This research presents a case study exploring the potential for demand side flexibility at a cluster of university buildings. The study investigates the potential of a collection of various electrical devices, excluding heating and cooling systems. With increasing penetration of renewable electricity sources and the phasing out of dispatchable fossil sources, matching grid generation with grid demand will become difficult using traditional grid management methods alone. Additionally, grid congestion is a pressing problem. Demand side management in buildings may contribute to a solution to these problems. Currently demand response is, however, not yet exploited at scale. In part, this is because it is unclear how this flexibility can be translated into successful business models, or whether this is possible under the current market regime. This research gives insight into the potential value of energy demand flexibility in reducing energy costs and increasing the match between electricity demand and purchased renewable electricity. An inventory is made of on-site electrical devices that offer load flexibility and the magnitude and duration of load shifting is estimated for each group of devices. A demand response simulation model is then developed that represents the complete collection of flexible devices. This model, addresses demand response as a ‘distribute candy’ problem and finds the optimal time-of-use for shiftable electricity demand whilst respecting the flexibility constraints of the electrical devices. The value of demand flexibility at the building cluster is then assessed using this simulation model, measured electricity consumption, and data regarding the availability of purchased renewables and day-ahead spot prices. This research concludes that coordinated demand response of large variety of devices at the building cluster level can improve energy matching by 0.6-1.5% and reduce spot market energy cost by 0.4-3.2%.
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How to find out what students, starters, and other new households of transformed buildings need to create a home environment with a comfortable climate without losing meanings attributed to the home?
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Health symptoms may be influenced, supported, or even controlled via a lighting control system which includes personal lighting conditions and personal factors (health characteristics). In order to be effective, this lighting control system requires both continuous information on the lighting and health conditions at the individual level. A new practical method to determine these continuous personal lighting conditions has been developed: location-bound estimations (LBE). This method was validated in the field in two case studies; comparisons were made between the LBE and location-bound measurements (LBM) in case study 1 and between the LBE and person-bound measurements (PBM) in case study 2. Overall, the relative deviation between the LBE and LBM was less than 15%, whereas the relative deviation between the LBE and PBM was 32.9% in the best-case situation. The relative deviation depends on inaccuracies in both methods (i.e., LBE and PBM) and needs further research. Adding more input parameters to the predictive model (LBE) will improve the accuracy of the LBE. The proposed first approach of the LBE is not without limitations; however, it is expected that this practical method will be a pragmatic approach of inserting personal lighting conditions into lighting control systems.
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In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future. The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs. Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.
Smart office buildings are expected to incorporate user preferences, business objectives, and sustainability goals simultaneously in building operations. Furthermore, they are expected to provide comfortable, flexible and energy efficient working environment to its owners and users. Smart working environments with various implemented technologies affect the work style and user behavior. It changes how people use the office environment compared to traditional office environments. The success of a new smart technology largely depends on the user satisfaction of the office workers, which has not been studied until so far mostly due to the lack of sufficient data. Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to reveal what the significant aspects are for a successful adaptation of smart technologies in the office environment. Therefore, the case of "Stadhuistoren" which is one of the newest smart office building of the Municipality of Eindhoven is studied for which both user satisfaction data, as well as smart system control data, are collected. The smart system is a typical example of an innovative induvial climate control system, newly implemented in the Stadhuistoren. Finally, in this research, it is expected to reveal how user satisfaction is affected by smart technologies in offices for the future. The research method and the findings can be used as input for the implementation of other smart technologies in future smart offices.