Increasing Energy Costs Research Articles

Effects of old age and contraction mode on knee extensor muscle ATP flux and metabolic economy in vivo.

We used 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy to quantify in vivo skeletal muscle metabolic economy (ME; mass-normalized torque or power produced per ATP consumed) during three 24s maximal-effort contraction protocols: (1) sustained isometric (MVIC), (2) intermittent isokinetic (MVDCIsoK ), and (3) intermittent isotonic (MVDCIsoT ) in the knee extensor muscles of young and older adults. ME was not different between groups during the MVIC but was lower in older than young adults during both dynamic contraction protocols. These results are consistent with an increased energy cost of locomotion, but not postural support, with age. The effects of old age on ME were not due to age-related changes in muscle oxidative capacity or ATP flux. Specific power was lower in older than young adults, despite similar total ATP synthesis between groups. Together, this suggests a dissociation between cross-bridge activity and ATP utilization with age. Muscle metabolic economy (ME; mass-normalized torque or power produced per ATP consumed) is similar in young and older adults during some isometric contractions, but less is known about potential age-related differences in ME during dynamic contractions. We hypothesized that age-related differences in ME would exist only during dynamic contractions, due to the increased energetic demand of dynamic versus isometric contractions. Ten young (Y; 27.5 ± 3.9 years, 6 men) and 10 older (O; 71 ± 5 years, 5 men) healthy adults performed three 24s bouts of maximal contractions: (1) sustained isometric (MVIC), (2) isokinetic (120°·s-1 , MVDCIsoK ; 0.5Hz), and (3) isotonic (load = 20% MVIC, MVDCIsoT ; 0.5Hz). Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the vastus lateralis muscle was used to calculate ATP flux (mM ATP·s-1 ) through the creatine kinase reaction, glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Quadriceps contractile volume (cm3 ) was measured by MRI. ME was calculated using the torque-time integral (MVIC) or power-time integral (MVDCIsoK and MVDCIsoT ), total ATP synthesis and contractile volume. As hypothesized, ME was not different between Y and O during the MVIC (0.12 ± 0.03 vs. 0.12 ± 0.02Nm. s. cm-3. mM ATP-1 , mean ± SD, respectively; P = 0.847). However, during both MVDCIsoK and MVDCIsoT , ME was lower in O than Y adults (MVDCIsoK : 0.011 ± 0.003 vs. 0.007 ± 0.002J. cm-3. mM ATP-1 ; P < 0.001; MVDCIsoT : 0.011 ± 0.002 vs. 0.008 ± 0.002; P = 0.037, respectively), despite similar muscle oxidative capacity, oxidative and total ATP flux in both groups. The lower specific power in older than young adults, despite similar total ATP synthesis between groups, suggests there is a dissociation between cross-bridge activity and ATP utilization with age.

Analysis on energy efficient green cloud computing

Cloud computing offers subscription based storage and resources. Cloud computing provides various services to cloud users. Increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has led to increase energy cost as well also increased emission of greenhouse gases like CO2. Since energy is an important asset, green cloud computing comes into picture. Green cloud computing can be achieved by applying various approaches, which uses lesser power as well as emits less CO2 gas, which is hazardous to environment. Energy efficient technologies results in decreased overall energy consumption. There is a need of data centre in almost every field like web applications and businesses which results in producing huge amount of CO2 in environment. To make data centres environmental friendly we need energy efficient approaches which will reduce energy consumption and there hazardous effects on environment. Data is being generated at very high speed so the need of data centres will also increase. Increased data centres will then consume more amount of energy. The main objective of these paper is to reviews various approaches applied by researchers to make energy efficient cloud computing.

