Energy performance in buildings (EPB)

In this study, the energy consumption of 149 domestic refrigerators has been monitored in Malaysian households. A questionnaire was used to get relevant information regarding the usage of this appliance in the actual kitchen environment to feed into neural networks. Prediction performance of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) approach was investigated using actual monitored and survey data. Statistical analyses in terms of fraction of variance R2, Coefficient of Variation (COV), RMS are calculated to judge the performance of NN model. It has been found that the regression coefficient R2 is very close to unity for the best prediction performance results. © 2008 Asian Network for Scientific Information.

198.170.104.138/jas/2008/2124-2129.pdf

The European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD Recast, Directive 2010/31/EU), introduced the “cost optimality” concept in order to take economic effects into account while analyzing the energy performances of the buildings. The cost optimal methodology framework involves several stages starting with the establishment of the reference buildings representing the building stock. This stage is important since all of the following analyzes are applied on these reference buildings with the aim of achieving generalized solutions.
A research project was conducted in order to define the procedure of reference building establishment and adapting the cost optimal methodology in Turkey. This paper displays the sample reference building definition procedure followed in this project.
Istanbul is selected as a pilot city for this study since this city contains various building types and user profiles. Twenty six reference buildings were defined in three categories: single family houses, apartment buildings and luxury high-rise residences. The reference buildings and their properties are also presented in this paper.
The research shows that there is available data about the physical properties of the building stock in Turkey. However, there is very little information about the thermo-physical properties, user profiles and HVAC systems which are needed to calculate energy performances of the buildings. The existing building stock needs to be deeply analyzed by the authorities considering the energy performance related measures and the reference buildings are required to be defined also for other regions of Turkey by following a similar procedure.

The building envelope plays a crucial role in saving or consuming energy, depending on the type of the envelope
and design. Architects and engineers need to consider many issues when working with envelope designs, including
environmental issues, aesthetic appearance, occupant comfort, and view; these aspects make the envelope a
multifunctional component, thus the integration approach is the optimal method to address envelope design. In the
last decade we have witnessed the inclusion of the kinetic envelope in many typologies of buildings. Many scholars
believe the kinetic envelope improves the environmental performance of the building. The purpose of this paper is
to review the current practice and development of the kinetic envelope and to investigate its role in the improvement
of energy performance in buildings.

Among all public buildings, on account of their educational purpose, school buildings have a major social responsibility. Therefore energy performance in this type of building is of great importance. The overall purpose of this research is to achieve a functional benchmarking, based on the real operation conditions of school buildings, by the exploitation of the results made public, through an intensive literature survey on energy consumptions in schools. The survey was made to gather data that is relative to energy consumption in school buildings, documented in the most diverse fields and units: global energy consumption values, electrical energy consumption; fuel consumption for heating, energy data consumption of schools expressed in annual cost per unit of heated/cooled surface area ($/m 2) or per unit of heated/cooled volume ($/m 3) or, finally, as the annual cost per student ($/student). The literature was analyzed to determine if a worldwide comparison among the published data could be established. The results suggest that when attempting to determine an energy benchmark some considerations should not be forgotten: standard indoor environmental conditions (IEC) for classrooms (set-point for indoor operative temperature of 20 1C in winter and 26 1C in summer as suggested in EN 15251:2007), electrical and heating consumption values should be kept separately, different education levels usually require different energy consumption values. A good way to normalize heating energy consumption is going through a climatic adjustment based on Heating Degree Days (HDD). For an impartial data comparison, based either on an operating rating or on a simulation carried out for reference conditions, benchmark reference values should be expressed in terms of billed energy data.

Design of building's exterior walls has important influence on energy consumption, building cost and thermal comfort. It influences also heating and cooling devices size.
Disregarding Thermal Time Constant (TTC) leads to wrong decisions, wrong design, waste of money for building's construction and increased energy consumption.

