Human Energy Use Research Articles

Changes in urban heat island intensity during heatwaves in China

With rising occurrence of heatwaves and ongoing urban expansion, urban residents are facing severer heat-related stress under the combined effects of urban heat island (UHI) and heatwaves. Controversial results, however, have been reported regarding whether the UHI is exacerbated during heatwaves. In this study, we used fused ground and satellite daily maximum air temperature data to evaluate the variation of UHI intensities under heatwaves across 225 major cities in mainland China during 2003–2020. Overall, urban areas showed an enhanced UHI intensity of up to 0.94 °C during heatwaves, nearly double compared to normal periods. The interaction between UHIs and heatwaves was sensitive to local background precipitation. Under the similar urbanization and vegetation greenness, the amplified warming in urban areas during heatwaves was more pronounced in wet climates. In megapolitan regions characterized by continuous urban development, the UHI intensified much stronger during heatwaves due to the heat accumulation within urbanized areas and the advection of heat from neighboring cities. Our results contribute to understanding the interactions between UHIs and heatwaves which may strongly increase heat risk in cities. Further work on the variations of this interaction under future warming and consequent impacts on human health and energy use is needed.

A Review of the Characteristics of Light Pollution: Assessment Technique, Policy, and Legislation

Light pollution from the use of artificial lighting poses significant impacts on human health, traffic safety, ecological environment, astronomy, and energy use. The advancement of characteristics of light pollution assessment technology has played a significant role in shaping prevention and control policies, thereby enabling measures, such as environmental standards and legislation and product procurement guidelines, but considerable variation in the definition, control strategies, and regulatory frameworks remains. Therefore, there is a need to review the characteristics of light pollution, including the assessment technique, policy, and legislation. Through the literature review, it can be found that technical standards are required to prevent light pollution. For example, light pollution is decreased by 6% in France through the legislation of artificial light. Key approaches are suggested to control global light pollution, including implementing ambient brightness zoning, regulating lighting product usage, and establishing dark sky reserves. Technology and policy should be integrated. The precise data coming from satellite imagery, drones, and balloons could provide guidance when making the policies.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF IOT BASED HOTEL ROOMS OCCUPANCY REPORTING SYSTEM

Advances in technology applications are becoming more visible in everyday activities as the globe becomes more technologically skilled and evolved. Being able to receive and execute control is critical in the age of Internet of Things technology and control. This pattern eventually led to the development of an Internet of Things (IoT) system for reporting room occupancy as a promising technique or system for determining the availability of rooms and buildings. This method lowers human mistake, mismanagement, and energy use, all of which directly translate to decrease hotel running costs, possibly to zero. As a result, it is conceivable that the number of guests staying in Nigerian hotels has risen significantly. If this is the case, good management will most certainly result in an immense rise in profits. However, sharp practices among hotel employees tend to divert the profit met for the owners, thus this project is designed to automatically report hotel occupancy easily accessible to owners. An infrared detection circuit was used detect human movement and a lithium-ion battery that supplied 3.7 volts was used as the power supply for the circuit while a GPRS module (a SIM 800L GSM module) was utilized to receive and transmit data messages via radio waves, and an LGT8F328P microcontroller controlled every other component in the circuit. An android application was developed and installed on a mobile phone to gather all of the real-time readings and events that take place throughout the project’s system. The programming of the microcontroller was done using the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software and C++ programming language. When the project was turned on, I saw that all of the LEDs turned on automatically. The first two LEDs (brown and green) were automatically turned on, as were the corresponding room LEDs. After that, the green LED turned off. When the infrared LEDs’ visibility is obscured, their input to the phototransistors in each room and the LEDs attached to each room automatically turn on, indicating that the rooms are occupied and vice versa. The various room compartments’ check-ins and check-outs are tracked, managed, and updated using the proposed hardware. The data is then transmitted to the IoT cloud and eventually to the Android application

Understanding the bearable link between ecology and health outcomes: the criticality of human capital development and energy use

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries share a common context of critical ecological issues and trans border conflicts that threaten the quality of life and long-term stability of the region. The lack of water and arable land in particular has been a significant aspect of the region's history, but in more recent times, these pressures have grown in correlation with development patterns. Previous studies in this regard based on MENA countries data have failed to capture the holistic impact of the environmental risk factors on health outcomes. This study examines the bearable link between ecology and health outcomes, accounting for the criticality of human capital and energy use in the MENA region. The study employs second generation econometrics methods - system GMM, panel quantile regression via moments, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test on panel data covering 2008–2017. The empirical results establish a trade-off between the ecological factors and health outcomes. Specifically, ecological footprint as a measure of environmental quality is positively related to health outcomes, while biocapacity is negatively and insignificantly associated with health outcomes. Both effects of the two environmental factors are undesirable. Furthermore, the results show that human capital has the desired positive and significant effect on health outcomes, while the effect of energy use is negative. Based on the findings, the study provides several policy options that would help to deescalate the pressure on the natural resources.