Technical and Economic Study of Powering Poultry Farm in Egypt Using PV-Biomass on-grid Energy Generation System: Case Study

The main goal of this work is to find economical alternative energy supply solution for poultry industry in Egypt. By studying the economic feasibility of using hybrid renewable energy resources as main source of power for existing poultry farm in Egypt to reduce existing operational cost of energy and add resilience and reliability dimensions for the operation of poultry farm in rural locations. In addition to reducing the environmental impact of using poultry litter in its fundamental form. This hybrid system connected to grid is used in the company to avoid instability problem in which the company suffered when they applied biomass energy source as main power source to their farm in Lebanon. The grid will be used as energy storage during the excess energy production form the hybrid system and to add some resilience and reliability dimensions to the hybrid system to prevent instability to the farm ‘s grid due to the high penetration of renewable energy. The economic feasibility is evaluated of this configuration using HOMER versus different configurations and sizes for these systems including the existing situation of depending only on grid as main source of energy. The results showed that the best configuration is 400 kW biomass generator, and 500 kW PV plant will satisfy the average demanded load of 9660 kWh daily with using the grid as backup energy source. The cost of energy for this configuration will be 0.0894 $/kWh which is lower than continuing existing situation depending on the grid as main source of power in which its Cost of Energy (COE) will reach during the lifetime of the project to 0.184 $/kWh due to the increase in COE in Egypt by 8%.

Cost-effective energy billing mechanisms for small and medium-scale industrial customers in Uganda

Many African countries are facing an astronomical rise in electricity tariffs resulting in the shutdown of many promising small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). Increases in energy costs get reflected in the cost of production of goods and services making some local products even more expensive than the imported goods. This study finds an alternate cost-effective energy billing system for SME industrial customers to lower their cost of production. As a case study, a solar hybrid system of a coffee processing industry in Uganda is designed. The system is compared with the existing grid backed-up with a generator and the grid alone systems. From the analysis, the coffee factory had huge savings within one year reducing the simple payback period by 5 years. The findings of this study suggest that for sustainability and long-term growth of small and medium scale enterprises, distributed generation systems with net metering mechanisms are the most economical energy supply systems in Uganda. Other African nations with similar energy resources and challenges can support the development of their SME sectors through the establishment of net metering policies to enable a cost-effective energy billing system.

An energy-oriented maintenance policy under energy and quality constraints for a multielement-dependent degradation batch production system

In recent years, to attain a competitive edge, merely optimizing the production efficiency is no longer the whole story that the manufacturing enterprises concentrate on. Instead, the increasing energy costs are driving manufacturing enterprises to seek an energy-oriented approach further to improve the overall performance of the production systems. Therefore, an opportunistic maintenance policy under energy and quality constraints is developed for a degrading batch production system in this paper. First and foremost, the degradation process of the production system is modeled using the Lévy-type processes, meanwhile, the concept of the multielement-dependent degradation model was first put forward to describe the energy and quality degradation in production systems during the work period. Secondly, the degradation constraint threshold, energy constraint threshold, and quality constraint threshold are developed to determine the maintenance groups which include the machines that require two types of maintenance, preventive and corrective. Subsequently, in order not to interrupt the batch production activities, the changeover time between every two batches is regarded as an energy saving window to perform maintenance actions for the integrated maintenance groups. Thirdly, an energy-oriented integrated model that optimizes the total cost rate in consideration of energy and quality is developed, and the optimal maintenance combination scheme can be obtained by the Monte Carlo method. Finally, a numerical example is used to prove the effectiveness of the proposed policy.

Gaz Yakıtlı Kombi Sistemlerin Mikrodenetleyici Yardımıyla Kontrolü ve Enerji Verimliliği