The relationship between users' perceptions of comfort and energy performance is an important integration of society with the environment which also have indirect implications to the economy. Achieving users' comfort in buildings involves the use of energy where multiple studies have associated energy use via heating and cooling as predictors of users' comfort. However, these studies have neglected the magnitude of energy needed to achieve comfort. Therefore, the current paper investigates the quantum of electricity used in a public university to achieve users' comfort. The investigation adopts the quantitative method of comparing electricity consumption and users’ comfort via two different instruments namely; energy loggers and occupant survey. An energy logger was installed on three study buildings while an occupant survey was distributed to users of the same buildings. Benchmarking was used to compare energy indices of the study buildings. It was found that the study building with the highest energy index also scored the highest perception of comfort by the users. As thermal control for indoor comfort account for more than half of the total electricity consumption, the result suggested that electricity consumption predicts users’ comfort positively. However, the ratio of energy consumed and comfort achieved is questionable. This study suggests that a substantial amount of electricity is needed to achieve a small measure of comfort. Additionally, the study also revealed that two of the study buildings performed poorly in terms of energy performance while one performed fairly well with the potential of becoming an energy-efficient building. By replicating the study to other buildings, the research can help identify energy-efficient potentials in buildings towards reducing the campus’ energy consumption holistically.

Energy needs in our rapidly developing world constantly escalate. Especially after the
industrial revolution these needs have been satisfied of fossil fuels. However, energy
generation by fossil fuels bears byproducts causing serious environmental damage.
Inattentively excessive usage of these sources specifically brings about great danger to
nature and our future. Currently the effects of the damage are observed explicitly and
have been disturbing our daily lives; ergo, immediate measures ought to be taken and
regulations of energy generation and consumption to be made. Executing these
regulations is relatively easier for developing and evolving countries such as Turkey with
respect to developed countries.
Environment friendly energy generation techniques need to be sought and examined.
Existing energy needs should be covered with sources which do not harm nature and their
utilization should be improved. Meanwhile in order to achieve proliferation and adoption
of alternative sources by the society certain practices need to be introduced.
The sun is the biggest and cleanest renewable energy source we have. Usage of sun energy
instead of fuel for heating of the buildings is investigated primarily in this study. Taking
advantage of the fact that solar radiation exposure period is long in Turkey due to
geographical properties, passive use of the sun is investigated thoroughly.
Examinations have been done to lay out the results of passive use of the sun in conditions
of Turkey. Buildings from places with similar weather conditions to Turkey and buildings
constructed in Turkey were analyzed with different methods by computer software. As
the output report of the analyses were compared and evaluated, the studies were
concluded.

Recent UK-based studies have shown a performance gap between the energy performance of buildings calculated using tabulated thermophysical properties of solid walls and that estimated from in-situ measurements. Solid-walled buildings have been targeted by UK Government policies and incentive schemes to meet climate change mitigation targets and improve the efficiency of the building stock, as they are less efficient and more expensive to treat than cavity walls. Since it is common practice to estimate energy use and potential savings for buildings retrofit assuming standard values from the literature, the performance gap may have serious implications on the decision-making and the cost-effectiveness of energy-saving interventions. The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the results obtained from three different methods for estimating normalised dwelling energy demand:
a) the UK energy performance certificate (EPC) method, which uses the standard assessment procedure (SAP) with tabulated inputs (the business as usual case);
b) the SAP calculated using empirical air change rates from pressure tests and U-values estimated analysing monitored data with a Bayesian-based dynamic method developed by the authors;
c) a normalised annual consumption (NAC) method based on empirical energy consumption data from smart meter and weather data.
The analysis is performed on a sample of dwellings from the Energy Saving Trust “Solid Wall Field Trials” dataset. Results show that EPC estimates are systematically higher (between 7.5% and 22.0%) than SAP. Conversely, the NAC displayed a large range of relative differences (between -77% and +99%) compared to the EPC. This raises questions about the relative merits and purpose of the EPC and SAP bottom up methods compared to the smart-meter data-driven NAC method. Further research is suggested using SAP 2009 to isolate the thermal component of energy demand and compare it directly with the NAC component.

Uninsulated pipes of solar waters heaters in Israel increase national electricity consumption by 200 millions kWh/year, 40 millions USD per year. Simple solution having 2-4 months return of investment period can stop this waste. This work introduces energy balance of thermosyphonic solar water heater (SWH) without pipes' thermal insulation. The results are used for economic evaluation.

