A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Dynamic simulation of Swedish residential building renovations and its impact on the district heating network
As urbanization continues to rise, cities now account for two-thirds of the world's total energy consumption. The built environment alone contributes to 40\% of total energy consumption and a third of total greenhouse gas emissions. With an additional 2.5 billion people projected to inhabit cities by 2050, efficient use of available resources is a critical aspect of climate action. One such resource is the low-temperature waste heat from growing industries such as data centers. However, harnessing this resource requires modifications to the existing building stock and networks. Urban Building Energy Models (UBEM) is an available tool with the capabilities of performing dynamic simulations for assessing different technical scenarios and providing information for a solution to the mentioned challenges. It allows for comprehensive analysis and optimization of energy usage in urban environments, providing a pathway towards more sustainable and efficient cities. In this study, a district in Stockholm is simulated using the open-source software City Energy Analyst (CEA), evaluating the limitations and adaptations required when using this tool, and investigating how building renovations and other technical adaptations can increase the integration of low-temperature waste heat systems into the district heating network. It is concluded that the level of detail (LOD) of the building's physical characteristics has a fundamental role in the accuracy and validation of the output data and it must be defined depending on the scale of the simulation. Besides, the implementation of building renovations decreases the energy demand, specifically for space heating demand, and enhances the reduction of the supply and return temperatures of the district heating network, providing technical conditions for the integration of low-temperature waste heat recovery systems.
Dynamic simulation of Swedish residential building renovations and its impact on the district heating network
As urbanization continues to rise, cities now account for two-thirds of the world's total energy consumption. The built environment alone contributes to 40\% of total energy consumption and a third of total greenhouse gas emissions. With an additional 2.5 billion people projected to inhabit cities by 2050, efficient use of available resources is a critical aspect of climate action. One such resource is the low-temperature waste heat from growing industries such as data centers. However, harnessing this resource requires modifications to the existing building stock and networks. Urban Building Energy Models (UBEM) is an available tool with the capabilities of performing dynamic simulations for assessing different technical scenarios and providing information for a solution to the mentioned challenges. It allows for comprehensive analysis and optimization of energy usage in urban environments, providing a pathway towards more sustainable and efficient cities. In this study, a district in Stockholm is simulated using the open-source software City Energy Analyst (CEA), evaluating the limitations and adaptations required when using this tool, and investigating how building renovations and other technical adaptations can increase the integration of low-temperature waste heat systems into the district heating network. It is concluded that the level of detail (LOD) of the building's physical characteristics has a fundamental role in the accuracy and validation of the output data and it must be defined depending on the scale of the simulation. Besides, the implementation of building renovations decreases the energy demand, specifically for space heating demand, and enhances the reduction of the supply and return temperatures of the district heating network, providing technical conditions for the integration of low-temperature waste heat recovery systems.
Dynamic simulation of Swedish residential building renovations and its impact on the district heating network
2024-03-15
ETSEIB-240.180013
Theses
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
690
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