Günümüzde enerji kullanımının ve enerji maliyetlerinin arttığı göz önünde bulundurularak, enerjinin tüketildiği yerlerde enerjinin verimli kullanımı büyük önem kazanmıştır. Bilinçsizce tüketilen enerji, enerji kaynaklarına ve ekolojik açıdan doğaya zarar vermektedir. Bundan dolayı tüketilmekte olan enerjinin yönetilmesine ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Kullanıcıların, çoğu zaman farkında olmadan ihtiyacından daha fazla enerji tükettikleri görülmektedir. Enerji yönetiminin amacı, enerji tüketimini azaltmak yerine, enerjiyi daha verimli biçimde kullanabilmektir. Etkin bir enerji yönetimi sayesinde, enerji kaynaklarının kullanım ömrünün uzatılması, enerjinin verimli kullanılması ve enerji maliyetlerinin düşürülmesi sağlanmış olacaktır. Bu çalışma, doğal gaz yakıt enerjisi kullanarak ısı enerjisi üreten kombi sistemine uyarlanmıştır. Kombi sistemine entegre edilen mikrodenetleyici kullanılarak radyatör ve oda sıcaklıkları manuel veya otomatik hale getirilerek tüketilen doğalgaz enerjisinin daha verimli tüketilmesi böylelikle tasarruf edilmesi amaçlanmıştır.

Substrate-Independent, Regenerable Anti-Biofouling Coating for Polymeric Membranes.

Biofouling is a common but significant issue in the membrane process as it reduces permeate flux, increases energy costs, and shortens the life span of membranes. As an effective antibacterial agent, a small amount of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) immobilized on membrane surfaces will alleviate the membrane from biofouling. However, loading AgNPs on the membrane surface remains a challenge due to the low loading efficiency or the lack of bonding stability between AgNPs and the membrane surface. In this study, a substrate-independent method is reported to immobilize silver nanoparticles on polymeric membrane surfaces by firstly modifying the membrane surface with functional groups and then forming silver nanoparticles in situ. The obtained membranes had good anti-biofouling properties as demonstrated from disk diffusion and anti-biofouling tests. The silver nanoparticles were stably immobilized on the membrane surfaces and easily regenerated. This method is applicable to various polymeric micro-, ultra-, nano-filtration and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes.

Energy cost to produce and transport crops – The driver for crop prices? Case study for Mato Grosso, Brazil

In recent years, agricultural commodity prices have followed trends similar to those observed in crude oil markets. A respective hypothesis to explain this finding: Agricultural production is so energy intensive that increasing energy costs drive cost of production of crops and ultimately commodity prices. This paper will provide answers to the question: What is the share of energy costs in total cost of production for agricultural commodities, including the transport of these commodities to ports? A case study-based calculation for cost of production and transport of soybeans and corn produced in Mato Grosso, Brazil reveals that energy costs play a significant role in total cost at the port. However, given the fact that this share is around 35%, at most, it does not seem likely that a strong correlation between crude oil prices and agricultural commodity prices is caused primarily by the energy costs of crop production and related transport.

Corrosion Resistance of Rolled and Welded Tube-to-Tube Sheet Joints Made Using Different Technologies

In the manufacture of heat exchange equipment, which has been widely used in the oil and gas industry, arc welding methods are often used. This can lead, depending on the material performance of the apparatus, to a significant increase in energy and labor costs. The purpose of the studies in this article was to find out whether samples obtained using friction welding technology, which is an alternative to arc welding methods, meet the requirements for corrosion resistance of heat exchange equipment from heat-resistant hardening steels during its operation, and also compare them with samples obtained using arc welding methods. To do this, studies were carried out on the microstructures of welded joints and distributions of electrode potential values in various zones of welded joints and base metal. At the end of the article, conclusions are drawn based on a comparison of the microstructures of the investigated compounds, as well as the distribution of electrode potential values over the base metal and welded joint of samples made using various welding methods.

Should commercial mortgage lenders care about energy efficiency? Lessons from a pilot study

Commercial mortgage underwriting practices currently do not fully account for energy risks to net operating income (NOI), especially changes in energy costs over the course of a mortgage term. This paper first introduces two metrics that can be used to characterize the increase in default risk due to increases in energy costs during a mortgage term: decrease in debt service coverage ratio (ΔDSCR); and increase in probability of default (ΔDP). Both these metrics were designed to be simple to calculate, utilizing data that are already being collected in loan applications. Next, we present results from a pilot study on the application of these metrics to five loans from three lenders. The results show that energy risks can vary between different properties and across different years within a given property, due to variations in energy usage. All three lenders concurred that these results suggest energy risks can in fact be material, and affirmed the metrics are a viable approach to incorporate energy risk analysis into mortgage underwriting. The policy implications include energy cost disclosure in loan applications; and incentives such as lower interest rates for energy efficient buildings and additional loan proceeds to improve efficiency and lower energy costs.

