Rise In Energy Use Research Articles

Analysis of an earth‐to‐air heat exchanger for enhanced residential thermal comfort

AbstractIt is well known that a massive demand for thermal comfort has resulted in a sharp rise in energy use for residential space heating and cooling. This article presents numerical simulations of a room coupled with an earth‐to‐air heat exchanger system operating at the climatic condition of 21.2497° N, 81.6050° E for both summer and winter seasons. The present study involves an estimate of monthly variations in soil temperature at different depths and a suitable geometrical arrangement of pipe is proposed. The thermal performance of the earth‐to‐air heat exchanger system in terms of the outlet air temperature and effectiveness has been calculated. It is shown that with an effectiveness of 0.77 in summer and 0.78 in winter, the present EAHE system reduces the ambient air temperature from 38 to 28.2°C in the summer and it rises from 13 to 22.9°C in winter, respectively. Finally, an improvement in the thermal comfort condition of the room exposed to the solar radiation has been examined at different time intervals and different heights of the room. During the summer the room temperature dropped by 4.2°C while in winter it rose by 5.2°C. Furthermore, the environmental effects of system have been evaluated, showing energy savings of 3.90 kWh/day during summer and 4.83 kWh/day during winter leading to a decrease in CO2 emissions of 6.13 kg/day in summer and 7.59 kg/day in winter.

Impact of Economic Growth, Energy use and Research and Development Expenditure on Carbon Emissions: An Analysis of 29 OECD Countries

This study attempts to investigate the impact of economic growth, energy use and research and development expenditure on carbon dioxide emissions for a panel of 29 Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) countries over 1995-2019. We employ two sets of econometric techniques.The first set of estimation techniques assumes cross sectional independence in the panel (also known as the first generation tests). The first generation tests include the panel unit root tests- Levin et al ( LLC), Im et al (IPS) ADF-Fisher and PP-Fisher unit root tests, Pedroni (1999) and Kao cointegration tests and the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) for computing output elasticities. The second set of econometric tests are performed after checking for cross sectional dependence using the second generation tests. These include Pesaran CD test, Breusch Pagan CD test, to establish cross sectional dependence followed by Cross-sectional augmented Im-Pesaran-Shin (CIPS) panel unit root test developed by Pesaran (2007)to test for panel stationarity followed by the error correction based panel cointegration test proposed by Westerlund and Edgerton (2007) with bootstrap. Augmented Mean Group (AMG) is performed to estimate output elasticities while Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) Panel Causality tests is done to ascertain causality between variables We obtain the same results for the effect of GDP and energy use on carbon emissions from the two strategies but conflicting results for the impact of research and development spending on carbon emissions, although there is evidence of stronger cointegration under the first generation tests. Based on findings from the two approaches, we conclude that with a rise in GDP, carbon emissions fall in OECD but increase with a rise in energy use. Aggregate research and development expenditure has a positive effect on carbon emissions under cross sectional independence but a neutral effect when estimated using cross-sectional dependence tests giving inconclusive results.

Analytical study on changes in domestic hot water use caused by COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 made considerable changes in the lifestyle of people, which have led to a rise in energy use in homes. So, this study investigated the relationship between COVID-19 and domestic hot water demands. For this purpose, a nondimensional and principal component analysis were conducted to find out the influencing factors using demand data before and after COVID-19 from our study site. Analysis showed that the COVID-19 outbreak affected the daily peak time and the amount of domestic hot water usage, the active case number of COVID-19 was a good indicator for correlating the changes in hot water demand and patterns. Based on this, a machine learning model with an artificial neural network was developed to predict hot water demand depending on the severity of COVID-19 and the relevant correlation was also derived. The model analysis showed that the increase in the number of active cases in the region affected the hot water demand increased at a certain rate and the maximum demand peak in morning during weekdays and weekends decreased. Furthermore, if the number of active cases reached more than 4000, the peak in morning moved to afternoon so that the energy use patterns of weekdays and weekends are assimilated.

Experimental Application of Bioclimatic Design Strategies for The Reduction of Cooling Energy Demand in Office Buildings In Tropical Hot-humid Climate

Energy consumption in buildings remains a major driver of global warming and is highly impacted by climate change. A fast-growing sector in the construction industry is office development; consuming energy (mainly for heating, cooling, air-conditioning and lighting) 10-20 times more than the residential sectors. It was implied in recent literature that a continuous increase in development means a continuous rise in energy use and building carbon footprint. The study experimented with the innovative design of an office building which explores bioclimatic design concept, optimization of the efficiency of systems and use of renewable energy to determine their impact on cooling energy demand and building carbon footprint. The study developed an experimental model and simulated it through computer simulation using the passive house planning package (phpp) to investigate cooling energy demand within the tropical warm-humid climate of Lagos, Nigeria. Simulated result of the experimental model of office building showed a reduction in cooling demand by 4.42% to achieve passive house standard. The study encourages the implementation of bioclimatic design strategies in the design of office buildings by the building professionals.