Effects of human capital, natural resource, urbanization, energy consumption on carbon emissions in the top ten emitter countries

The entire world is facing the problem of changing climate and distortion of environmental quality due to the rapid increase in carbon emissions. Therefore, this study was planned to examine the world’s top ten carbon emitter countries, and the time extent was from 1990 to 2019. We employed panel Kao cointegration and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) techniques to explore the effect of human development, natural resources, urbanization, and energy use on carbon emissions. The Kao cointegration test results reveal that endogenous variables in the study have robust cointegration with carbon emissions. The PMG techniques results suggest that natural resources, urbanization, and energy use positively impact carbon emission in the top ten carbon emitters countries. Conversely, human development has a negative impact on carbon emission in the selected sampled nations. Based on the study’s outcomes, the officials and policymakers of the sampled selected countries must set a policy to ensure environmental sustainability despite slowing down the process of economic development. More efforts are required to improve the human development index in the sampled selected economies. The overexploitation of natural resources should be revoked immediately to avoid more environmental damage. Further, green energy and urbanization should be introduced and publicized more effectively among society.

In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy

In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy

Solar-Driven Soil Remediation along with the Generation of Water Vapor and Electricity.

As a renewable energy source, solar energy has become an important part of human energy use. However, facilities utilizing solar energy are often complex and technically difficult, and preparation equipment and materials are expensive, while these equipment and materials often cause new environmental pollution. Soil, which exists in large quantities on the earth’s surface, is an inexhaustible natural material with loose and stable properties. Due to the specificity of its composition and microscopic form, the soil has an inherent advantage as a medium for solar thermal and photovoltaic conversion. Here, we built an integrated solar energy utilization system, the Integrated Soil Utilization Module (ISUM), integrating multi-functions into one hybrid system, which enables solar-driven water vapor and electricity generation and soil remediation. The evaporation rate of the soil represented by the rocky land was 1.2 kg·m−2·h−1 under 1-sun irradiation with evaporation induced voltage of 0.3 V. With only seven days of continuous exposure to sunlight, the removal of heavy metal ions from the soil reached 90%, while the pH was raised to near neutral. The combined application of readily available natural soil with solar energy not only demonstrates the potential of a soil for solar desalination and power generation, but in addition, solar-driven interfacial evaporation provides an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable method for purifying heavy metal and acid-contaminated soil.

The impact of online education on carbon emissions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic – Taking Chinese universities as examples

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had various impacts on economic and social development, it may have partially reduced human energy use, thereby helping achieve the goals of reducing carbon emissions and promoting carbon neutrality. During the pandemic, online education was widely used to replace traditional education all over the world. There is a lack of empirical studies on whether and to what extent the change of education model can reduce carbon emissions. Taking Chinese universities as cases, this study, concentrating on two main elements – transportation and electricity consumption – constructs a model and calculates the impact of online education on carbon emissions. The results show that online education can significantly reduce energy consumption and lower carbon emissions. In the field of higher education alone, the carbon emissions reduction caused by online education in half a year is equivalent to the total carbon emissions reduction of college students caused by online education during the half-year is equivalent to the total carbon emissions in 1.296 h in China, 2.688 h in the United States, 5.544 h in India, 12 h in Japan and 3.864 h in European countries of OECD. Therefore, this study suggests that the impact of online education on carbon emissions should be further studied, online education should be promoted through legislation and other systemic measures, and the goals of carbon emissions and carbon neutrality should be explored further within the field of education.

