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Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Its Sustainable Development

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 June 2025 | Viewed by 2203

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engines and Fluid Mechanics Department, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain
Interests: zero energy buildings; HVAC; IAQ; zero carbon buildings; renewable energy systems in buildings; geothermal recovery systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Thermal and Fluid Engineering Department, Engineering School, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Interests: heating and cooling; energy policy; energy efficiency

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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Interests: energy; refrigeration cycles; energy efficiency; irreversibility

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Guest Editor
Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Malta, Barrakki Street, MXK 1531 Marsaxlokk, Malta
Interests: energy performance of buildings; solar photovoltaic systems; solar heating systems; heat pumps for heating & cooling; shallow-ground geothermal systems; solar and UV radiation monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue titled "Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Its Sustainable Development" focuses on advancing the concept of zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) as a cornerstone of sustainable development in the construction sector. It aims to explore innovative strategies, technologies, and policies that promote energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts across the entire building life cycle, including design, construction, operation, renovation, and dismantling. Topics include passive design principles, renewable energy integration, building envelope optimization, smart energy management systems, and occupant behavior analysis. Through interdisciplinary research and case studies, this issue seeks to highlight the potential of ZEBs to minimize energy consumption, mitigate climate change, and foster resilient communities.

Prof. Dr. Javier M Rey Hernandez
Dr. Juan Pablo Jimenez Navarro
Dr. Andrea Rocchetti
Prof. Dr. Charles Yousif
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • zero-energy buildings
  • HVAC systems
  • energy efficiency
  • sustainable development
  • renewable energy
  • passive building design
  • zero-carbon building
  • smart energy management
  • climate change mitigation
  • LCA

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4024 KiB  
Article
Proposal for an Intelligent Methodology to Manage Energy in Buildings and Detect Anomalies as a Compass Towards Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB)
by Irati Prol-Godoy, Roberto Santana, Francisco-Javier Rey-Martinez and Ana Picallo-Perez
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(23), 10918; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142310918 - 25 Nov 2024
Viewed by 514
Abstract
This work aims to advance the optimisation of the efficiency of thermal installations in buildings, contributing to the achievement of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) in the context of maintenance and operation. This is achieved through an innovative proposal that merges machine learning techniques [...] Read more.
This work aims to advance the optimisation of the efficiency of thermal installations in buildings, contributing to the achievement of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) in the context of maintenance and operation. This is achieved through an innovative proposal that merges machine learning techniques with thermoeconomics to perform diagnoses in building thermal systems and identify cost overruns generated by intrinsic anomalies in the components and quantify their induced effects on the rest of the components. To date, the few contributions combining these techniques have been limited to industrial applications and cost calculation, without addressing their application to building thermal systems, both from a dynamic perspective and for maintenance purposes. Research using Physics-Informed Neural Networks, PINNs, in this area is even scarcer, which underlines the complexity of defining a suitable methodology. Thus, the proposal integrates PINNs with a thermoeconomic diagnosis based on characteristic curves, allowing the comparison of the current operating condition with an anomaly-free reference condition to assess the existence of anomalies and their effects. For this reason, reference models are generated for the first time with PINNs, which represents a break with the conventional maintenance approaches used by professionals in the sector. Therefore, this methodology incorporates techniques that require specialised knowledge in thermodynamic and informatics areas, which motivates the present work to be focused on the exhaustive description of the methodology and to highlight the importance of continuing to explore lines of research in this unexplored field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Its Sustainable Development)
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20 pages, 16364 KiB  
Article
Performance and Economic Analysis of Two Types of High-Temperature Heat Pump Based on New Refrigerants
by Dahan Sun, Jiang Qin and Zhongyan Liu
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(17), 7735; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14177735 - 2 Sep 2024
Viewed by 800
Abstract
This paper proposes, for the first time, the research concept of comparing energy and economy between transcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps and subcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps with new refrigerants. Experiments and simulations are conducted to compare the system performance and economy of [...] Read more.
This paper proposes, for the first time, the research concept of comparing energy and economy between transcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps and subcritical cycle high-temperature heat pumps with new refrigerants. Experiments and simulations are conducted to compare the system performance and economy of two heat pumps, and the effects of different factors on the performance of two heat pumps are analyzed. The results show that R744/R1234yf (90/10) and R515-1 are the preferred refrigerants for transcritical cycle heat pumps and subcritical cycle heat pumps, respectively. The COP of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump is generally higher than that of the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump, and compared to the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump, the cost recovery period of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump is about 9–15 years. Therefore, it is recommended that users who use heat pumps for a long time choose transcritical cycle heat pumps. Meanwhile, with the change of evaporation temperature, the system COP of the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump and R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump increases by 61.11% and 65.91%, respectively. In addition, the optimal charge amount for the R515B-1 subcritical heat pump is 81.8% of that of the R744/R1234yf (90/10) transcritical heat pump. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Its Sustainable Development)
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