L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est de développer une méthodologie d’aide à la prise de décisions pour la conception énergétique de bâtiments durables. La méthodologie proposée est composée de : (1) une base de seize indicateurs caractérisant la performance
énergétique du bâtiment, couvrant les trois dimensions du concept de la durabilité (aspects environnementaux, économiques et de confort des occupants) et suivant une approche de type cycle de vie ; (2) une méthode d’évaluation de ces indicateurs adaptée au niveau de précision de la connaissance du bâtiment dans les premières phases de projet ; (3) une logique de progression des décisions de conception donnée comme un modèle de répartition séquentielle des choix à effectuer à chaque phase de projet ; et (4) une base de connaissances d’éléments du bâtiment comprenant les données techniques, environnementales et économiques nécessaires pour la méthode d’évaluation. Cette méthodologie est destinée à être utilisée par la
maîtrise d’oeuvre d’un projet de construction, y compris architectes et bureaux d’études concernés par la performance énergétique, pour la conception de bâtiments de bureaux dans un contexte français. Un outil numérique d’évaluation a été mis en place comme une première
application de la méthodologie proposée afin d’étudier ce qu’elle peut apporter au concepteur comme éléments d’aide à la prise de décisions. L’intérêt de la mise en œuvre de la méthodologie a été validé par divers cas d’étude à chaque stade du processus de conception : de la phase d’Esquisse à la phase d’Avant-Projet Détaillé. En particulier, l’intégration d’une façade double peau vitrée, dont l’impact sur la performance du bâtiment est encore peu maîtrisé, a été évaluée.

The decisions made during conceptual building design irreversibly influence the selection and dimensions of thermal energy generation and storage components and systems. A method to quantify this influence is developed. It consists of the quasi-stationary simulation and the design optimization of the system. Demonstrated on seven preconfigured systems the method is used to propose a tool that, using data available at the conceptual design stage, provides dimensions, costs, energy consumption and emissions of the optimized system to architects.

This report is part of the work within IEA HPT Annex 52-IEA HPT Annex 52-Long-term performance monitoring of GSHP systems for commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings, with project period January 1st 2018 to December 31st 2021. Annex 52 Operating Agent is Sweden. Annex 52 aims to survey and create a library of quality long-term measurements of GSHP system performance for commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings. While previous work will be surveyed, the emphasis of the annex is on recent and current measurements. The annex also aims to refine and extend current methodology to better characterize GSHP system performance serving commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings with the full range of features shown on the market, and to provide a set of benchmarks for comparisons of such GSHP systems around the world.

The building energy performance not only depends on the thermal parameters related to the building's envelope , but also with the installed services and its intended use. The building's use is a difficult parameter to control; therefore, to reduce the discrepancies between the designed energy performance and the real one, is critical to correctly characterize the buildings envelope and buildings systems against real data. It is necessary to do with a minimum set of sensors; then this real data should be analysed with robust methodologies. If all this is fulfilled it would be feasible to integrate this methodology in the actual domotic systems of buildings. Many in-use buildings should be monitored in the next years to obtain their thermal characteristics in order to improve and / or demonstrate their energy efficiency, and thus fulfil the European guidelines derived from the energy reduction strategy in the European Union. In the FP7 A2PBEER project, a multi-storey office building of the University of the Basque Country has been vigorously evaluated with in-use and operation offices. The thermal parameters analysis' studies has been made floor by floor and for the whole building. The initial objective of the study has been to propose modifications to the existing ISO 9869 method and to the existing the Co-Heating method to make them usable with real monitored data of in-use buildings and thus obtain its envelope main thermal characteristics: The Heat Loss Coefficient (HLC), which considers the transmission (UA-value) and air infiltration (C v) losses (HLC = UA + C v), and the solar aperture (S a value) floor by floor and for the whole building. This office building had no ventilation system during the monitoring period. Based on these estimated in-use HLC values, the measured metabolic CO 2 concentration values have been analysed using the decay method for anthropogenic CO 2 concentrations. This decay method analysis has permitted to estimate the Air Change per Hour (ACH) of each floor in a daily basis. Based on those ACH values the air infiltration heat loss coefficients (C v) of each floor have been estimated and then the HLC has been decoupled by means of the simple expression UA = HLC – C v. This paper is focused on developing this decou-pling method that seems promising since it will let us know to what extent the heat losses from a building envelope are due to air infiltration (or ventilation) losses or due to transmission losses.

