLCC) to financial life cycle cost (fLCC) is significantly higher for MEP systems and operation than for the structure and finishes. This investigation shows that it is possible to achieve simultaneous emission and cost savings, whereas temporal factors can decisively influence decision making in design processes.

Study on heat storage mechanism of building wall based on passive housing

ABSTRACT Building energy consumption has seriously affected the economic development of various countries. Through in-depth analysis of the basic characteristics of passive buildings in Germany, this paper establishes a building geometric model with traditional heat collecting wall rooms. By optimizing the heat transfer model and boundary conditions of the building, the thermal environment of the model under steady-state and transient conditions is simulated and analyzed respectively. The heat collection characteristics of the outer surface of the heat collection wall in winter are deeply discussed. The distribution characteristics of the temperature field and wind speed field of the vent and the room as well as the effects of the wall size parameters and the surface structure of the heat collection wall on the heat collection efficiency are compared. Through the test and analysis of the heat collection effect of passive buildings, it is proved that the structural technology studied in this paper has an obvious effect on architectural design and transformation, and has important application value. It provides a theoretical basis for the field test of transforming the existing passive solar house.

Modelling and Simulation of Building Material Flows: Assessing the Potential for Concrete Recycling in the German Construction Sector

The reuse and recycling of materials can make an important contribution to the conservation of natural resources in the sense of a circular economy. This applies in particular to high quality recycling, supporting the material use of waste and closing product cycles. The construction sector is the most important sector in terms of available volume of materials for recycling. However, the largest share of recycling (RC) materials goes predominantly into road construction and underground engineering. This research developed a dynamic model and used a simulation tool to calculate future building material flows in the German construction sector of residential buildings to explore the medium- and long-term potential for RC concrete. The results show that, by increasing the RC rate of concrete to produce recycled aggregates for concrete (RAC) from currently 1.5% to 48%, up to 179 million tons of sand and gravel could be saved until 2060. If the current maximum secondary input rate of RAC of 45% is increased to 70%, the savings could rise over another 66 million tons. If a secondary input rate of 100% is applied, RAC could completely fulfill the demand for sand and gravel for new residential building in Germany from 2045 onwards. The approval of RC concrete for more concrete strength and exposure classes is required to avoid a surplus of RAC and a rapid exhaustion of landfill capacities in the future.

Carbon Pricing and Complementary Policies—Consistency of the Policy Mix for Decarbonizing Buildings in Germany

While it is widely acknowledged that carbon pricing plays an important role in driving the transition towards a low-carbon energy system, its interaction with complementary instruments is discussed controversially. The analysis of combining carbon pricing with complementary policies has been mostly focused on the electricity sector, while the role of carbon pricing in the buildings sector has received only minor interest. In view of the newly introduced carbon pricing scheme for the buildings and transport sector in Germany, we analyze the interactions between the carbon pricing scheme with the existing policy instruments and assess the consistency of the policy mix for decarbonizing the buildings sector. Our analysis finds that the introduction of carbon pricing has a reinforcing effect on the instrument mix and adds to the consistency of the policy mix. The results highlight the importance of complementary policies in order to achieve deep decarbonization in the buildings sector. We conclude that carbon pricing, preferably implemented as a tax with a predictable and increasing price level, needs to be supplemented with a powerful mix of complementary measures.

ACoolHeaD: Framework for Automated Cooling and Heating Demand calculations using spatially and temporally resolved building performance simulations applied to the estimation of heating demand in Germany

