Savings Strategies Research Articles

Data Analysis of Heating Systems for Buildings—A Tool for Energy Planning, Policies and Systems Simulation

Heating and cooling in buildings is a central aspect for adopting energy efficiency measures and implementing local policies for energy planning. The knowledge of features and performance of those existing systems is fundamental to conceiving realistic energy savings strategies. Thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) development and energy regulations’ progress, the amount of data able to be collected and processed allows detailed analyses on entire regions or even countries. However, big data need to be handled through proper analyses, to identify and highlight the main trends by selecting the most significant information. To do so, careful attention must be paid to data collection and preprocessing, for ensuring the coherence of the associated analyses and the accuracy of results and discussion. This work presents an insightful analysis on building heating systems of the most populated Italian region—Lombardy. From a dataset of almost 2.9 million of heating systems, selected reference values are presented, aiming at describing the features of current heating systems in households, offices and public buildings. Several aspects are considered, including the type of heating systems, their thermal power, fuels, age, nominal and measured efficiency. The results of this work can be a support for local energy planners and policy makers, and for a more accurate simulation of existing energy systems in buildings.

Corporate Delivery of a Global Smart Buildings Program

Buildings account for about 40 percent of the total energy consumption in the U.S. and emit approximately one third of greenhouse gas emissions. But they also offer tremendous potential for achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions with the right savings strategies. With an increasing amount of data from buildings and advanced computational and analytical abilities, buildings can be made “smart” to optimize energy consumption and occupant comfort. Smart buildings are often characterized as having a high degree of data and system integration, connectivity and control, as well as the advanced use of data analytics. These “smarts” can enable up to 10–20% savings in a building, and help ensure that they persist over time. In 2009, Microsoft Corporation launched the Energy-Smart Buildings (ESB) program with a vision to improve building operations services, security and accessibility in services, and new tenant applications and services that improve productivity and optimize energy use. The ESB program focused on fault diagnostics, advanced analytics and new organizational processes and practices to support their operational integration. In addition to the ESB program, Microsoft undertook capital improvement projects that made effective use of a utility incentive program and lab consolidations over the same duration. The ESB program began with a pilot at Microsoft's Puget Sound campus that identified significant savings of up to 6–10% in the 13 pilot buildings. The success of the pilot led to a global deployment of the program. Between 2009 and 2015, there was a 23.7% reduction in annual electricity consumption (kWh) at the Puget Sound campus with 18.5% of that resulting from the ESB and lab consolidations. This article provides the results of research conducted to assess the best-practice strategies that Microsoft implemented to achieve these savings, including the fault diagnostic routines that are the foundation of the ESB program and organizational change management practices. It also presents the process that was adopted to scale the ESB program globally. We conclude with recommendations for how these successes can be generalized and replicated by other corporate enterprises.

Self-employment: is it a long-term financial strategy for women?

PurposeBecoming self-employed has appeal to both genders. For many women, balancing work and family is a key motivator. However, businesses owned and operated by women are often very small, with limited turnover. This potentially can have disastrous consequences when these women come to retire, unless a solid retirement savings strategy has been considered. The purpose of this paper is to outline many of the issues and implications of a lack of research in this area.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 201 small business owners via a convenience sample derived from various databases. The survey was completed on-line and analysed using SPSS.FindingsMany self-employed women in Australia have neither enough savings for their retirement, or an actual retirement plan. This is exacerbated by the lack of regulation requiring mandatory contributions into a superannuation (personal pension) fund by small business owners, unlike pay as you go employees, whose employers must contribute a certain about on their behalf.Social implicationsMiddle-to-older aged women are the biggest cohort of homeless people in Australia. This is likely to grow as self-employed Baby Boomers stop working and find they do not have sufficient personal financial resources to fund their retirement.Originality/valueWhereas there is much written about gender and small business ownership, as well as retirement and savings planning, these two areas have not been researched before in Australia. Yet it is an issue for the majority of small business owners, particularly women.