The energy performance contracting market is potentially substantial but very little work has been undertaken to understand the characteristics of successful projects. This study uses a probabilistic analysis of four hypothetical projects in the UK schools sector under the 2014 policy regime, combined with qualitative interviews with practitioners, to explore the conditions for a viable project. It finds that the proposed approach has the potential to allow more detailed exploration of project structures and scope for creating greater understanding of likely returns and the factors affecting them. Evidence is found that the use of deterministic risk screening techniques such as simple payback results in viable opportunities being overlooked. The risk profiles for clients and contractors (energy service companies – ESCOs) are not symmetrical and they will each find different projects more attractive. The results suggest that greater consideration needs to be given to the precise risk allocation between client and contractor to ensure that likely returns are properly understood. This study demonstrates a method for exploring project characteristics that can be used to understand their impacts on the financial returns for clients and contractors.

Confronting snowfall at airports is a long-standing challenge for the aviation industry. To address these concerns, electrically conductive portland cement concrete (ECON) is currently a
focus in pavement design. This method applies a potential difference to a surface or near-surface conductive concrete layer, heating the pavement to melt the snow. Due to the complex nature of performance measurements, most studies use experimental methods to examine the ability to remove accumulated snow. However, these methods are resource intensive. This study addresses this challenge through the development of an experimentally-validated 3D finite element (FE)
model of ECON for evaluating its thermal performance. Predicted surface temperatures of the FE model are consistent with the data, indicating that a FE model is a promising method for
feasibility studies and control strategy development.

This study carried out the field survey from house to house to garner the information of consumer behavior. In this study the energy consumption 104 refrigerators have been monitored as well. The energy consumption of 104 refrigerators is clustered and segmented to classify the refrigerators of same characteristic in the same group. The capacity of the refrigerator, frequency of door opening and position of refrigerator either near heat source or away from the heat source is considered for clustering and segmentation analysis. The clustering and segmentation in this survey reveal the effect of these factors on the energy performance of the refrigerator. © 2008 Asian Network for Scientific Information.

docsdrive.com/pdfs/ansinet/jas/2008/3957-3962.pdf

The roofs of buildings play an essential role in energy efficiency because a significant
amount of solar radiation is absorbed by roofs in hot weather and a significant amount of heat is lost
through roofs in cold weather. This paper is a systematic literature review about roofing methods for
flat roofs. Ten roofing methods are reviewed in this paper. They are concrete roof, cool roof, insulated
roof, roof garden, photovoltaic panels’ roof, biosolar roof, double-skin roof, roof ponds, skylight roof,
and wind catcher. The review covers each roof’s main features, heat flux reductions, payback periods,
and the appropriate climate for its implementation. Furthermore, the basic principles for selecting
appropriate roofing methods are discussed and future studies for integrating these roofing methods
are suggested. Some of these methods can eliminate the need of installing HVAC (Heating Ventilation
and Air-conditioning) systems and others can achieve a high percentage of heat reduction if they
are the right choice and they are implemented in the right circumstances. An incorrect selection
could result in mild to severe energy penalties. The review contributes to the increasing knowledge
about sustainable roofing and helps designers to increase building energy efficiency by selecting the
appropriate roofing method.

Vanuit de opleiding MSc Executive MBA is bij Marku Bouw een onderzoek verricht naar vastgoedwaarden vanuit een “klantwaarden perspectief”. Marku Bouw is een ontwikkelend bouwbedrijf welke actief is in de utiliteitsbouw, de betonsector en de vastgoedzorg. Zij is voornemens de verschillende bedrijfsactiviteiten samen te voegen tot een bouwconcept waarmee zij zich onderscheidend kan profileren. Het onderzoek richt zich op de mogelijkheden welke Marku Bouw kan bieden en welke vastgoedwaarden Marku Bouw in kan zetten als klantwaarden.