Reducing the emissions in the building sector requires reasonable renovation and integration of renewable energy sources to find the optimal trade-off between ecological benefit and economic effort. However, many buildings, different types of usage, needs of residents, and transient weather conditions contribute to a vast number of use cases, making the search for the optimal trade-off challenging. Therefore, a systematic reduction of use cases is necessary to target emission reductions in the building sector. Furthermore, emissions in the building sector mainly belong to heating and cooling purposes. Thus, many frameworks exist to estimate the heating and cooling demand at building and district scales. In addition, some contributions exist at a national scale, determining spatially resolved demands. However, the optimal integration of fluctuating renewable energy sources requires a detailed resolution in the time domain. Currently, no framework allows the calculation of spatially and temporally resolved demands at the national scale from which a meaningful use case reduction can be obtained.This work proposes the ACoolHeaD framework for Automated Cooling and Heating Demand calculations for entire urban districts and countries based on spatially and temporally resolved building performance simulations. ACoolHeaD connects predefined formatted input data with the TEASER tool for automated parameterization of building simulation models. After parameterizing the building models, the framework selects representative weather data sets as boundary conditions for the simulation to ensure spatial and temporal resolution during computation. The calculation of the demands is fully automated. Finally, the k-medoids clustering algorithm is applied to systematically reduce the number of use cases, identifying representative demands. As a use case for ACoolHeaD serves Germany since sound data available. Thus, ACoolHeaD estimates the representative heating demand for about 19 million buildings in Germany in this work.An extended input data preparation reduces the computational effort from about 19 million building simulations to 3,520. The average, maximum, and integral heating demand is determined in each simulation, which are classification indicators for the clustering algorithm. Germany’s integral overall (clustered) heating demand is estimated at 2,796 PJ (2,793 PJ), respectively, which is about 10 % higher than the current values of the Federal Ministry (2,557 PJ). The result shows a good agreement and a successful application of ACoolHeaD considering all necessary assumptions. Based on the maximum and average heating demand, the entire building stock is clustered by k-medoids clustering to five buildings, which can be used for further representative investigations considering Germany. As a next step, we recommend investigating the influence of occupancy, the selected weather data sets, and analyzing cooling for future scenarios to increase the detail level and thus improve the expressiveness of ACoolHeaD results.

Evaluating urban micrometeorites as a research resource—A large population collected from a single rooftop

AbstractWe report the recovery and characterization of a new urban micrometeorite collection derived from the rooftop of an industrial building in Germany. We identified 315 micrometeorites (diameter: 55–515 µm, size peak: ˜150 µm, size distribution slope exponent: −2.62). They are predominantly S‐type cosmic spherules (97.2%) but also two G‐type spherules (0.6%), an unmelted coarse‐grained single‐mineral micrometeorite, and eight scoriaceous particles (2.5%) or particles transitional between scoriaceous micrometeorites and porphyritic spherules. Their analysis details how the magnetite rim on partially melted micrometeorites is progressively diluted as the melt fraction increases during heating. At least 10 micrometeorites contain platinum group nuggets (PGNs). They have chondritic compositions but are depleted in volatile Pd. However, a single nugget preserves chondritic Pd concentrations. We suggest that an Fe‐Ni‐S bead originally containing the PGN escaped its host cavity and wet the particle exterior, creating an Fe‐rich melt that protected the nugget from evaporation. This melt layer oxidized forming magnetite—indicating that wetting events can affect the texture and composition of micrometeorites. Utilizing the well‐constrained surface area (8400 m2) and rooftop age (21 yr), we attempted the first global mass flux estimate based on urban micrometeorite data. This produced anomalously low values (13.4 t yr–1), even when correcting for losses due to sample processing (<89.7 t yr–1). Our value is approximately two orders of magnitude lower than previous estimates, indicating that >99% of particles are missing, having been lost via drainage and cleaning. Rooftop collection sites have limited potential for mass flux calculations unless problems of loss can be resolved. However, urban micrometeorite collections have other advantages, notably exceptionally well‐preserved particles with extremely young terrestrial ages and the ability to extract many micrometeorites from accessible sites. Urban micrometeorites should be considered complementary to Antarctic and deep‐sea collections with potential for citizen science and educational exploitation.