Rooftop analysis for solar flat plate collector assessment to achieving sustainability energy

The insufficiency of current energy sources, elevated costs and global climate worriment are distinctive factors making of renewable energy an issue of boosting consideration. In this concern, solar energy is viewed as being indefinitely environmental friendly, carbon-free, beneficial nature with appreciated cost potentials and is witnessing fast progressing. Following the Horizon 2020 climate and energy package, the volume of gases emitted by greenhouses has to be cut down by 20% by all the European Union (EU) member countries in order to enhance energy performance by 20% and raise the renewable energy rate to 20% by 2020. Solar energy on building roofs plays a crucial aspect in renewable and sustainable energy consumption of high-density human habitats. A merest energy should be allocated to provide hot water service from solar sources, as other European norms for new buildings by the Spanish Technical Building Code, similarly to other European regulation on achievement objectives. The climate zone and the overall demand of hot water in the building regulate this minimal amount needed. This manuscript use a new methodology for automatic detection of geometric patterns from aerial or space images using a Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) algorithm. In this way, an automatic method for the identification of building roofs in order to assess the opportunities available to install solar thermal systems in small urban areas has been developed. As case of study: a village with 7000 inhabitants was analyzed in the South of Spain. The maximum overall accuracy obtained among the different classifications made was 98.05%, avoiding problems related to the use of images with high spatial resolution, as in the salt-and-pepper noise effect. This approach contributes reducing the generated carbon and GHG emissions and open new perspectives for energy savings strategies to optimize the energy efficiency of buildings. In the case study, implementing the solar thermal systems would come out with a saving of 1.4 tons of CO2 per inhabitant.

Experimental Investigation of Energy Saving Opportunities in Tube Bending Machines

In the scenario of containing the global warming, devising energy savings strategies in industry has become a proper and urgent matter. Since manufacturing is one of the most energy demanding sectors, research and the linked industries started tackling this issue proposing new eco solutions. In this paper, an experimental investigation of the energy saving opportunities in tube bending machines is performed and critically discussed. The analysis is carried out comparing an electrical tube bender and a hydraulic machine of comparable size. The experimental measured are also used to fit energy models that are used to extend the comparison considering different working conditions of the tube-bending machines. The results show that relevant energy savings can be achieved introducing the electrical drives.

Institutionalizing Neoliberalism: 21st-Century Capitalism, Market Sprawl, and Social Policy in the United States

Neoliberalism is a foundational expression of 21st-century capitalism. This article advances critiques of neoliberal influences on social welfare in the United States by detailing how core neoliberal principles such as individualism, freedom of choice, rationality, self-interest, utilization of market mechanisms, and non-intervention of the state have become institutionalized in contemporary social services as (i) welfare capitalism, (ii) privatization, (iii) contract service delivery, (iv) individual savings strategies, (v) voucher systems, (vi) consumer-directed spending, and (vii) labor market activation. The authors provide an overview of capitalism and classic economic liberalism as incubators of neoliberalism and describe each mechanism and propose a framework to visualize their interrelated structure. As indicators of market sprawl, these mechanisms express and perpetuate deep market involvement in the health and human service sector. It is argued that the neoliberal institutionalization of social services is antithetical to the goals of a modern welfare system, and instead creates punitive and restrictive programs and policies. Recommended actions include critique and empirical examination of how market mechanisms influence the social services sector, specifically regarding the intermediary role of government-funded private sector service provision.

Cost Comparative Analysis to Evaluate Wastewater Service Charge Savings Strategies

The wastewater construction projects are needed for meeting the environment regulatory and compliance, preserving the sewer system and treatment infrastructure and reducing the sewer spills. However, most business owners do not understand the fundamental of the sewer service charge program and the current sewer service charge adjustment guideline only provides very basic information for the program. These business owners end up with significant amount of money and time wasted since they often fall short of qualification for sewer service charge adjustment. More importantly, no sewer service charge evaluation or cost benefit analysis is conducted for new construction projects. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to evaluate wastewater charge saving strategies through two case studies that include hospital buildings and large residential complex buildings having more than 100 units. Detailed cost comparative analysis is presented to show if the saving strategies are achievable for each case. Lastly, this paper recommends the best property management approach for the review of sewer service charge so that the significant amount of long term sewer service charge saving can be achieved for larger commercial project.