Merkbaar is dat de van oorsprong erg traditionele bouwsector in beweging is. Daarbij blijkt dat de context sterk geïnstitutionaliseerd is door onder andere wettelijke regels en stimuleringsmaatregelen. Er zijn diverse beoordelingssystematieken voor vastgoed ontwikkeld welke veelal van materiele aard zijn en in mindere mate gericht op de gebruiker. Gelet op de klantgroep van Marku Bouw zijn gemiddeld genomen de personeelskosten goed voor ongeveer 90% van de operationele kosten binnen een onderneming. De kosten voor het vastgoed circa 10% waarvan ongeveer 1% energiekosten. Bestaand onderzoek heeft uitgewezen dat de gebouwde omgeving grote invloed heeft op de productiviteit en gezondheid van de gebruiker (personeel) en de onderneming. Voor de klant van Marku Bouw is de gebruikersfase van het vastgoed van belang. Met deze achtergrond heeft dit geresulteerd in de onderzoeksvraag “Op welke wijze kan Marku Bouw zich positioneren om duurzame waarde te creëren voor haar klanten vanuit een “Value-in-Use” perspectief?”.

Duurzame waarde wordt hierin bepaald door drie componenten: kwaliteit van het product of de dienst, de beoordeling van de klant en tot slot de kwaliteit van het product in gebruik. De kwaliteit van het product of de dienst wordt bepaald door de directe economische belangen maar ook de ecologische- en sociale belangen. De positionering is afhankelijk van de integrale beoordeling van deze componenten en de kwaliteit van de relatie tussen de klant en de leverancier. Om antwoord te krijgen op de onderzoeksvraag is een conceptueel model ontwikkeld waarmee op een integrale wijze doelen kunnen worden bepaald als uitgangspunten voor duurzame waarde creatie en positionering in vastgoed. Als basis is hiervoor het conceptueel model voor klantbeoordeling van Macdonald et al (2011) gebruikt. 

Om daadwerkelijk de Value-in-Use (kwaliteit van het product in gebruik) beantwoord te krijgen is een exploratief onderzoek uitgevoerd naar de beoordeling van de klant (op het gehele proces). Door middel van een diagram techniek zijn half gestructureerde interviews afgelegd bij 8 klanten van Marku Bouw. Tijdens de interviews is gezocht naar negatieve invloeden met betrekking tot kwalitatieve criteria als eerste lijn variabelen. Door middel van doorvragen is per onderwerp dieper ingegaan in hoeverre er sprake zou zijn van een economische-, ecologische- of sociale waarde. Maar ook of het een oordeel betrof over het product, de (bijbehorende) dienst en/of de relatie tussen de klant en de leverancier.

Voor de beoordeling van de klant is gebruik gemaakt van de 8 primaire uitgangspunten voor het ontwikkelen van klantenwaarden (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). Hierbij is onderzocht in hoeverre de uitgangspunten van toepassing zijn op de verschillende kwalitatieve uitgangspunten. Door de integrale beoordelingssystematiek ontstaat een verzadigd beeld van de daadwerkelijke beoordeling van de klant. Vanuit de beoordelingssystematiek zijn samen met de belangrijkste opmerkingen van de klant 4 doelen bepaald welke als uitgangspunten kunnen dienen waaraan het bouwconcept van Marku Bouw zou moeten voldoen.

 
Een belangrijke conclusie welke mag worden getrokken is dat met betrekking tot de gebouwde omgeving daadwerkelijk de focus moet liggen op de immateriële aard van het vastgoed. Een fundamenteel uitgangspunt hierbij is dat Marku Bouw haar kennis op het gebied van vastgoed meer moet inzetten. Van belang is dat de onderneming haar kennis uitwisselt met de klant en samen met de klant vorm geeft aan een propositie. 