Intelligent energy optimization system development and validation for German building types

Abstract Cost-effective building energy optimization solutions have a strategic function to assist German and European energy policies for the simple reason that buildings account for 40% of the total energy consumption in Europe. The International Energy Agency considers energy efficiency as the first fuel and a major resource. In this work, a cost-effective building energy optimization system consisting of 14 different wireless network embedded sensors, control units (actuators), wireless communication protocol, multi-dimensional information management system, context sensitive graphical user interfaces and energy optimization software with artificial intelligence-backed control algorithms is examined. The R&D activity is accomplished in the ‘Intelligent Building Energy Management System’ research project, which is funded by the State of Lower Saxony (Germany) in the frame of Innovation Support Program between the years 2014 and 2018. The ‘Energy Optimization System (EOS)’, which is subject to this research, reduces the total energy use and CO2 emissions of buildings through optimization of energy-consuming building systems, such as heating, cooling, lighting systems and home/office appliances with the support of an integrated system solution consisting of artificial intelligence-based software and wireless network embedded hardware. The system is deployed and validated in two appropriately selected test buildings in Germany. It has been recorded that the system provides energy efficiency levels between 29.34% and 38.18% under different seasonal and occupancy conditions in office and residential building types. The developed system can be deployed to all types of historical and new buildings to optimize energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions.

Benchmarking Energy Quantification Methods to Predict Heating Energy Performance of Residential Buildings in Germany

To achieve ambitious climate goals, it is necessary to increase the rate of purposeful retrofit measures in the building sector. As a result, Energy Performance Certificates have been designed as important evaluation and rating criterion to increase the retrofit rate in the EU and Germany. Yet, today’s most frequently used and legally required methods to quantify building energy performance show low prediction accuracy, as recent research reveals. To enhance prediction accuracy, the research community introduced data-driven methods which obtained promising results. However, there are no insights in how far Energy Quantification Methods are particularly suited for energy performance prediction. In this research article the data-driven methods Artificial Neural Network, D-vine copula quantile regression, Extreme Gradient Boosting, Random Forest, and Support Vector Regression are compared with and validated by real-world Energy Performance Certificates of German residential buildings issued by qualified auditors using the engineering method required by law. The results, tested for robustness and systematic bias, show that all data-driven methods exceed the engineering method by almost 50% in terms of prediction accuracy. In contrast to existing literature favoring Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector Regression, all tested methods show similar prediction accuracy with marginal advantages for Extreme Gradient Boosting and Support Vector Regression in terms of prediction accuracy. Given the higher prediction accuracy of data-driven methods, it seems appropriate to revise the current legislation prescribing engineering methods. In addition, data-driven methods could support different organizations, e.g., asset management, in decision-making in order to reduce financial risk and to cut expenses.

Economic, social and environmental impact analysis of an indigenously developed energy optimization system for German office and residential building types

Abstract This work addresses the economic, social and environmental analysis of an indigenously developed building energy optimization system for residential and office buildings in Germany. The developed system consists of 14 different wireless network embedded sensors, wireless communication protocol, multi-dimensional data warehouse, graphical user interfaces and energy optimization software with artificial intelligence-backed control algorithms. The R&D activity is accomplished in the ‘Intelligent Building Energy Management System’ research project, which is funded by the State of Lower Saxony—Germany in the frame of Innovation Support Program between the years 2014 and 2018. The system is tested in two appropriately selected test buildings in Germany. It has been recorded that the system provides energy efficiency levels between 29.34% and 38.18% under different seasonal and occupancy conditions in office and residential building types. The analysis is accomplished within the framework of four main indicators. These are economic indicators including calculations of lifetime cost and payback rate methods, resource use indicators including the calculation of reduced energy use as a result of the energy efficiency provided by the system, social indicator including additional expendable income calculations and environmental indicators including calculations depicting the benefits of reducing harmful emissions. Analysis results illustrate that building energy optimization systems provide a cost-effective method for promoting energy efficiency goals. Results of the indicators prove monetary benefits for the building occupants in terms of resource use, return on investment and social impact, as well as quantifiable benefits for easing the harmful effects of climate change phenomenon.