К вопросу оценки экономической безопасности ОАО «КМЗ» на основе реализации стратегии экономии издержек

К вопросу оценки экономической безопасности ОАО «КМЗ» на основе реализации стратегии экономии издержек

Savings Strategies of Russian Households from the Perspective of Retirement Provision

This paper investigates different saving strategies of Russian population such as bank deposits, deposits in precious metals and depersonalized metal accounts, investments in mutual funds and securities, investments in private pension funds and life insurance, investments in real estate. The overview of statistic data for the period of 2000th in context of general economic and social problems in Russia is given. Investment strategies are compared regarding their rates of return, safety and simplicity for the most part of population. For the first time we analyze the tax advantages of investment products corresponding to the Russian tax law.

ПРОГНОСТИЧЕСКАЯ МОДЕЛЬ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ПРИ ВЫБОРЕ СТРАТЕГИИ ПЕНСИОННЫХ НАКОПЛЕНИЙ: ВЫБОР АЛГОРИТМА И ВИЗУАЛИЗАЦИЯ РЕЗУЛЬТАТА

ПРОГНОСТИЧЕСКАЯ МОДЕЛЬ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ПРИ ВЫБОРЕ СТРАТЕГИИ ПЕНСИОННЫХ НАКОПЛЕНИЙ: ВЫБОР АЛГОРИТМА И ВИЗУАЛИЗАЦИЯ РЕЗУЛЬТАТА

A Balanced Budget with Side Effects—A Case Study of Implementation of a Hospital Cost Savings Program in Sweden

This study examines the implementation of a hospital cost savings program in a Swedish county hospital to understand how and why a downsizing intervention works and what outcomes it produces. Data were gathered from interviews and documents. Substantial differences were found among the healthcare professionals’ perceptions of the downsizing process. These diverse perceptions likely limited the scope of staffs’ participation and innovations of new savings strategies. Our findings stress the need for impact analyses addressing both intended aims and unintended side effects. Full attention should be paid to communication processes required to establish a trustful and committed change climate.

Field study of office worker responses to fluorescent lighting of different CCT and lumen output

A field study was performed to examine the effects of correlated color temperature (CCT) and lumen output of fluorescent lighting on office occupants' visual comfort, brightness perception, satisfaction, and self-reported productivity. Twenty-six participants were recruited (mean age = 38.8 years; age range = 23–55 years). Ten of them had daylight access in their personal work areas. Four lamp types were selected to create luminous conditions organized as a 2 × 2 factorial design, comprising two levels of CCT (i.e., 3500 and 5000 K) and lumen output (i.e., 2330 and ≈3000 lm). Each condition lasted two weeks. Under each condition, participants adapted during the first week. During the second week they completed ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) three times daily using smart phones. Two of the daily EMAs included questions about lighting. Participants also completed a web-based survey on the last day of each condition. The results from the EMA (60.0% response rate) and web-based (77.2% response rate) surveys were generally consistent, indicating that CCT significantly affected spatial brightness perception, visual comfort, satisfaction, and self-reported productivity. The luminous conditions at 5000 K (visually cooler) were rated to be brighter than those at 3500 K (visually warmer), especially when higher lumen output was in place. However, the increase in spatial brightness perception came with lower satisfaction, worse visual comfort, and worse self-reported productivity. The conditions at 5000 K were judged to be too cool, especially for those who had daylight in their work areas. The results of this study do not support the spectrally enhanced lighting (SEL) method advocated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as an energy savings strategy. Even when higher CCT resulted in higher spatial brightness perception, occupants' visual comfort and satisfaction were compromised.

