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The Basics of Energy Efficiency in Buildings

by Nathan Zachary
Civil Works Contractors

Sometimes the authors of technical articles focus on writing about moderately advanced concepts to transmit that knowledge to the readers. For some time now, in the energy efficiency realizing that there are a series of basic concepts. That we take in general and are familiar with, which is reason for better energy efficiency in products and services at Civil Works Contractors.

Basic Concepts in Energy Efficiency

For this reason, I intend to clarify in this article a series of basic concepts that must be clear to understand an energy efficiency certificate or comply with the regulation:

  • Energy Demand
  • Energy Consumption
  • Thermal Load
  • Final Energy
  • Primary Energy
  • Non-Renewable Primary Energy Consumption
  • Total Primary Energy Consumption

Energy Demand

Energy demand is a concept that had disappeared with the entry into force of the and replaced by the conditions for demand control. In other words, a series of parameters. Compliance with which made the energy demand “at bay”. But this did not mean that we did not have to analyze the energy demand of a building to understand its energy behavior.

Global Coefficient of Heat Transmission

It shows that compliance with the global coefficient of heat transmission may exclude through the thermal envelope (Klim). When the heating and cooling demands are lower in both cases of 15KWh/m2.

Energy Demand

But what is this energy demand? The energy demand is the amount of energy for a period (1 year) that the air conditioning equipment (refrigeration and heating). DHW and ventilation must provide to maintain the comfort conditions of a living space and maintain the conditions defined in current regulations.

If we focus on air conditioning, it is the amount of energy that air conditioning machines must provide in the form of heat or cold to maintain the comfort conditions of a building.

The Energy of Temperature Changes Both Warm and Chill

It represents the amount of energy in the form of heat and cold that the air conditioning machines must provide to maintain comfort conditions for 1 year.

Analyzing this graph, a bit, it could say that the energy demand is: ∫F(x)dt.

On the other hand, we can also observe that in case of improvement of the thermal envelope of a building, less energy must provide by the air conditioning machines. Therefore, the energy demand will decrease.

Express the energy demand in KWh/m2 year.

Energy Consumption

The new limits the consumption of non-renewable energy and the consumption of total primary energy. We will see exactly these concepts later. But now I just want to focus on explaining the energy consumption:

It must supply the amount of energy to the air conditioning, ventilation, DHW equipment, etc. To attend the services of heating, refrigeration, ACS, etc. If we focus on air conditioning. It is the amount of energy that the air conditioning equipment consumes in order to provide enough energy to maintain comfort conditions. 

We can already see that energy demand has nothing to do with energy consumption. But they are directly related. Since a building with a good thermal envelope will need less energy input from its air conditioning equipment, so the air conditioning equipment will consume less since they have to provide less energy in the form of heat or cold.

Express Energy consumption in KWh/m2 year.

Thermal Load

The thermal load is a concept that use to size the air conditioning equipment of a building. We could define it as the amount of energy. For a period, that must supply or extracted from a habitable space to maintain comfort conditions.

At first, it may seem that there is no difference with the definition of energy demand. But it must consider the thermal load refers to the point of maximum amount of energy to supply in the form of heat in winter. And the point to supplied of maximum amount of energy in the form of cooling in summer.

Final Energy

It is the energy used in the consumption points of the building. That is, it is the energy supplied to the consumer at the point where we feed the equipment. And reflect whose consumption through the meters. This energy is available in the form of electricity, fuel, and heat.

This is a very important piece of information and one that energy efficiency programs usually offer for information purposes, since the regulations do not limit the final energy

Primary Energy

It is the energy supplied to a building directly from a deposit such as coal, gas, oil, etc. Or from a renewable source such as wind, solar, etc. That is, it is natural energy in its original form as we find it in nature, before going through the process of transformation into final energy.

Primary energy = Final energy + Transportation losses + Transformation losses

It limits the consumption of non-renewable primary energy and the total energy consumption, depending on the climatic zone and the use of the building.

Non-Renewable Primary Energy Consumption

From the definition of primary energy, we can extract that non-renewable primary energy is energy from fossil fuels (gas, oil, and coal) together with radioactive minerals. These sources are present in nature in limited quantities and are sources of pollution, which is why they consider non-renewable resources.

It limits the consumption of non-renewable primary energy, which, as we have commented, is the non-renewable part of the primary energy consumed.

  • Non-renewable primary energy consumption limit
  • This parameter has suffered a great decrease compared.

Total Primary Energy Consumption

From the definition of primary energy, we can extract that total primary energy is the set of non-renewable primary energy from fossil fuels (gas, oil, and coal) together with radioactive minerals, and renewable primary energy from sources such as wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, aerothermal energy, etc.

We must take into account that should consider energy generated by renewable sources. Since there are technologies that consume a part of non-renewable primary energy to produce renewable energy. Such as aerothermal energy.

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