Distributed Control of Multizone HVAC Systems Considering Indoor Air Quality

This article studies a scalable control method for multizone heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to optimize the energy cost for maintaining thermal comfort (TC) and indoor air quality (IAQ) (represented by CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) simultaneously. This problem is computationally challenging due to the complex system dynamics, various spatial and temporal couplings, as well as multiple control variables to be coordinated. To address the challenges, we propose a two-level distributed method (TLDM) with an upper level and lower level control integrated. The upper level computes zone mass flow rates for maintaining zone TC with minimal energy cost, and then, the lower level strategically regulates zone mass flow rates and the ventilation rate to achieve IAQ while preserving the near energy-saving performance of upper level. As both the upper and the lower level computation are deployed in a distributed manner, the proposed method is scalable and computationally efficient. The near-optimal performance of the method in energy cost saving is demonstrated through comparison with the centralized method. In addition, the comparisons with the existing distributed method show that our method can provide IAQ with only little increase of energy cost, while the latter fails. Moreover, we demonstrate that our method outperforms the demand-controlled ventilation (DCVs) strategies for IAQ management with about 8%–10% energy cost reduction. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners:</i> The high portion of building energy consumption has motivated the energy saving for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. Concurrently, the living standards for indoor environment are rising among the occupants. Nevertheless, the status quo on improving building energy efficiency has mostly focused on maintaining thermal comfort (such as temperature), and the indoor air quality (IAQ) (usually represented by CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> level) has been seldom incorporated. In our previous work with the similar setting, we observed that the CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> levels will surge beyond tolerance during the high occupancy periods if only thermal comfort (TC) is considered for HVAC control. This deduces the IAQ and TC should be jointly considered while pursuing the energy cost saving target and thus studied in this article. This task is computationally cumbersome due to the complex system dynamics (thermal and CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) and tight correlations among the different control components (variable air volume and fresh air damper). To cope with these challenges, this work develops a two-level distributed computation paradigm for HVAC systems based on problem structures. Specifically, the upper level control (ULC) first calculates zone mass flow rates for maintaining comfortable zone temperature with minimal energy cost, and then, the lower level strategically regulates the computed zone mass flow rates as well as ventilation rate to satisfy IAQ while preserving the near energy-saving performance of the ULC. As both the upper and lower level calculations can be implemented in a distributed manner, the proposed method is scalable to large multizone deployment. The method’s performance both in maintaining comfort (i.e., TC and IAQ) and energy cost saving is demonstrated via simulations in comparisons with the centralized method, the distributed token-based scheduling strategy, and the demand-controlled ventilation strategies.

TRU Energy Monitoring for Potential Cost Saving in Electricity Bills for Cathodic Protection Units: South African Case

Reducing the electricity bill in the industrial sector is an important problem worldwide. This study focuses on the awareness of industries to Cathodic Protec-tion (CP) energy conservation and on the potential of reducing electricity bills by a change of tariff or making use of renewable energy. Due to the frequent increase in energy cost at a significant rate, many indusial consumers are looking for ways to reduce the monthly electricity bill. The study aims to identify if it will be possible to use options such as renewable energy to supply CP systems, or if a change of tariff can help reduce the monthly bills. To achieve this, a real-time energy-monitoring device “Efergy E2” was installed in one of the Transformer Rectifier Units (TRU), the monitored TRU is located at Ndwedwe reservoir 2 in the areas of Durban. Among other benefits, the hourly load data analysis can provide the detailed characteristics of load demand, define the consumption patterns and can help to identify where the consumer could reduce the electricity bill. The results indicate that the load is almost constant throughout the day and changing to Time of Use (TOU) tariff does reduce the bills. However, the fixed charges amount to 11 times energy charges, hence the best way is to make use of renewable energy rather than changing a tariff.

