INENCO   05446
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN ENERGIA NO CONVENCIONAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Study of the energy consumption of a massive free-running building in the Argentinean northwest through monitoring and thermal simulation
Autor/es:
FLORES LARSEN S.; FILIPPÍN C.; GONZALEZ, SILVINA
Revista:
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
Editorial:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2012 vol. 47 p. 341 - 352
ISSN:
0378-7788
Resumen:
The real and simulated energy consumption of a massive residential free-running building in a dry climate of the Argentinean Northwest was studied. The historical 5-years energy consumption (gas and electricity) of the building was determined and the bi-monthly energy consumption for heating and cooling was simulated through the software EnergyPlus for meteorological data of a monitored whole year and standard comfort limits. The comparison of real and simulated consumptions shows that simulations overestimated the energy consumption for heating and cooling in 22% and 135%, respectively, indicating that the use of the air heaters and coolers was lower than supposed. The measured hourly indoor temperatures in winter and summer periods showed that possible causes of such differences are: a thermostat set-point lower (in summer) and higher (in winter) than real and an A/C use schedule in each zone that defined on-periods longer than real, linked to the users’ costumes in the A/C equipment managing. In winter, the sub-use of the heating equipment can be related to higher clothing levels than the assumed by the standard. Finally, an annual simulation performed by changing the envelope material to a lightweight one showed that energy consumption for heating was increased, while energy consumption for cooling was decreased, because of the capacity of massive walls to store energy during the day and release it during the night. In an annual balance, the massive walls are preferable over lightweight ones in arid sunny climates as in the Argentinean Northwest, giving energy savings of around 25%.