How Bulgaria Can Contribute to Energetic Refurbishment of Real Estate in Germany

On 28th September 2010, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany set a political goal to achieve a “nearly climate-neutral building stock by 2050”. Due to the long period from now up to 2050, an intermediate goal was set in 2019: Emission of climate-damaging gases in Germany must decrease by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990. Up to now, however, Germany has only marginally come closer to either of these goals. According to the Federal Environment Agency, emissions of CO2 equivalents from the building sector in Germany in 2011 amounted to 128 megatons. In 2020 the emissions summed up to 120 megatons. Thus, the target set for 2050 cannot be achieved with the current refurbishment rate, especially not if the climate protection targets are now even tightened up by politicians and are now to be achieved by 2045 instead of 2050. But plants from Bulgaria and other Middle and Eastern European countries may play a decisive role to speed up the energetic refurbishment of buildings. Why and which plants may make significant contributions to the energy-efficient renovation of buildings in Germany is presented in this article.

Material efficiency and its contribution to climate change mitigation in Germany: A deep decarbonization scenario analysis until 2060

Germany's greenhouse gas emissions have declined by 35% since 1990, and the national policy ambition is to become largely carbon-neutral by 2050. A change of the industrial landscape and a partial transformation of energy supply have contributed to reductions so far, but for deep reductions, a deep transformation of the country's industrial metabolism is needed. While energy efficiency is well established, the same cannot be said for material efficiency, which includes product light-weighting, lifetime extension, more intense use, and value retention strategies like higher recycling rates, remanufacturing, and reuse. Sector-specific research showed substantial energy and emissions savings potentials of material efficiency, but the overall material efficiency potential for most world economies, including Germany, is unknown. We applied an open-source and modular dynamic material flow analysis model of the transformation of passenger vehicles, residential buildings, and commercial and service buildings in Germany (together ca. 50% of national greenhouse gases) to a material-efficient system, covering the time span 2016–2060. The potential impact of the above-mentioned material efficiency strategies was studied for the climate-relevant materials concrete, steel, timber, aluminum, and plastics. Once the potentials of energy-efficient products, electrification of end-use sectors, and energy system transformation are seized, supply and demand side material efficiency and sufficiency can reduce remaining 2050 emissions by an additional 19–34 % (passenger vehicles), 27–31% (residential buildings), and 14–19% (non-residential buildings). The 2016–2050 cumulative savings can be up to 750 Mt (million metric tons) CO2-eq. Material efficiency can be a key contributor to deep emissions cuts like a 95% target. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

Long-term performance of Passive House buildings

Long-term experience with Passive House buildings is illustrated with two early large-scale projects, a school and an office building located in Germany. Those were monitored in lump energy performance (school, commissioned 2004) and great detail (office, commissioned 2002), respectively. Moreover, they give an indication of the characteristics of such buildings subject to changes in usage intensity. Both buildings generally performed as expected with the school facing occasional overheating in the summer due to inflexible shading controls. Following an extension in schooling hours, the addition of a canteen was required and the ventilation system was adapted to the changed usage. Nevertheless, the building’s user comfort and energy performance remain high, despite exceeding the Passive House primary energy target slightly due to increased electricity consumption. The office likewise meets the calculated efficiency in operation. The ground-coupled cooling worked well despite greatly increased internal heat gains due to unexpected usage. This extra heat input did not, however, exhaust the geothermal (passive) cooling capacity for the future. Thermal comfort proved near optimal at all times, despite a very simple control regime of the one-circuit concrete core activation system for heating and cooling. In the last section, airtightness design and measurement experience in the UK and, particularly, the question of long-term stability of the airtight building envelope are assessed. It was found that measurement results are not only repeatable in relatively short intervals such as a few months. The data available suggests stability of the airtight envelope over many years. Attention is required as regards the leakage of party walls of terraced buildings which need to be integrated in the overall airtightness concept. A high permeability of party walls in terraced buildings with a common airtight envelope presents a challenge for measuring airtightness. Long-term series of airtightness measurements exist for the Kranichstein House in Darmstadt, Germany, and prove the stability of the chosen airtightness concept. Moreover, results for 17 early Passive House buildings in Germany in eight locations and various construction types revisited in 2001 (1.4 to 10 years after the initial airtightness test) suggest stability of airtightness values over time. Great advances have since been made in materials and methods available and the general understanding in the industry. This is supported by a large sample of 2934 Passive House projects of varied construction materials, locations, sizes, and usages that yielded an average airtightness test result as low as n50 = 0.41 h−1.