Echter de voornemens van Marku Bouw om verschillende bedrijfsactiviteiten samen te voegen tot een bouwconcept betreft een strategiewijziging van de onderneming. Gelet op de risico’s en omvang van het veranderingsproces is het mogelijk raadzaam het concept met bijbehorende businessmodel naast het huidige model op te zetten.

Algemeen toepasbaar model
Het onderzoek heeft uitgewezen dat de bestaande theorieën met betrekking tot klantwaarde beoordeling (E.K. Macdonald et al., 2009 en 2011), de primaire uitgangspunten (Vargo & Lusch, 2004) en kwalitatieve waarden in vastgoed (CSBE) samengebracht kunnen worden in een conceptueel model voor de bepaling van klantwaarden (bij vastgoed) in gebruik.

Numerous studies have shown that students’ learning experience is closely associated with the physical comfort level of their teaching and learning environment. The different strategies or allocation of air-conditioning, mechanical ventilation (ACMV) and lighting systems contribute greatly to the energy performances in the buildings. This study explores the relationship between electricity consumption of academic buildings of a public university in an urban context and its student’s perceived performance. It seeks to find the answer patterns from unsuspected subjects; whether there is a difference from a lower energy-use building then one of a higher energy-use building. To achieve the objective, the study adopts the quantitative method of assessing student’s perceived performance through questionnaire survey. The questionnaires, adopted from Building Use Studies, UK, were distributed randomly through convenience sampling to students from two academic buildings in the campus. Both buildings were selected through purposive sampling method with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subsequently, power and energy logger was installed into the same buildings to monitor electricity consumption at specific intervals. For comparison, Building Energy Index (BEI) for each building was calculated. The study found that the building that scored higher in students’ performance, also has higher calculated BEI. As control for indoor comfort account for more than half of the total electricity consumption, the result suggested that electricity consumption influences students’ performance positively. The study also revealed that both buildings’ calculated BEI were lower than recommended by many standards. This suggests that these buildings, has extremely high potential of achieving green building status. If executed properly, the university campus, which equates a size of a small city, may achieve green campus status sooner than expected and may lead others in the flagship project towards a low-carbon university campus.

Generally, the models for evaluating the energy performance of buildings have a ventilation thermal load that depends on the type of building and its occupancy rate. The models apply a constant rate of air changes and therefore the ventilation load depends on this value and on the temperature gradient between internal and external environments. In this work, a single zone air flow model is presented to modify monthly the air changes according to the climatic data, the air permeability, shape and orientation of the building and the urban morphology. The results of this work, show how the air change rates vary with the building floor and with the wind direction and velocity. For both case studies, the air changes per hours vary monthly with minimum values in wintertime and with monthly differences of 41%. Of course, if the building is not well exposed and there is no wind, the air infiltrations are not sufficient to ensure good air quality conditions and it will be necessary to open the windows. In these first two case-studies, a very simple single zone evaluation of air flow rate by natural ventilation improved the existing energy performance placebased model. The results of this work encourage the application of this model at district-urban scale, taking into account the characteristics of each single building and its surroundings.

Conventional energy use has brought environmental problems such as global warming and accelerated efforts to reduce energy consumption in many areas, particularly in the housing sector. For this purpose, bioclimatic design principles and vernacular architecture parameters have started to be examined in residential buildings nowadays. Thus, the demand for less energy-consuming houses has started to increase. In this study, we aimed to specify the significance of traditional architectural parameters for houses in the hot-dry climatic region of Diyarbakır, Turkey. Within the scope of the study, a case was based on the urban fabric of the traditional houses in Historical Diyarbakir Suriçi-Old Town settlement and the Şilbe Mass Housing Area was discussed. The courtyard types, settlement patterns, and street texture of traditional Diyarbakır houses were modeled by using DesignBuilder energy simulation program for the case study. Annual heating, cooling, and total energy loads were calcula...

Despite the availability of advanced calculation tools, there can be found an important gap between predicted energy performance and the actual energy consumption of the buildings. The main influencer in the ‘performance gap’ is the actual building envelope thermal performance together with the user behavior and the building systems actual performance. The most used Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the building envelope energy performance characterization are the Heat Loss Coefficient (HLC [kW/ºC] considers transmission heat losses through envelope (UA [kW/ºC]) plus infiltration and/or ventilation heat losses (Cv [kW/ºC])) and the solar aperture (Sa [m2])[1].