Opportunities for the use of hazelnut shell as a lightweight aggregate in the production of concrete

Today, the increase in heating and energy costs has increased the importance of insulation in buildings and new searches are being made for this purpose. As a result of these searches, studies on the production of lightweight concrete have come to the forefront, to improve the insulation properties of concrete. In this study, the usability of hazelnut shells, one of the important agricultural products of Turkey, which are post-harvest waste materials as a lightweight aggregate in concrete, was investigated. To this end, concrete was produced by replacing the aggregate with hazelnut shell by 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15%, and the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of this concrete, were examined. As a result of the study, it was determined that hazelnut shell, which is an agricultural waste, could be used as aggregate in the production of concrete and that lightweight concrete with sufficient strength and durability and improved heat and sound insulation could be produced, provided that the amount of hazelnut shell to be added to the mixture would not be more than 10% of the aggregate.

Carbon Taxes and Economic Inequality

Carbon taxation and the advancement of economic justice do not seem to be particularly consonant goals. But in fact, carbon taxation is vital to preserving economic justice, because it is the most important tool for arresting, to the greatest extent possible, climate change. Climate change is the most brutal segregator of haves and have-nots, and unless a dramatic economic transformation takes place quickly, climate change could drive inequality to apocalyptic extremes. Moreover, a carbon tax can, and should, be designed so that the revenues are distributed on a per-household or per-person basis, which would have a modest redistributive effect, because such lump-sum payments would have the effect of overcompensating most poor households and undercompensating most rich households for the increased energy costs resulting from a carbon tax. Despite almost universal approval from economists, carbon taxes remain politically challenging to enact, for three reasons. First, carbon taxes are viewed unfavorably because people superficially perceive carbon taxes as pure costs while paying only secondary attention (if any at all) to the revenue side, and the benefits that could be obtained using carbon tax revenues. Second, skepticism persists about the effectiveness of markets for changing behavior. And finally, concerns persist that carbon taxation is regressive, hurting poor households much more than rich ones. This essay offers a response to these concerns. While many measures must be undertaken to address economic inequality and unequal vulnerability to climate change, the most important step to take would be to enact a carbon tax in which the revenues are returned directly to taxpaying households on a per-household or per-person basis, leading to a modestly redistributive outcome. The only way to cure misperceptions about carbon taxation may simply to institute one, and let the outcomes speak for themselves.

An Optimal Energy-Saving Home Energy Management Supporting User Comfort and Electricity Selling With Different Prices

In this study, we investigate the operation of an optimal home energy management system (HEMS) with integrated renewable energy system (RES) and energy storage system (ESS) supporting electricity selling functions. A multi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming model, including RES, ESS, home appliances and the main grid, is proposed to optimize different and conflicting objectives which are energy cost, user comfort and PAR. The effect of different selling prices on the objectives is also considered in detail. We further develop a formula for the lower bound of energy cost to help residents or engineers quickly choose best parameters of RES and ESS for their homes during the installation process. The performance of our system is verified through extensive simulations under three different scenarios of normal, economic, and smart with different selling prices using real data, and simulation results are compared in terms of daily energy cost, PAR, user's convenience and consecutive waiting time to use appliances. Numerical results clearly show that the economic scenario achieves 51.6% reduction of daily energy cost compared to the normal scenario while sacrificing the user's convenience, PAR, and consecutive waiting time by 49%, 132%, and 1 hour, respectively. On the other hand, the smart scenario shows only slight degradation of user's convenience and PAR by 2% and 18%, respectively while achieving 46.4% reduction of daily energy cost and the same level of consecutive waiting time. Furthermore, our simulation results show that a decrease of selling prices has tiny impacts on PAR and user comfort even though the daily energy cost increases.

