IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v73y2002i3-4p299-328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measures used to lower building energy consumption and their cost effectiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Florides, G. A.
  • Tassou, S. A.
  • Kalogirou, S. A.
  • Wrobel, L. C.

Abstract

This study uses the TRNSYS computer program, for the modelling and simulation of the energy flows of modern houses, to examine measures to reduce the thermal load. For the calculations, a typical meteorological year (TMY) and a typical model house are used. The measures examined are natural and controlled ventilation, solar shading, various types of glazing, orientation, shape of buildings, and thermal mass. In summer, ventilation leads to a maximum reduction of annual cooling load of 7.7% for maintaining the house at 25 °C. The effect depends on the construction type, with the better-insulated house saving a higher percentage. Window gains are an important factor and significant savings can result when extra measures are taken. The saving in annual cooling load, for a well-insulated house, may be as much as 24% when low-emissivity double glazing windows are used, which are recommended since the payback period is short (3.8 years). Overhangs may have a length over windows of 1.5 m. In this way, about 7% of the annual cooling load can be saved for a house constructed from single walls with no roof insulation. These savings are about 19% for a house constructed from walls and roof with 50 mm insulation. The shape of the building affects the thermal load. The results show that the elongated shape shows an increase in the annual heating load, which is between 8.2 and 26.7% depending on the construction type, compared with a square-shaped house. Referring to orientation, the best position for a symmetrical house is to face the four cardinal points and for an elongated house to have its long side facing south. In respect to thermal mass, the analysis shows that increasing the wall and roof masses and utilizing night ventilation is not enough to lower the house temperature to acceptable limits during summer. Also, the analysis shows that the roof is the most important structural element of the buildings in a hot environment. The roof must offer a discharge time of 6 h or more and have a thermal conductivity of less than 0.48 W/mK. The life-cycle cost analysis has shown that measures that increase the roof insulation, pay back in a short period of time, between 3.5 and 5 years. However, measures taken to increase wall insulation pay back in a long period of time, of about 10 years.

Suggested Citation

  • Florides, G. A. & Tassou, S. A. & Kalogirou, S. A. & Wrobel, L. C., 2002. "Measures used to lower building energy consumption and their cost effectiveness," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(3-4), pages 299-328, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:73:y:2002:i:3-4:p:299-328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-2619(02)00119-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florides, G.A & Kalogirou, S.A & Tassou, S.A & Wrobel, L.C, 2000. "Modeling of the modern houses of Cyprus and energy consumption analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(10), pages 915-937.
    2. Kalogirou, Soteris, 1996. "Economic analysis of solar energy systems using spreadsheets," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1303-1307.
    3. Petrakis, M. & Kambezidis, H.D. & Lykoudis, S. & Adamopoulos, A.D. & Kassomenos, P. & Michaelides, I.M. & Kalogirou, S.A. & Roditis, G. & Chrysis, I. & Hadjigianni, A., 1998. "Generation of a “typical meteorological year” for Nicosia, Cyprus," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 381-388.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Florides, G.A & Kalogirou, S.A & Tassou, S.A & Wrobel, L.C, 2000. "Modeling of the modern houses of Cyprus and energy consumption analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(10), pages 915-937.
    2. Kalogirou, Soteris A., 2004. "Optimization of solar systems using artificial neural-networks and genetic algorithms," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(4), pages 383-405, April.
    3. Kalogirou, Soteris, 2003. "The potential of solar industrial process heat applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(4), pages 337-361, December.
    4. Zhengping Liu & Wang Zhang & Hongxian Liu & Guohe Huang & Jiliang Zhen & Xin Qi, 2019. "Characterization of Renewable Energy Utilization Mode for Air-Environmental Quality Improvement through an Inexact Factorial Optimization Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, April.
    5. Diakaki, Christina & Grigoroudis, Evangelos & Kolokotsa, Dionyssia, 2013. "Performance study of a multi-objective mathematical programming modelling approach for energy decision-making in buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 534-542.
    6. Kalogirou, S.A. & Pashiardis, S. & Pashiardi, A., 2017. "Statistical analysis and inter-comparison of the global solar radiation at two sites in Cyprus," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1102-1123.
    7. Ángel Gómez-Moreno & Pedro José Casanova-Peláez & José Manuel Palomar-Carnicero & Fernando Cruz-Peragón, 2016. "Modeling and Experimental Validation of a Low-Cost Radiation Sensor Based on the Photovoltaic Effect for Building Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Pramod Rajput & Maria Malvoni & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & O. S. Sastry & Arunkumar Jayakumar, 2020. "Operational Performance and Degradation Influenced Life Cycle Environmental–Economic Metrics of mc-Si, a-Si and HIT Photovoltaic Arrays in Hot Semi-arid Climates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, February.
    9. Panayi, Panayiotis, 2004. "Prioritising energy investments in new dwellings constructed in Cyprus," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 789-819.
    10. Koroneos, C. & Fokaidis, P. & Moussiopoulos, N., 2005. "Cyprus energy system and the use of renewable energy sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1889-1901.
    11. Kalogirou, Soteris A., 2001. "Use of TRNSYS for modelling and simulation of a hybrid pv–thermal solar system for Cyprus," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 247-260.
    12. Pusat, Saban & Ekmekçi, İsmail & Akkoyunlu, Mustafa Tahir, 2015. "Generation of typical meteorological year for different climates of Turkey," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 144-151.
    13. Kalogirou, Soteris A & Papamarcou, Christos, 2000. "Modelling of a thermosyphon solar water heating system and simple model validation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 471-493.
    14. Florides, G.A & Tassou, S.A & Kalogirou, S.A & Wrobel, L.C, 2001. "Evolution of domestic dwellings in Cyprus and energy analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 219-234.
    15. Zhou, Jin & Wu, Yezheng & Yan, Gang, 2006. "Generation of typical solar radiation year for China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1972-1985.
    16. Bulut, Hüsamettin, 2004. "Typical solar radiation year for southeastern Anatolia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1477-1488.
    17. Kirimtat, Ayca & Koyunbaba, Basak Kundakci & Chatzikonstantinou, Ioannis & Sariyildiz, Sevil, 2016. "Review of simulation modeling for shading devices in buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 23-49.
    18. García, Ignacio & Torres, José Luis, 2018. "Temporal downscaling of test reference years: Effects on the long-term evaluation of photovoltaic systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 392-405.
    19. Islam, Md. Parvez & Morimoto, Tetsuo, 2018. "Advances in low to medium temperature non-concentrating solar thermal technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2066-2093.
    20. Badescu, Viorel & Laaser, Nadine & Crutescu, Ruxandra, 2010. "Warm season cooling requirements for passive buildings in Southeastern Europe (Romania)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 3284-3300.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:73:y:2002:i:3-4:p:299-328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.