Understanding the Bearable Link between Ecology and Health Outcomes: The Criticality of Human Capital Development and Energy Use

Understanding the Bearable Link between Ecology and Health Outcomes: The Criticality of Human Capital Development and Energy Use

Reshaping energy policy based on social and human dimensions: an analysis of human-building interactions among societies in transition in GCC countries

Without major structural changes, social sciences can potentially bolster economic diversification and strategic planning efforts in developing countries. This article presents an analysis of a set of human-oriented dimensions to enhance energy policies associated with the building sector in developing countries with similarities to the Gulf Cooperation Council union (GCC). A clear understanding of human dimensions in the GCC union’s energy policy is crucial due to social complexities and large numbers of expatriate communities and migrant workers with unknown cultural, behavioral, and financial diversities with respect to local communities. This study evaluates the correlations of demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral dimensions with human–building interactions to identify the main contributors that create discrepancies in human habits, well-being, motivations, responsibilities, and energy use based on a sample of 2200 respondents in Qatar. Moreover, this study is extended to explore human indoor comfort perception dependencies with building features. Behavioral associations with financial drivers, including energy subsidies and demand response programs, are investigated. The patterns in the data are analyzed and attributed to applications in energy policy concerning awareness, social well-being, and interventions. The sample is clustered into various consumer classes, and a feature importance analysis is conducted via machine learning methods to find the key contributors to consumer behavior. The outcomes show profound insight into how human factors influence consumption, consequence awareness, self-responsibility, habits, norms, and comfort perception in residential and work environments. The findings of this study can assist decision-makers in creating targeted strategies to enhance the efficacy of energy policies and improve sustainability performance indicators.

Northern hemisphere cold air outbreaks are more likely to be severe during weak polar vortex conditions

Severe cold air outbreaks have significant impacts on human health, energy use, agriculture, and transportation. Anomalous behavior of the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex provides an important source of subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability of Northern Hemisphere cold air outbreaks. Here, through reanalysis data for the period 1958–2019 and climate model simulations for preindustrial conditions, we show that weak stratospheric polar vortex conditions increase the risk of severe cold air outbreaks in mid-latitude East Asia by 100%, in contrast to only 40% for moderate cold air outbreaks. Such a disproportionate increase is also found in Europe, with an elevated risk persisting more than three weeks. By analysing the stream of polar cold air mass, we show that the polar vortex affects severe cold air outbreaks by modifying the inter-hemispheric transport of cold air mass. Using a novel method to assess Granger causality, we show that the polar vortex provides predictive information regarding severe cold air outbreaks over multiple regions in the Northern Hemisphere, which may help with mitigating their impact.

Comparison of Driving Forces to Increasing Traffic Flow and Transport Emissions in Philippine Regions: A Spatial Decomposition Study

The warming of the climate system has raised a lot of concerns for decades, and this is traceable to human activities and energy use. Conspicuously, the transportation sector is a great contributor to global emissions. This is largely due to increasing dependence on private vehicles and a poorly planned public transportation system. In addition to economic impacts, this also has significant environmental and sustainability implications. This study demonstrates a novel approach using spatial logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to analyze drivers of traffic flow and its corresponding CO2 emissions in regions through an illustrative case study in the Philippines. Population growth is revealed as the main driver to traffic flow in most regions with the exception of a few regions and the national capital which are driven by economic activity. The economic activity effect shows positive trends contributing positively to traffic flow which is greatly linked to income level rise and increase in vehicle ownership. Concerning the impacts, results revealed that an increase in economic activity generally causes traffic intensity to decrease, and switching to more sustainable modes is not a guarantee to reduce carbon emissions. The authors recommend increasing equity on the appropriation of transport infrastructure projects across regions, quality improvement of public transport services and promoting mixed-use development.

A comprehensive comfort assessment method for indoor environmental quality in university open-plan offices in severe cold regions

This paper presents a comprehensive comfort assessment method for indoor environmental quality in university open-plan offices (UOROs) in severe cold regions based on the combination weighting method. The questionnaires for the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method were firstly collected from 405 experts to obtain the subjective weighting scheme of UOROs. Then, the field measurements of four environmental factors of 22 UOROs were conducted and the corresponding 1352 questionnaire surveys on the subjects’ comfort were collected. The relationships between four comfort factors and indoor environmental parameters were obtained from the field studies, and the objective weighting scheme was calculated using the entropy method (EM). Based on the game theory, the combination weighting scheme was given via integrating the results of the FAHP method and EM. The comprehensive comfort index for UOROs was finally provided by combining factor weights and fitting formulas, and the rationality and correctness of the method were demonstrated via experimental verification. Furthermore, the comparison of the weighting schemes between this study and other studies was discussed and the results revealed that the requirements of researchers for the sound environment were higher than normal office workers. The comprehensive comfort assessment method in this study can help designers and users to improve building performance by adjusting indoor environmental parameters and also make them better balance the relationship between human comfort and energy use.