Experimental and mathematical study of the discontinuous drying kinetics of pears

In the present work a set of experimental continuous and discontinuous pear drying procedures was analysed. The results were compared with the Fick’s diffusion model assuming a convective boundary condition enabling the determination of an effective diffusion coefficient and of the mass transfer coefficient on the product’s surface. A good agreement was observed between modelling and experimental data. As a consequence, it is also shown that the adoption of an evaporative condition on the surface is physically more consistent than the hypothesis of imposed equilibrium concentration on the surface at any instant, which is very often adopted in many works on drying kinetics of biological products. The solutions of the Fick’s diffusion equations were used to model the discontinuous drying procedure and it was shown that it is possible to develop an energy savings strategy in this type of processes. In particular, it is demonstrated that an increase of the number of pauses can lead to significant energy savings and that drying with solar energy, which is inherently discontinuous, is an effective method for this type of processes.

Long-Run Savings and Investment Strategy Optimization

We focus on automatic strategies to optimize life cycle savings and investment. Classical optimal savings theory establishes that, given the level of risk aversion, a saver would keep the same relative amount invested in risky assets at any given time. We show that, when optimizing lifecycle investment, performance and risk assessment have to take into account the investor's risk aversion and the maximum amount the investor could lose, simultaneously. When risk aversion and maximum possible loss are considered jointly, an optimal savings strategy is obtained, which follows from constant rather than relative absolute risk aversion. This result is fundamental to prove that if risk aversion and the maximum possible loss are both high, then holding a constant amount invested in the risky asset is optimal for a standard lifetime saving/pension process and outperforms some other simple strategies. Performance comparisons are based on downside risk-adjusted equivalence that is used in our illustration.

Thinking of Comprehensive Energy-Saving System Construction for Urban Rail Transit

The High Energy Consumption of the Current Urban Rail Transit Industry, High Efficiency Energy Saving Measures must be Taken. this Paper Entity from the Traction Energy Consumption, Building Structure and Operating Equipment Aspects of the Current Situation, Described the Energy Saving Strategies. Aiming at the Present Problems Existing in Energy Saving Practice, this Article Puts Forward the Comprehensive Energy Saving System which Contains Optimization Design in Planning Period, Low Resource Consumption in Construction Period, Energy Saving Work in Operation Period. above all, Implement Energy Saving Practice at Every Concrete Work of Reaching.

A Note on Mutual Savings and Loan Societies in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Mutual savings and loan societies played an important role in social and economic life in nineteenth-century Ireland yet, to date, they have been overlooked by economic historians of the island. This article addresses this lacuna by providing an overview of the history of Friendly Society Loan Funds (FSLFs) and Building Societies. It finds that there were a variety of savings strategies in urban Ireland and concludes that the economic function of these mutual institutions sheds light on other aspects of Irish history, such as Loan Fund Societies (LFSs), savings banks and cooperative banks.

Saving Costs using Smart Call Routing: Aligning Business and IT through Finance

This case describes the effective information technology (IT) business alignment considerations that led to the successful implementation of a telecommunication platform designed to efficiently route cell phone calls in a financial institution in Chile. The company had several branches throughout the country, including its headquarters in Santiago. This initiative was part of a Technology Cost Savings strategy generated in response to the 2008 crisis. The idea behind it was to align internal business leaders with the IT team in order to optimize these costs, realizing a more efficient telecommunication platform, and to work together, as several cost-reducing initiatives were being executed at the same time. Achievements were thoroughly reviewed by the board of directors, and thus pressure to clean up the house was high. At that time, when users called a cellular phone from a landline, the call was charged using a fee much higher than a mobile company rate. The goal of the project was naturally to optimize these charges. An automatic call routing was designed, discussed and executed with the participation of the business leaders, based on each branch's demand and projected growth. The case relates the project lifecycle: the mistakes made at the beginning, the initial platform tests and bottlenecks, the rejection and frustration of the business, and a posterior crisis control and recovery phase. IT alignment and sponsorship from the directors were crucial, as there was no way back. All these factors, plus the additional IT activities competing for business attention, made this project both a challenging and learning experience.