Improving the efficiency of equipment and technology of waste briquetting

The present-day problem of the accumulation of carbon waste was considered in connection with the aggravating urgency. General tendencies and approximate rational compositions of unprepared polydisperse fractions of mixtures of potential raw materials during their compaction and subsequent thermolysis have been experimentally determined. It was found that with an increase in moisture or binder content, solid carbon waste becomes more plastic and viscous (from 0.6 to 0.4), the coefficient of internal friction decreases. The effect of moisture on the coefficient of external friction is less noticeable (up to a 25 % reduction). It has been determined that preheating of the charge to 80 °C contributes to a decrease in density of the resulting briquettes (on average by 5–6 %) and leads to an increase in the coefficient of elastic expansion. Briquettes, all other things being equal, are 5–10 % stronger but a 1 % increase in strength accounts for a 2 % increase in energy costs. Upon re-compaction, a noticeable change in compression properties occurs. The briquette density increases by an average of 7 %. With a lower binder content, a 14 % increase in density was obtained. In this case, the increase in strength is directly proportional to energy consumption. An increase in binder content in briquets and their re-compaction were recommended. It has been found that with the optimized operation of the boiler plants that incinerate the briquetted waste, the coefficient of expenditure per year is 32.9 % less than the value of this index when using the equipment for recovery of unprepared waste. At the same time, the coefficient of influence on the environment over a 15-year period was 28.89 % less than the value of this index when operating similar equipment. The results obtained reasonably indicate that the optimized technology of waste briquetting and subsequent incineration is characterized by a significant increase in the environmental and economic efficiency of the waste recovery process

Numerical evaluation of the thermal performance of a near-surface earth-to-air heat exchanger with short-grass ground cover: A parametric study

Abstract High energy consumption and increasing energy cost have encouraged investment in energy efficiency. In hot areas, like the Middle East, the share of space cooling accounts for most of the total energy use in buildings. Earth-to-air heat exchangers represent an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly cooling technique. An earth-to-air heat exchanger buried near the ground surface with short-grass cover, which lowers the soil temperature by evapotranspiration, is an alternative to conventional deep buried types. In this study, a steady three-dimensional numerical model of this earth-to-air heat exchanger was developed by considering the conservation of mass, momentum, energy, and species. Soil temperature and moisture content measurements were used as boundary conditions for the model. In addition, the variations of soil temperature and thermal conductivity with depth were considered in the model. Numerical predictions of temperature matched experimental measurements within ±0.5 °C. Using the validated numerical model, the effect of inlet air temperature, airflow rate, tube length, material, wall thickness, and soil thermal conductivity on the earth-to-air heat exchanger thermal performance was investigated. Increasing the airflow rate and tube length resulted in an asymptotic increase and decrease in the earth-to-air heat exchanger outlet temperature, respectively. By increasing the tube wall thickness from 1 to 10 mm, the outlet temperature for an aluminum tube remained unchanged, while for PE and PVC tubes, the outlet temperature increased by about 1.1 and 2.2 °C, respectively. By increasing the soil thermal conductivity from 1 to 5 W m−1 K−1 the outlet temperature decreased by about 4.4 °C.

Rapid Weight Loss in Congolese Judo: Energy Profile, Performance and Haematological Effects

While the deleterious effects of rapid weight loss (RWL) on the health in combat sports athletes are well known, the issue of exertion energy expenditure and motor performance remains controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of RWL on energy cost and judo performance, and associated haematological characteristics. Among 21 top Congolese judoists who took part in an intensive judo program lasting 5 1/2 days (or 11 sessions), 16 of them rapidly lost 4% to 5.5% of body mass; corollarly with a reclassification in one of the 3 weight categories: -60 kg (n = 7), -80 kg (n = 5) and -100 kg (n = 4). During sessions 1 and 11, the energy cost during the different training sequences was evaluated from the heart rate (HR). During the program, a judo performance test evaluated 2 performance indicators: the number of uchi-komi achieved and the height of uke’s center of gravity during a throw. Basal blood parameters were determined before RWL and at S1, S11 (after the judo combat series). The results show a significant increase in heart rate from session S1 to session S11, in the different training sequences. HR after fights was around 98% of HRmax. In addition, a significant decrease in number of uchi-komi was observed on each of the bearings 4 to 6 and throughout the performance test, and in height of uke’s center of gravity during fall movements. While most of the basal blood parameters remained unaltered during the program, red blood cell was reduced significantly and a significant plasma volume changes increase was found. The modification of each of the variables measured thus reflects the negative effect of the rapid weight loss associated to the increase in energy cost in judo.

