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Energy poverty is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, and several indicators have been developed to evaluate and quantify it. However, often greater complexity does not mean greater precision. In the case of Chile, the Energy Poverty Network established the Three-dimensional and Territorial Indicator of Energy Poverty (EPTTI in Spanish) to assess the energy poverty situation of Chilean families. The EPTTI is based on a multidimensional approach with 10 indicators. Although, their evaluation involves resources that may hinder a practical application. This study analyzed the consistency between the individual responses of an indicator and the adapted EPTTI evaluation, using a database of 641 families. The results show that the excessive energy expenditure and the type and energy source of heating systems indicators are the variables with the greatest influence on energy poverty assessments. These results served to both propose simplified approaches for energy poverty assessment with the indicator, and establish policies of action that regional governments should address to reduce the situation of energy poverty Confort ambiental y pobreza energ´etica (+CO-PE)” of the University of the Bío-Bío, the Thematic Network 722RT0135 “Red Iberoamericana de Pobreza Energ´etica y Bienestar Ambiental” (RIPEBA) National Agency for Research and Development (ANID, in Spanish) Thematic Networks of the CYTED Program for 2021 Universidad de Granada / CBUA

Global climate change is changing meteorological parameters and climate zones for building in different parts of the world, as well as changing energy consumption by dwellings. Therefore, in this study, changes in climatic zones for building in three regions in southern Chile have been analysed under the conditions of two future climatic scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). On average, the temperature will increase by +0.68 °C and +1.51 °C by 2050–2065 in the study region for scenarios RCP2.6 and RCP8.5, respectively. This will cause a decrease in the annual heating degree-days values. In 72% of cities (RCP2.6) and in 92% of cities (RCP8.5), climate zones for building will be replaced by warmer ones. Consequently, the possibility of applying the current building standard of the country in future climatic conditions has been questioned. Finally, it was found that the heating energy consumption of a single-family house will decrease by 13% and 27% on average for the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively. © 2020

Abstract Over the last decades, the reduction of the energy use in the building sector has become a topic of major investigation and policy development worldwide. Guidelines have been defined to drive governments and building construction stakeholders towards the retrofit of the existing building stock and to the construction of new high-performance buildings. However, availability of operational data is often limited, especially when it comes to high performance buildings in warm climates, although it is essential to define design approaches targeted to energy efficiency, to design smart energy grids and demand-response oriented energy programs. Buildings, such as living laboratories, may offer opportunities to implement and develop energy databases, to provide benchmarks and to study occupant behaviour under different operational conditions. The paper investigates the energy and thermal comfort performance of a residential building in the Mediterranean climate. The building, certified as Passivhaus and equipped with an advanced monitoring system, allows to test different control strategies, to study occupant behaviour and to provide real time operational data. In particular, the data analysis showed a positive energy balance on yearly basis, i.e. an energy use of 59.7 kWh/m2net/year vs. an on-site energy generation of 76.0 kWh/m2net/year. The energy breakdown highlighted, that energy uses related to user behaviour and comfort requests account for about 72% of the total energy use, confirming that occupant behaviour is one of the major drivers of the operational energy use (and the related services) in high performance buildings.

Abstract With growing health risks from rising temperatures in the Global South, the lack of essential indoor cooling is increasingly seen as a dimension of energy poverty and human well-being. Air conditioning (AC) is expected to increase significantly with rising incomes, but it is likely that many who need AC will not have it. We estimate the current location and extent of populations potentially exposed to heat stress in the Global South. We apply a variable degree days (VDD) method on a global grid to estimate the energy demand required to meet these cooling needs, accounting for spatially explicit climate, housing types, access to electricity and AC ownership. Our results show large gaps in access to essential space cooling, especially in India, South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1.8 to 4.1 billion, depending on the required indoor temperatures and days of exposure, may need AC to avoid heat related stresses under current climate and socio-economic conditions. This number far exceeds the energy poverty gap indicated by the Sustainable Development Goal for electricity access (SDG7). Covering this cooling gap would entail a median energy demand growth of 14% of current global residential electricity consumption, primarily for AC. Solutions beyond improved AC efficiency, such as passive building and city design, innovative cooling technologies, and parsimonious use of AC will be needed to ensure essential cooling for all with minimized environmental damage. Meeting the essential cooling gap, as estimated by this study, can have important interactions with achieving several of the SDGs.

