Energy performance of buildings is determined by using both construction and users’ characteristics. Generally, information regarding thermo-physical properties and energy systems is easily available; on the contrary, more efforts have to be spent for obtaining data about occupants. In particular, it is important to understand and quantify how people occupy the building, how they operate the systems (heating, cooling, lighting, and DHW), and how they use envelope components (windows and blinds), and appliances. Furthermore, the application of systems that use renewable energy sources is encouraged or mandatory in the modern and sustainable architecture design. Solar thermal collectors are a mature technology suitable and economical for domestic hot water (DHW) production, thus having accurate profiles of hot water consumption and hourly usage is extremely important in order to improve the dimensioning and operation of these systems, due to the intermittent nature of solar energy and the eventual mismatch between production and demand. The present study shows the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on 81 families and designed to investigate occupancy characteristics and occupants’ behavior in residential buildings located in Mediterranean climatic conditions. In particular, data regarding DHW and socio-economic characteristics of the sample were analyzed with the aim of obtaining patterns of DHW usage to be applied for evaluate the most suitable applicability of thermal solar systems. Cluster analysis was applied in order to identify homogeneous groups of families in terms of daily DHW usage. Four significant clusters were obtained. Each group was characterized by considering the average number of family members, the daily hours of domestic hot water usage, and the time range with predominant utilization. Furthermore, the authors considered the following variables: income, average age, gender, energy system and consumption. The cluster with higher female percentage, lower number of family members, and lower income appears to be the most suitable for solar thermal collectors installation as DHW usage was more distributed in the hours with high availability of solar radiation.
PATTERNS OF DHW USAGE IN THE APPLICABILITY OF THERMAL SOLAR SYSTEMS
Gianmarco Fajilla;Marilena De Simone
2019-01-01
Abstract
Energy performance of buildings is determined by using both construction and users’ characteristics. Generally, information regarding thermo-physical properties and energy systems is easily available; on the contrary, more efforts have to be spent for obtaining data about occupants. In particular, it is important to understand and quantify how people occupy the building, how they operate the systems (heating, cooling, lighting, and DHW), and how they use envelope components (windows and blinds), and appliances. Furthermore, the application of systems that use renewable energy sources is encouraged or mandatory in the modern and sustainable architecture design. Solar thermal collectors are a mature technology suitable and economical for domestic hot water (DHW) production, thus having accurate profiles of hot water consumption and hourly usage is extremely important in order to improve the dimensioning and operation of these systems, due to the intermittent nature of solar energy and the eventual mismatch between production and demand. The present study shows the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on 81 families and designed to investigate occupancy characteristics and occupants’ behavior in residential buildings located in Mediterranean climatic conditions. In particular, data regarding DHW and socio-economic characteristics of the sample were analyzed with the aim of obtaining patterns of DHW usage to be applied for evaluate the most suitable applicability of thermal solar systems. Cluster analysis was applied in order to identify homogeneous groups of families in terms of daily DHW usage. Four significant clusters were obtained. Each group was characterized by considering the average number of family members, the daily hours of domestic hot water usage, and the time range with predominant utilization. Furthermore, the authors considered the following variables: income, average age, gender, energy system and consumption. The cluster with higher female percentage, lower number of family members, and lower income appears to be the most suitable for solar thermal collectors installation as DHW usage was more distributed in the hours with high availability of solar radiation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