Climate Adapted Façades in Zero-Waste and Cradle to Cradle Buildings – Comparison, Evaluation and Future Recommendations, e.g. in Regard to U-Values, G-Values, Photovoltaic Integration, Thermal Performance and Solar Orientation

The construction methods we are using today on a broad scale are highly unsustainable in regard to their resource efficiency. Fundamental improvements are necessary in order to change towards a more ecological future. The integration of reusable building components could be an adequate option to significantly reduce the ecological deficits we are facing today. The concepts of Zero-Waste and Cradle to Cradle are seen as viable solutions for the future. The few already existing Zero-Waste and Cradle to Cradle buildings are currently representing the most advanced construction standards of resource efficient design. In regard to their façades, however, there is still a high improvement potential. Therefore, methods have been elaborated within this research which demonstrates how the façades of Zero-Waste buildings can be strongly optimised. In particular, this research poses the question: with which interventions can we improve the performance of façades of Zero-Waste buildings? Which interventions are most important and how can we prioritize them? For example, which role does the insulation capacity of the building skin play in comparison to the building’s capability for natural ventilation and external shading? Within this paper, at first, the façades of selected existing Zero-Waste and Cradle to Cradle inspired buildings are examined and critically evaluated in regard to their u-values, g-values, photovoltaic integration, thermal performance and solar orientation. Furthermore, criteria such as sun exposure of glazed areas, natural ventilation capacity through façade openings etc. are investigated. Thereafter follows an assessment in the form of a list about which interventions could significantly improve the façade’s performance in regard to energy efficiency. The approaches include active strategies, such as improving the u-values, photovoltaic energy generation and passive strategies, such as enabling natural ventilation through the façade and external shading of sun exposed glazed areas. The selected case study buildings in Germany are “Aktivhaus B10” in Stuttgart by Werner Sobek, “Woodcube Building” in Hamburg by IfuH Architects and Architekturagentur, “ICON Rheinlanddamm” in Dortmund by William McDonough and Partners. In order to recommend which interventions are the best applicable in the relation between ecological performance and cost, the paper concludes with a prioritisation of the suggested improvement options. Overall, it demonstrates that the building’s overall energy performance can be significantly improved by adapting the façades towards a better implementation of passive strategies which take strong advantage of the project site’s individual climatic conditions.

Influence of data acquisition on the Bayesian calibration of urban building energy models

Urban building energy models become increasingly important to estimate the dynamic heat demand of building groups, when planning energy saving measures. Archetype solutions can help to reduce the necessary data to model buildings in the urban context. Nevertheless, additional data and Bayesian calibration can be used to reduce the uncertainty in estimated parameter values. We model and calibrate three office buildings in Germany with different information levels using one year of hourly measurements. Starting with an archetype building energy model (BEM), the facade area and orientation, the window share, the physical properties, and the heating times are specified gradually before calibrating. The calibrated models are evaluated in CV(RMSE) and R2 and put in the context of ASHRAE Guideline 14 [1]. The calibration results with more specified parameters in the initial BEM are absorbing less error, because of the eliminated uncertainty before the calibration. Furthermore, the calibration of the most advanced BEM is performed with different periods of real measurement data. The calibrated BEMs indicate a similar data fit for calibrations with three months of measurement data from quarter 1, 2, and 4 of the year and with semi-annual measurement data.