Energy Efficiency Opportunities and Savings Potential for Electric Motor and Its Impact on GHG Emissions Reduction

Motors are the single largest users of electric power, consuming over half of all electricity and more than 60% of that used in the industrial sector. The use of energy-efficient motor technologies offers utilities the possibility of achieving substantial energy savings and reduction of GHG emissions. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review about energy efficiency opportunities and savings potential for electric motor. This paper compiles latest literatures in terms of journal articles, conference proceedings, web materials, reports, books, handbooks on electrical motor energy use, and opportunities for energy efficiency as well as energy savings strategies. Besides, present status of the efficient motor technology, market potential have been presented in this paper. Also, different energy savings strategies such as rewinding, use of variable speed drive (VSD), and capacitor bank to improve the power factor to reduce their energy uses have also been reviewed. Furthermore, cost parameters to carry out economic analysis and payback period for different energy savings strategies have been shown as well. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v3i4.3592

Energy Saving Strategies in Green Data Center Designing Based on Aerosol Corrosion Prevention

Data centers (DC) are responsible for a large global electricity usage mainly due to their cooling systems. Air conditioning (AC) costs could be reduced using a Direct Free Cooling (DFC) system which uses outside air to directly cool the information technology (IT). However this approach involves the risk to introduce outdoor aerosol which can become electrically conductive if the surrounding air reaches the aerosol Deliquescence Relative Humidity (DRH), thus damaging electronic equipment. In this work we present a study aimed to increase DC energy efficiency, whilst at the same time preventing aerosol corrosion. The study was conducted in Italy at Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi (SdB, Po Valley), to specifically optimize the operating conditions of a DC designed for the Italian National Hydrocarbon Institution (ENI) (5,200 m 2 of IT installed, 30 MW). Aerosol number size distribution was monitored and allowed to estimate the aerosol level entering the DC; moreover aerosol chemical composition was investigated and allowed to estimate the aerosol free acidity and the aerosol DRH using the thermodynamic Aerosol Inorganic Model (E-AIM). E-AIM output were validated through laboratory tests, using an Aerosol Exposure Chamber, and through a comparison among “wet” and “dry” aerosol size distribution measured at SdB. From these data it was possible to design the filtering system of the DC and to estimate the outdoor air supply time, by DFC, and thus to estimate the energy consumption of the DC. A potential energy savings of 60% was estimated compared to a traditional AC cooling system with a potential energy saving of 7358 kWh and 2.67 t of CO2 (for 1 kW of installed IT).

Households’ Perceptions on Electricity Consumption in Slovenia

The electricity market liberalisation for households in Slovenia aims to encourage new suppliers’ entries and thus greater market competition in electricity supply. It is interesting to investigate how households’ consumption in Slovenia has reacted in response to new opportunities in selection of suppliers and what are the Slovenian households’ consumers perceptions in electricity consumption and in using more energy savings approaches in consumption of electrical energy. In 2010, we have conducted surveys with the sample of the Slovenian households’ electricity consumers. The questions relate to the households perceptions on estimation of competition in households’ electricity markets and on perceptions to implement in a household practice more efficient electrically energy savings strategies. The collected survey data are processed by use of summary statistics and multivariate factor analysis. We have found the increasing awareness and perceptions of the Slovenian households towards better quality of electricity supply with advices in savings strategies of electricity consumption, but still a bit less towards more electrical energy consumption from the renewable sources of electrical energy. This implies that additional promotional and educational activities are needed to comply with the objectives to encourage a greater market competition as well as to improve households’ efficiency in energy use and to increase the use of electrical energy from the renewable sources of energy.