| Titulo Proyecto |
| PASSIVE HOUSE DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN EL SALVADOR |
Area y Linea |
Ingenierìa y Tecnologìa -- Ingeniería civil
|
Actividad del Investigador |
| Investigador Principal |
Tipo de la Investigación |
| Aplicada |
Organismo Financiamiento |
| UCA |
Fecha ejecución |
| Diciembre 2009 |
Publicado en |
| INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY |
Resumen de la Investigación |
| La presente investigación busca aplicar la tecnología de diseño de edificios pasivos denominada Passive House Standard a edificios residenciales en El Salvador. La metodología consiste en optimizar térmicamente la envolvente del edificio y los sistemas de energía para eliminar la necesidad de acondicionamiento de aire y mantener el confort de los usuarios. El alcance del trabajo es determinar cuáles son los parámetros físicos de los sistemas constructivos y de los sistemas de energía de un edificio residencial que permitirían cumplir el estándar pasivo para el clima particular de El Salvador. Se utilizaron herramientas computacionales de simulación energética como EnergyPlus para efectuar una optimización paramétrica de variables tales como resistencia térmica de envolvente (paredes, pisos, techos), propiedades térmicas de ventanas, ventilación natural, etc. Se analizaron los beneficios económicos y ambientales de la aplicación de esta metodología tanto a edificios residenciales acondicionados como no acondicionados.
|
Resultados Principales |
| Se demostró que es posible diseñar edificios residenciales en El Salvador que cumplan con el estándar internacional pasivo. Se encontró que las modificaciones que se debería hacer a un edificio tííco son: diseño de protecciones solares (aleros, cortasoles), uso de vidrios de baja emisividad para ventanas, uso de ventilación natural mixta, instalación de 80 mm de aislamiento térmico en las paredes y 120 mm de aislamiento térmico en los techos. Se encontró mediante simulaciones energéticas que al implementar dichas medidas combinadas, se mantendría el confort térmico en el edificio (21-26°C) durante 80% del año para edificios no acondicionados y se reduciría en un 55% el consumo energético en edificios acondicionados. Los ahorros en el segundo caso, para un edificio típico de 100 m2 de construcción serían de $400 anuales, con un período de recuperación de la inversión de 16 años.
|
| Titulo Proyecto |
| A marketable all-electric solar house: A report of a Solar Decathlon project |
Area y Linea |
Ingenierìa y Tecnologìa -- Ingeniería del medioambiente
|
Actividad del Investigador |
| Investigador Participante |
Tipo de la Investigación |
| Aplicada |
Organismo Financiamiento |
| U.S. Department of Energy |
Fecha ejecución |
| 2007 |
Publicado en |
| Renewable Energy |
Resumen de la Investigación |
| This paper reports a design and building process of a net-zero-energy modular house, named ElementHouse, which was entered for the 2007 Solar Decathlon competition that was organized by the U.S. Department of Energy. This paper discusses the development of the ElementHouse from its initial concept to the actual construction, which integrated multi-disciplinary knowledge of architecture, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. By employing computer-aided simulation tools, several design approaches were developed to achieve the optimal balance among function, aesthetics, economy, and energyda challenge in many sustainable building designs. A simplified energy model helped to form the building configuration at the preliminary design stage by showing how energy use is affected by various parameters, leading to optimization studies that provided design guidelines towards an energy-efficient building envelope and opening design. Energy modelling also estimated the annual energy use and electricity generation, as well as the costs associated with long-term operation of the house. The energy demand estimate and its daily power profile helped to design the photovoltaic (PV) system. The modular configuration of the building and its roof structure was then iteratively altered to accommodate the PV panels in such a way as to generate the most power and to facilitate interstate transportation of ElementHouse. With the progress of the design process, detailed energy simulation using EnergyPlus provided more accurate estimates of power use and generation and, coupled with daylighting simulation performed with Radiance, permitted finalizing the building envelope, opening, and electric lighting design. The building envelope embraced the passive and low energy philosophy to minimize the annual heating and cooling load and to optimize natural lighting. By illustrating the whole picture of ElementHouse design, this paper discusses a way of effectively designing and building a comfortable and affordable solar house. |
Resultados Principales |
| The performance of the comfort conditioning system during the Solar Decathlon was excellent allowing the house to be also awarded first prize in the Comfort Zone contest. This contest tested the ability of solar houses to maintain temperature and humidity inside the house within a narrow comfort zone. The interior target range for temperature was between 22.2 C and 24.4 C, while relative humidity had to stay in a range between 40% and 55% for points to be awarded in this contest. A comparison of the performance of ElementHouse with the second and third place teams shows that the competitors lacked the ability to separately control temperature and humidity. Therefore, both had difficulty in simultaneously controlling temperature and humidity and each had to accept either one or both being out of range. This is likely due to attempts to condition control by dry bulb temperature and with relatively low sensible loads, failing to keep the system long enough to dehumidify. The ability to control temperature and humidity separately allowed the ElementHouse team to have greater flexibility in maintaining the required latent and sensible conditions. All the above shows that the University of Illinois student teams sought to prove that addressing the visual and aesthetic does not mean sacrificing price, marketability, and performance. The student team designed and built a house, which demonstrated that solar power is a reliable and affordable energy source when well integrated into the design of a home. ElementHouse proved to be a working prototype for a new-style energy-efficient house in the U.S. By competing in the 2007 Solar Decathlon, the University of Illinois student team achieved its goals in demonstrating to a wide public audience that a solar home can be comfortable, serving many choices of daily activities as it is also an energy efficient and environmentally friendly home. The team also met the great challenge of delivering an affordable and marketable home. |
| Titulo Proyecto |
| Assessment of the Potential of Installing Space Cooling -Only Ground Source Heat Pumps in a Tropical Country |
