Publication

Gestion biomimétique de l'énergie dans le bâtiment

Manuel Bauer
1998
EPFL thesis
Abstract

The efficient thermal control of buildings is a complex problem. Non controlled perturbations like user behaviour and meteorological conditions can change much with time and make this task difficult. This work proposes considering the building as a 'living system', with an internal activity (user behaviour and internal gains) and placed in an influencing environment (the solar radiation and the external temperature). As a living system, the building must provide thermal comfort conditions to its inhabitants and minimize its energy consumption. Strategies taken from the behavioural thermo regulation of the human body, as well as biomimetic technologies like artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic (technologies that imitate the behaviour of living systems), were used to reach these objectives. An optimal heating controller is proposed. It uses meteorological short term prediction models (for solar radiation and external temperature), as well as a model to describe the thermal evolution of a building. These models are based on artificial neural networks and have the following objectives: Optimize the prediction performance of adaptive meteorological models based on a limited number of local measurements. Precisely describe the thermal behaviour of buildings including the non-linearities introduced by inhabitants, with a self-adaptive model. Limit as much as possible the commissioning procedure necessary to initialize these models. A fuzzy blind controller is also developed. It can manage the sometimes contradictory goals of blinds: Provide optimal visual comfort for the inhabitants; Optimize the thermal exchanges through the window; Satisfy user wishes. To evaluate and compare different heating and blind control strategies, a correlation method is proposed. It evaluates the sensibility to solar and heating gains of a heated and cooled building. The proposed controllers have been tested in two rooms of a non residential building during three years. These rooms have large solar gains (south orientation and a high window fraction) and a massive structure. Many numerical simulations complete the experimental results. When compared to a conventional but efficient heat controller, equipped with internal temperature, external temperature and solar sensors, self adapting heating curve algorithms and optimal start/stop procedures, the biomimetic controller: reduce thermal energy needs (13% for the heating season); optimize the inhabitants' thermal comfort; make easier the commissioning procedure. When the blind controller is added, simulations show an extra 20% of energy savings (when compared to the case with only the biomimetic heating). This results from a reduced global heat transfer coefficient (due to blind's night closing) and an optimization of the solar gains use. This work shows that the heating consumption of buildings depends largely on the way they are controlled. The energy savings obtained with an efficient control is comparable to those resulting of an improvement of the building's envelope. For example, a window area with an automatic blind control can be a heating source (with the solar gains in a winter period) or a cooling source (with passive cooling in a summer period). Appropriate control can use this property to decrease the building's energy consumption.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related concepts (35)
Solar gain
Solar gain (also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain) is the increase in thermal energy of a space, object or structure as it absorbs incident solar radiation. The amount of solar gain a space experiences is a function of the total incident solar irradiance and of the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation. Objects struck by sunlight absorb its visible and short-wave infrared components, increase in temperature, and then re-radiate that heat at longer infrared wavelengths.
Electric heating
Electric heating is a process in which electrical energy is converted directly to heat energy. Common applications include space heating, cooking, water heating and industrial processes. An electric heater is an electrical device that converts an electric current into heat. The heating element inside every electric heater is an electrical resistor, and works on the principle of Joule heating: an electric current passing through a resistor will convert that electrical energy into heat energy.
Passive solar building design
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate performing an accurate site analysis.
Show more
Related publications (289)

Performance of energy piles foundation in hot-dominated climate: A case study in Dubai

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera, Sofie Elaine ten Bosch

Energy piles represent an innovative technology that can help provide sustainable geothermal heating or cooling energy for thermal conditioning purposes. In hot-dominated climates, the interest is to inject heat in the ground and extract energy for space-c ...
2024

Numerical study of optical transmission in silver plasmonic square nanohole and its to windows

Josef Andreas Schuler, Jérémy Jacques Antonin Fleury

Energy-efficient windows are being used to increase the thermal insulation of a fa & ccedil;ade. Such insulating windows contain an ultra-thin, multilayered, transparent silver coating that acts as an infrared mirror which significantly reduces thermal los ...
2024

Decomposition method to evaluate district heating/cooling network potential at urban scale

François Maréchal, Luc Girardin, Ana Catarina Gouveia Braz, Bingqian Liu, Raphaël Briguet

In this work, a tool to design district heating networks (DHN) is presented and applied to the city of Lausanne as a case study. The evaluation of the buildings’ heat/cooling demand is performed using a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, built f ...
Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024
Show more
Related MOOCs (17)
SES Swiss-Energyscope
La transition énergique suisse / Energiewende in der Schweiz
SES Swiss-Energyscope
La transition énergique suisse / Energiewende in der Schweiz
Plasma Physics: Introduction
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Show more