| openaire: EC/H2020/856602/EU//FINEST TWINS Funding Information: This work has been supported by the European Commission through the H2020 project Finest Twins grant No. 856602; and by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and European Regional Fund grant 2014-2020.4.01.20-0289. Additional support was acquired from the Estonian Research Council grant PSG739. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Increasing use of volatile renewable energy sources causes challenges in balancing supply and demand. Therefore, demand-side flexibility has rising importance for system operators and balancing authorities. Flexibility management methods are needed to integrate loads like ventilation systems of different buildings (e.g., residential and commercial) into flexibility service. However, the available methods described in research papers require further development for implementation in practice. Heating and cooling systems have received much attention from researchers, but the potential of ventilation systems has been left out of focus. Therefore, this paper provides a complete set of novel flexibility management methods for ventilation systems created from an aggregator's viewpoint. The flexibility is quantified through capacity (e.i. the amount of power consumption that can be altered), forced ventilation rate duration, and the tendered price for the service. The proposed methods were tested on a building model constructed and simulated in IDA ICE. The data processing and flexibility management methods were applied in MATLAB. Two types of ventilation systems with different sensor configurations were considered: constant and variable air volume. Forced ventilation rate duration is calculated using energy and mass balance analysis where the root means squared error was 10 to 33 min, depending on the system type, measured parameter, and sensor location. The flexibility service pricing model was tested on the 2022 years' manual frequency restoration reserve (mFRR) activation and balance energy market data. Peer reviewed

Abstract Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems help maintain the appropriate level of thermal comfort and air quality in buildings. To this end, the energy supply of these systems must be guaranteed. However, continuous efforts are required to improve the energy efficiency of this system and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the zero-emission building approach, the use of thermoelectric devices has been proposed to meet the heating/cooling needs in the building and help in flexibly changing the operating conditions according to the user's needs. In this study, an experimental setup was developed consisting of a multipurpose thermoelectric system that is directly powered by a solar photovoltaic panel. The heating mode was designed for space heating, whereas the cooling mode was tailored to an adiabatic box that could cool food and beverages. The results of this study will facilitate the practical use of this device in the future by directly connecting the thermoelectric system to the room and evaluating the response of the system to temperature changes requested by the user. This system has a high potential for delivering heating and cooling loads, achieving a coefficient of performance of 1.6 in the heating mode and 0.8–1.1 in the cooling mode. These results are promising given the current need to reduce negative environmental impacts in the building sector yet maintaining the same level of thermal comfort.

Abstract The paper introduces a novel method for risk assessment and preventive conservation of organic hygroscopic cultural heritage objects. The method is based on the analysis of the historic climate that is established in the European Standard EN 15757:2010. This new approach enables interpreting visible damage and assessing cause–effect relationships and it finds practical application in improving conservation strategies for real life buildings and objects. The paper investigates how it may be advantageous to reconstruct the historic climate back in time to obtain sound information about the target relative humidity (RH) level and the domain of RH fluctuations that can be considered safe for conservation. The method was applied to an inlaid wooden choir in the basilica of S. Giustina, Padua, Italy. The past indoor climate has been reconstructed over the whole life of the object, built in 1477, with documentary proxy data, instrumental readings and building simulation. Winter has been found to be the most critical season for the mechanical stress and wood yield. For the future, the indoor climate has been simulated until 2100 to timely devise preventive conservation measures to reduce the risk induced by climate change. Finally an evaluation of uncertainties has been considered.

Abstract Buildings worldwide account for a surprisingly high 40% of global energy consumption and produce an increasingly large carbon footprint. Future sustainability of the building sector is therefore strongly dependent on the installation of energy efficient technologies. However, even though these technologies are becoming more and more efficient, human behavior still plays a very important role in the overall building energy consumption. In this paper, a model for occupant behavior within the building in relation to energy consumption, along with a building energy consumption model is proposed based on stochastic Markov models. The energy consumption model is used to predict possible energy saving gains from building retrofitting projects. The objective is to ensure the return on investment from these projects. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed energy consumption model learns occupant behavioral patterns from the building. Additionally, it reliably reproduces them, predicts the building energy consumption and identifies potential areas of energy waste.