Health Hazards for Women in Tobacco Cultivation in Andhra Pradesh, India

Women workers in Andhra Pradesh play a crucial role in tobacco cultivation. This article discusses their involvement in regular operations and examines and assesses the health hazards they risk in the course of their work. There is an uneconomical use of human energy due to long hours of work, task postures deleterious to the body and exposure to pesticides. The tedious work, inhospitable environment and poor socio-economic conditions lead to chronic morbidity. It is unfortunate that these workers are not getting the protection of laws that apply to them. Massive intervention in this sector is a responsibility of the departments of labour and public health.

Mathematical modeling and optimal control of carbon dioxide emissions from energy sector

Energy demand is rising day by day and will continue to increase to meet the demand of the growing population. A major portion of global energy production comes from fossil fuel burning, resulting in the increase in the atmospheric burden of global warming gas carbon dioxide ( $$CO _{2}$$ ). Cutting down $$CO _{2}$$ emission from the energy sector is crucial to meet the climate change mitigation target. This paper is focused on fulfilling two objectives: The first objective is to present a mathematical model that captures the dynamical relationship between the human population, energy use, and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the second aim is to derive a mathematical framework to effectively utilize the available mitigation options to curtail $$CO _{2}$$ emission from energy use by proposing an optimal control problem. The mitigation options that reduce the $$CO _{2}$$ emission rate from energy production, as well as the options that reduce the energy consumption rate, are considered in the modeling process. The proposed mathematical model is analyzed qualitatively to comprehend the system’s long-term behavior. The model parameters are fitted to real data of global energy use, population, and $$CO _{2}$$ concentration. It is shown that the equilibrium level of $$CO _{2}$$ reduces with the increase in the efficiencies of mitigation options to reduce the $$CO _{2}$$ emission rate per unit energy use and energy consumption rate. The optimality system is derived analytically by taking the efficiencies of the mitigation options to reduce the $$CO _{2}$$ emission rate and energy consumption rate as control variables. Numerical simulations are conducted to validate the theoretical findings and identify the optimal profiles of control variables under different settings of $$CO _{2}$$ emission rate, energy consumption rate, and maximum efficiencies of available mitigation options to cut down $$CO _{2}$$ emission rate and energy consumption rate. It is found that the development and implementation of more efficient mitigation options and switching to low carbon energy sources bring reduction in the mitigation cost.

Use of Human Step Energy as an Alternative Energy Source

The work is devoted to the development of an electrogeneration system that uses kinetic energy of human pitch. Traditional methods of electricity production using thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants and nuclear power plants are considered. Hydroelectric and nuclear power plants have the advantage of production capacity. The main disadvantage of a thermal power plant is atmospheric pollution, a nuclear power plant is likely to have radioactive contamination, and their common disadvantage is thermal water pollution. Hydroelectric power plants have less production capacity, but are environmentally better than the above-mentioned power plants. The main alternative to these stations are power plants that use wind and solar energy. The main advantage of wind power plants is the possibility of round-the-clock power generation and the ability to install almost anywhere where there is constant air movement. The main disadvantages of wind power plants are the instability of power generation due to the instability of the air flow and the generation of infrasound during operation. The advantage of solar panels is their high environmental friendliness, the ability to install anywhere. The disadvantage is the need for a large area to produce sufficient capacity and the feasibility of location in more sunny regions. These disadvantages are absent in the pavement tile Pavegen. A characteristic feature of this technology is the generation of electricity through the use of kinetic energy in human steps. The disadvantage is the inappropriate installation in places of low intensity of movement of people. The surface of the tile is made of recycled tires for durability, abrasion resistance and the prospect of further disposal of the tires. The case is made of stainless steel. When pressed, the tile surface flexes by 5-10 mm, forcing the integrated converters to generate electricity through the effects of piezoelectric effect and electromagnetic induction. One step generates 2 to 4 J of autonomous energy, or about 5 watts per step. The block diagram of the developed power generation system includes a power generating tile that generates electricity, a voltage regulator 12 V, lead-helium battery as a drive, microcontroller, sensor, communication module, stabilizer unit, power supply designed to ensure the stable operation of modules and monitoring of information on traffic intensity and amount of energy produced, and inverter. Lighting of the territory of the enterprise, premises, ventilation, etc. can be a load.