Optimization of residential green space for environmental sustainability and property appreciation in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona

Cities in arid and semi-arid regions have been exploring urban sustainability policies, such as lowering the vegetation coverage to reduce residential outdoor water use. Meanwhile, urban residents express concerns that such policies could potentially impact home prices regardless of the reduced water costs because studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between vegetation coverage and home values. On the other hand, lower vegetation coverage in arid and semi-arid desert regions could increase surface temperatures, and consequently increases energy costs. The question is therefore where the point in which residential outdoor water use can be minimized without overly increasing surface temperatures and negatively impacting home values. This study examines the impacts of spatial composition of different vegetation types on land surface temperature (LST), outdoor water use (OWU), and property sales value (PSV) in 302 local residential communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona using remotely sensed data and regression analysis. In addition, the spatial composition of vegetation cover was optimized to achieve a relatively lower LST and OWU and maintain a relatively higher PSV at the same time. We found that drought-tolerant landscaping that is composed of mostly shrubs and trees adapted to the desert environment is the most water efficient way to reduce LST, but grass contributes to a higher PSV. Research findings suggest that different residential landscaping strategies may be better suited for different neighborhoods and goal sets can be used by urban planners and city managers to better design urban residential landscaping for more efficient water conservation and urban heat mitigation for desert cities.

ЭНЕРГЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ОЦЕНКА АГРОТЕХНОЛОГИИ ЗЕРНОБОБОВЫХ КУЛЬТУР В ОРОШАЕМЫХ АГРОЦЕНОЗАХ

The research was conducted in the irrigated stationary crop rotation of FSBEI «Omsk agricultural research center» in the southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia. The aim of the research was to determine the bioenergetic efficiency of agricultural technology of seed peas, feed beans and soybeans on irrigated lands. The experiments studied influence of various conditions of mineral nutrition and inoculation of seeds with rhizotorphin on seed productivity of seed peas, feed beans and soybeans under irrigation. It was established that when cultivating peas, phosphorus (in action and aftereffect) increased energy cost per 1 ha from 14.10 to 17.23 GJ or 22%, the introduction of nitrogen fertilizers and microelements against increased phosphorus content – up to 17.14 GJ or 22%, and the pre – sowing introduction of mineral nitrogen, phosphorus and microelements against an increased content of P2O5-up to 20.26 GJ or 44%. At the same time, the increase in seed productivity of the crop provided an increase in gross energy in these variants by 39, 50 and 52%, respectively. It is shown that the improvement of conditions of mineral nutrition of beans provided an increase in energy from 31.32 to 44.84-47.66 GJ/ha or by 43-52%; soybeans-from 14.21 to 20.09-21.03 GJ / ha or by 41-48%. A weak effect of seed inoculation on the yield of various varieties of peas, beans and soybeans, and, as a result, on changes in bioenergetic efficiency indicators, was found. Of all the studied pea varieties, it is worth noting the varieties aksaysky usatyi 55, whose energy coefficient was at the level of 3.03, Yamalsky-2.92 and Blagovest – 2.49. The energy coefficient of various soybean varieties selected by the Omsk ASC was about 2.55-2.87. Feed beans surpassed peas and soybeans in this indicator – 3.55-3.77. Due to high seed productivity, beans have the lowest energy consumption per 1 ton of seeds-about 4.83 GJ.