Area y Linea |
Ingenierìa y Tecnologìa -- Ingeniería mecánica
|
Actividad del Investigador |
| Investigador Principal |
Tipo de la Investigación |
| Aplicada |
Organismo Financiamiento |
| UCA |
Fecha ejecución |
| 2010 |
Publicado en |
| International Conf. on Energy Sustainability |
Resumen de la Investigación |
| The present article examines the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of installing a cooling-only ground source heat pump in a tropical country. The study is based on an existing university building at Universidad Centroamericana in El Salvador. The building was modeled using an energy simulation program in order to characterize its energy performance and compare the energy efficiency of the proposed ground source heat pump system to a conventional direct expansion system. In addition to standard energy modeling, a finite-element model was also developed in order to determine ground Temperature distribution and heat island effects due to the ground source heat pump system. Modeling results predicted that the proposed system would reduce energy consumption by 23% annually, compared to a conventional system. Additional cost savings, associated with a reduction in maintenance and replacement costs, reduce operational costs by 37% over the life of the project. The proposed design was also optimized using energy modeling and a first cost estimate was obtained. An economic analysis predicted that the simple payback period of the system would be on the order of six years. The paper analyzes the technical, economic and environmental advantages of the concept and the potential barriers for implementation |
Resultados Principales |
| The present article presented results from a simulation-based study that aimed at assessing the potential of installing cooling-only ground source heat pumps in a tropical climate, specifically applied to a University building in San Salvador, El Salvador. Results showed that in this case, two L-shaped array well configuration was preferable over other array configurations due to higher efficiencies. Energy modeling showed an energy cost reduction potential on the order of 23% when compared to a series of standard direct expansion minisplit systems. An economic analysis showed that overall cost savings are on the order of 35% over the lifetime of the system when including a reduction in maintenance and replacement costs associated when compared to conventional DX systems. Overall, simple pay-back period for this system is on the order of six years. Finite-element simulation for the ground source heat exchanger showed that there is potential for heat island effects within a radius of 15 m from the center of the array, on the ground surface. The proposed system shows promising features although barriers, including lack of local technical expertise on the subject, high initial costs, heat island effects and land requirements should be addressed. A stronger focus on energy efficiency policy in the region and regulations with incentives along with more research and development on sustainable technologies are needed in order to address identified barriers for implementation. |
| Titulo Proyecto |
| Proposed sustainable design alternatives for low-income and middle-income housing in a coastal area in a developing country |
Area y Linea |
Ingenierìa y Tecnologìa -- Ingeniería civil
|
Actividad del Investigador |
| Investigador Participante |
Tipo de la Investigación |
| Aplicada |
Organismo Financiamiento |
| UCA |
Fecha ejecución |
| 2010 |
Publicado en |
| International Conf. on Energy Sustainability |
Resumen de la Investigación |
| Developing nations face increasing economic and environmental challenges and the search for housing design solutions that approach sustainability by meeting thermal comfort, energy efficiency, environmental and low initial cost criteria is underway. This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary research project that aimed at designing a low-income house and a middle-income house that perform well from the architectural, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency standpoint while being cost-competitive. Multiple passive cooling strategies were considered and evaluated by energy modeling tools. The thermal and energy performance of the proposed designs were analyzed throughout the design process and the various design iterations. A full budget was prepared for the proposed low-income housing design and first-costs were found to be competitive with conventional housing. The paper discusses the proposed design features, their impact on thermal comfort and energy efficiency and the feasibility of integrating alternative energy systems to the proposed designs.
|
Resultados Principales |
| The climate in coastal areas in El Salvador is very hot during the whole year thus thermal comfort is an important and difficult goal to achieve. In order to create a competitive design, the strategies implemented were selected based on the cost and effectiveness. Better results could have been obtained if other passive cooling strategies had been applied but the initial cost of the house would have probably been prohibitively high and therefore no competitiveness would have been achieved. Even though the construction cost of the proposed design is higher than it is for conventional housing, the design contains features that increase the comfort and safety of the residents. The designs include shading devices which significantly improve thermal comfort, a 16% improvement for the low-income house and 56% improvement for the middle-income house; the designs utilize materials that increase the total number of hours of thermal comfort, 66% for the low-income house and 33% for the middle-income house; in addition, the house was conceived as a modular house, which can be expanded in the future. A proper design has to take into account the environmental conditions at the construction site; this can help define a better orientation and area distribution, leading to an increase in the thermal performance of the house of up to 18%, a very effective and low-cost strategy. Some sustainable strategies, such as PV solar energy, and rainwater harvesting are not worth pursuing, from an economic standpoint. However, other strategies such as solar thermal systems and energy efficient lighting proved to be cost-effective and are highly recommended. The implementation of passive measures and sustainable strategies, assuming an emission factor of 0.7 kgCO2/kWh related to a reduction in energy consumption, could reduce 3.96 tonsCO2/year for the middle income house. Future studies should focus on additional strategies related to sustainable housing for coastal areas in climates similar to El Salvador, such as passive dehumidification, advances in natural ventilation and insulated construction, among others.
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