The aim of this work is to prove the robustness of the modified ISO9869-1 and Co-heating methods proposed in [1] by estimating the HLC of a whole building (using whole building averaged data) and comparing it against the sum of the HLCs calculated floor by floor (using floor by floor data).

Educational buildings are buildings with special social importance and their energy consumption requires particular attention. Since the majority of educational buildings in Serbia were built between 1950-1990, with concrete frame, brick walls and poor thermal insulation, it can be concluded that these buildings have relatively high potential for thermal energy savings. In this paper, specific heat consumption of educational buildings (42 different institutions classified throughout educational levels) in the city of Kragujevac (Serbia) was analysed in order to determine their specific heat consumption (per heated floor area and per user) and to list the priorities for refurbishment. According to educational level, they were classified in: preschool buildings, elementary and high schools and faculties (university buildings). Data about heat energy consumption were collected during several heating seasons in order to minimize the influence of seasonal climate variations. Values of specific heat energy consumption of the buildings were benchmarked with data on specific heat consumption of schools from different European countries. In order to accomplish the tasks, authors introduced the concept of weather normalised specific heat consumption. Results of the performed analysis pointed out preschool and elementary school buildings as refurbishment priorities since their average specific heat consumption is the biggest (186 kWh/m 2 /a and 176 kWh/ m 2 /a, respectively). Besides, normalised specific heat consumptions of the educational buildings in Kragujevac are higher than in comparing countries and the potential for their energy efficiency improvement is significant.

The Earth is faced to decreasing of energy resources due to increasing of energy consumption. This reason accelerates the global warming which leads the Earth to a place in which quality of life is reducing year by year. A considerable portion of total energy consumption is used in residential sector in the world. The usage of energy in residential sector effectively ensures large amount of energy saving. Nowadays, the buildings have been aiming to design which consume low energy and supply high comfort. In order to design energy efficient buildings, all the designing parameters which include passive systems must be taken into consideration together considering versatile interior and exterior conditions. In this study the energy efficient building was described and the applications were explained for the sample building. The office building designed to obtain LEED certification was taken into consideration as a current application in Turkey and it was modeled using TRNSYS simulation program during the year. The heating and cooling loads were calculated. According to results some suggestions were recommended for reducing the heating and cooling demands of the office building and any suggestion was simulated and analyzed for the designed building.

ABSTRACT The courtyard buildings, which we face either as a regulator of inter-building microclimate or as a climatic regulator at urban scale especially in hot climate regions, and which constitute one of the fundamental characteristic building styles of such climatic regions, should be applied in a form compatible with the features of the climatic region it is used. There is the need for a study that allows formation of a model toward determination of the optimum courtyard form and meeting the conditions of comfort by establishing an optimization model taking into consideration the climatic, meteorological differences for each climatic region the specific climatic region requires. The purpose of this study is to examine the energy efficiencies of the courtyard buildings used either as a micro climatic regulator in hot-dry climatic regions, or as a climatic regulator at urban scale, and to determine inter-building and courtyard comfort statuses, besides, to manifest different thermal behaviors of such buildings by estimating the same fully and accurately using real meteorological data under different design and climatic conditions with computer energy simulation on different courtyard form options put forth for different climatic regions, and thus to provide new information to designers at the process of putting forward the optimum courtyard form according to the characteristics and data of the specific climate for different climatic regions. By using the CFD program, this study has analyzed the thermal comfort statuses and energy performances of 7 different courtyard shapes in inter-courtyard and building volumes that are discussed in hot-dry, hot-humid and cold climatic regions as well as the effect of the sunbeams received by the building surface and the daily solar movement on the thermal performance on the building. As a result of the entire analysis made for all building shapes, the obtained values were interpreted and the total energy performances were evaluated for each climatic region. In this study, the courtyard buildings will be assessed in terms of their thermal performances.