Conditions for a cost-effective application of smart thermostat systems in residential buildings

High investment costs are a key impediment to the energetic refurbishment of residential buildings in Germany. A versatile consumer market for smart thermostat systems suggests that they might constitute a low-investment alternative that is also accessible for tenants. Here, we assess the cost-effectiveness of smart thermostat systems under different conditions and in comparison with other mitigation measures. A dynamic investment model is set up and applied to two typical home types, an average single-family house and an average apartment, built between 1949 and 1978. The impact of variables such as relative savings, building efficiency standard, investment cost, and heating fuel price on CO2 mitigation costs and payback times is investigated using sensitivity analyses. Smart thermostat systems are cost-effective for the two home types if relative savings of at least 5.7% (single-family house) and 7.7% (apartment) are achieved. Both CO2 mitigation costs and payback times strongly decrease with increasing relative savings for values below 10%. Similarly, the level of savings needed to achieve cost-effectiveness strongly increases with increasing building efficiency for values below 100 kWh/m2a. We demonstrate that smart thermostat systems can be a low-investment measure to cost-effectively reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption in the residential building sector. They should be used primarily in buildings with a medium to low efficiency standard, where energetic refurbishment is unlikely in the coming years. To assess the economic mitigation potential of smart thermostat systems, broad and granular empirical data on realized heating energy savings is urgently needed.

Numerical investigation of optimized piled raft foundation for high-rise building in Germany

Piled rafts have been used as a foundation system for high-rise buildings worldwide in different soil conditions, e.g., in soft to stiff clay as well as in medium-to-dense sand. Piled raft is currently used not only to control the foundation settlement but also to minimize the required raft thickness to reach the most optimized foundation design. The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of piled raft as a foundation system for Frankfurt over-consolidated clay based on the well-monitored Messeturm building in Germany. The numerical tool used in analysis is Plaxis 3D finite element software with hardening soil material model. The piled raft foundation behavior will be evaluated based on the total settlement, differential settlement and the pile skin friction. Based on this study, it was found that the chosen foundation system “plied raft foundation” for Messeturm was an optimized solution for the proposed building.

Managing climate-change-induced overheating in non-residential buildings

Large and rapid climatic changes can be uncomfortable and sometimes hazardous to humans. Buildings protect people from external climatic conditions, and also mitigate the impacts of external climate extremes through their design and construction, as well as with the help of dedicated building service and other technical systems. Active space conditioning accounts for more than 30 per cent of the overall final energy use in Germany. In the life cycle of a building, the construction phase (planning and construction) is the phase with the shortest duration. However, the quality applied during this phase has a significant impact on the resources required, as well as the overall building performance during the much longer operational phase. Once built, buildings are often unable to adapt to boundary conditions that were not considered in the original building design. Consequently, changing outdoor climate conditions can result in an uncomfortable indoor climate over the lifetime of a building. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of flexible solutions for reducing winter heating loads and to reducing/avoiding summer cooling loads in nonresidential buildings in Germany. Various external shading scenarios for non-residential buildings were analysed using the IDA ICE indoor climate and energy simulation tool. Key simulation parameters included the orientation and location of the building, as well as the envelope structure. We investigated the impacts of solar shading on heat storage in the building mass and indoor climate and how different types of envelopes affect overall energy use. The result shows that the use of an adaptive building envelope allows a higher reduction of the total energy demand by 7 % to 15 % compared to an increase in insulation thickness only.

Evaluation of Optimization-Based EV Charging Scheduling with Load Limit in a Realistic Scenario

In the literature, optimization-based approaches are frequently proposed for the control of electric vehicle charging. However, they are usually evaluated under simplifying assumptions and are not compared to more simple approaches. The present work compares optimization-based approaches with rule-based ones in a simple but realistic scenario, in which a certain limit for the total load has to be satisfied. The scenario is based on the situation at an office building in Germany. In simulation experiments, different control approaches are evaluated not only in terms of pure performance but also from an economic perspective. The results indicate that, although the optimization-based approaches outperform the rule-based approaches, they are not always the right choice from an economic point of view.