A review of select human-building interfaces and their relationship to human behavior, energy use and occupant comfort

In recent years, research has emerged to quantitatively and qualitatively understand occupants' interactions with buildings. However, there has been surprisingly little research on building interfaces and how their design, context (e.g., location), and underlying logic impact their usability and occupants’ perceived control, as well as the resulting comfort and energy performance. Research is needed to better understand how occupants interact with building interfaces in both commercial and residential applications; both applications are important to address as there are many differences in interface types, level of control and understanding, and even expectations of engagement. This paper provides a cursory review and discussion of select common building interfaces: windows, window shades/blinds, thermostats, and lighting controls. The goal of this paper is to review literature related to these human-building interfaces to explore interface characteristics, current design and use challenges, and relationships between building interfaces and occupants. Human-building interface interactions are complex, more research is needed to understand design, use, and characteristics. Common themes emerged throughout the literature review to explain occupant interactions (or lack of interactions) with building interfaces, which included thermal and visual comfort, ease and access of control, interface/control placement, poor interface/control design, lack of understanding, and social-behavioral dynamics.

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE IN THE PRODUCTION OF BAMBOO WOVEN WALL MATERIALS (DENDROCALAMUS ASPER)

Bamboo is a sustainable building material because the use of new materials is sustainable. In the City of Kendari, there are still craftsmen of bamboo woven wall material. This research is important to do because to reveal how to make bamboo woven wall material by local craftsmen in Kendari and to find out the pattern of making bamboo woven wall material against the principles of sustainable architecture. This research is aimed at identifying and reviewing work tools, work materials, and how to make bamboo woven wall material against the principles of sustainable architecture by local craftsmen in Kendari City. This study uses a case study method with a qualitative approach. This study concluded that the principles of sustainable architecture in bamboo woven wall materials are as follows: working tools are used simply to reduce the use of new materials, the materials for making come from vegetation grown so that the location and natural resource ecosystems are sustainable, and how to make use of human energy so that it saves energy.

Prostor i etos

The article examines the inextricable conceptual connection of space and ethos with culture and citizenship. It claims that the city is a prominent space for deploying citizens’ codes of conduct, taking into account the particularities of all groups. It also suggests ways of academic activities, like the introduction of bioethical principles in schooling of the young parts of the population, in the education of a new generation of building industry professionals, and the underline of the role of bioethics in understanding the interactions between the built environment and health, human well-being, productivity, energy use and climate change. The article contains several urban space snapshots in order to illustrate the phenomena and it also refers to Thessaloniki, a Northern Greece city, mentioning the conduct of inhabitants or, works of the authorities, who viciously offend city’s memory traces and culture. Finally, it suggests a list of ten points in order to develop our understanding why Space and Ethos are inextricably and culturally bound as a basic bi-pole of Urban Bioethics and thus promote supranational standards of European citizenship. These ten points are certainly relevant and useful to the discussion of the topic, but vary in depth and domain.

Improving sustainability of ever-changing building spaces affected by users’ fickle taste: A focus on human comfort and energy use

The building spaces have been planned to satisfy the various conditions required for each use. However, actual users often utilize the building spaces by the changes in their preferences for other purposes outside the initial planning. In such situations, the existing building space and indoor control strategies may not operate properly, and the changed conditions may cause unnecessary energy use.This study presents a network based deterministic model responding to occupant's preferences that can deteriorate indoor comfort and energy efficiency. By use of two distinct situations assuming gradual changes in using spaces, a deterministic model combining two different algorithms analyses unexpected abnormal situations derived from the characteristics of spaces and occupants. In a building space where the changes in users’ metabolic rate and energy use are not large, the model improves human comfort level by 4.3% for the library and 2.5% for the workroom, respectively. In the other building space where the changes in both of the factors occur greatly, the model improves energy efficiency by 26.4% as compared to the thermostat on/off model and 44.1% to the conventional neural network model, respectively. It is theoretically confirmed that the deterministic process improves thermal attributes and energy savings, and that it is appropriately responsive to gradual changes in the use of indoor spaces derived from users’ preferences.