A NEW LOOK AT THE REMITTANCES-FDI- ENERGY-ENVIRONMENT NEXUS IN THE CASE OF SELECTED ASIAN NATIONS

This study investigates the association between remittances, FDI, energy use, and CO2 emissions for a sample of the top six Asian nations receiving remittances, namely, China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, during the 1982–2014 period. The results of employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bound technique signify that there is a stable long-run association among the stated variables. The empirical findings indicate that CO2 increases significantly with a rise in energy use in all sample nations in both the long and short-runs. Conversely, the association between CO2 emissions and remittances is found to be significantly positive for Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Bangladesh in the long-run, positive for Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka only in the short-term, and non-significant for India and China in both the long and short-runs. Furthermore, the empirical results illustrate that the inflow of FDI significantly increases CO2 emissions in the cases of China, Sri Lanka, and India in both the long and short-runs. While FDI inflow has no significant effect on CO2 emissions for the Philippines and Pakistan, it has a significant negative effect for Bangladesh in both the long and short-runs. Thus, the connection between remittances, FDI, and CO2 emissions varies significantly across the countries considered in our study.

Forecasting the Impact of Connected and Automated Vehicles on Energy Use: A Microeconomic Study of Induced Travel and Energy Rebound

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to yield significant improvements in safety, energy efficiency, and time utilization. However, their net effect on energy and environmental outcomes is unclear. Higher fuel economy reduces the energy required per mile of travel, but it also reduces the fuel cost of travel, incentivizing more travel and causing an energy “rebound effect.” Moreover, CAVs are predicted to vastly reduce the time cost of travel, inducing further increases in travel and energy use. In this paper, we forecast the induced travel and rebound from CAVs using data on existing travel behavior. We develop a microeconomic model of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) choice under income and time constraints; then we use it to estimate elasticities of VMT demand with respect to fuel and time costs, with fuel cost data from the 2017 United States National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and wage-derived predictions of travel time cost. Our central estimate of the combined price elasticity of VMT demand is −0.4, which differs substantially from previous estimates. We also find evidence that wealthier households have more elastic demand, and that households at all income levels are more sensitive to time costs than to fuel costs. We use our estimated elasticities to simulate VMT and energy use impacts of full, private CAV adoption under a range of possible changes to the fuel and time costs of travel. We forecast a 2–47% increase in travel demand for an average household. Our results indicate that backfire – i.e., a net rise in energy use – is a possibility, especially in higher income groups. This presents a stiff challenge to policy goals for reductions in not only energy use but also traffic congestion and local and global air pollution, as CAV use increases.

Energy use and carbon emissions from freight in 10 industrialized countries: An analysis of trends from 1973 to 1992

This paper reviews trends in freight activity and energy use in 10 industrialized countries from 1973 to 1992. We review changes in modes used to carry freight and analyze changes in the role of trucks. We carry out a decomposition of changes in freight energy use to identify the relative contribution of activity, modal structure, and energy intensity to the rise in energy use observed in each country. A similar analysis is carried out for carbon emissions, one of the many environmental problems associated with freight. Our three major findings are: (1) domestic freight volumes rose, with trucks carrying most of the increment, in almost every country we studied, (2) freight energy use and associated carbon emissions increased markedly and are rising vis-a-vis those associated with passenger travel in the 10 industrialized countries studied, and (3) energy use for freight will continue to rise unless there are substantial reductions in the energy intensities of truck freight. We conclude that restraining or reducing emissions from freight will be particularly difficult because the factors that increased energy use and emissions for freight in the past are still important to raising energy use for freight. Noting that emissions from most other sectors have either fallen or grown less than freight, we discuss technologies and policies that might lead to restraint in this sector in the future.

Sustaining life on the earth.

At the time of the toolmaking revolution around 1 million years ago human numbers rose to 5 million. As humans invented agriculture and animal husbandry the population grew to about 500 million. In 1994 the number was 5.6 billion; it may double or triple before leveling off again 300 years after the industrial revolution began. If the transition to a warmer more crowded more diverse world can be managed there may be promise of an environmentally sustainable future. The reconstructed population series for 4 ancient regions the Nile Valley (6000 years) the Tigris-Euphrates lowlands of Iraq (6000 years) the basin of Mexico (3000 years) and the central Maya lowlands of Mexico and Guatemala (2200 years) all show waves in which population doubled over the previous base and then fell by at least half. This raises questions about human life on the earth: perhaps even regions that are world leaders can collapse in modern times. Among likely threats are 3 areas of concern: 1) pollutants: acid rain in the atmosphere heavy metals in the soils and chemicals in the groundwater 2) global atmospheric dangers of nuclear fallout stratospheric ozone depletion and climatic warming 3) deforestation desertification and species extinction. 10 billion people would require a 4-fold increase in agricultural production a 6-fold rise in energy use and an 8-fold increase in the global economy. 2.1 births per woman is required for zero-population growth while the current birth rate is 3.2. In developing countries after World War II the life expectancy at birth was 40 years now it has increased to 65 years. The slowing of the rate of population growth everywhere is encouraging for sustaining life on the earth which requires cohabitation with the natural world; limits to human activity; and wider distribution of the benefits of human activity.