Institut Politècnic d’Innovació i Recerca en Sostenibilitat (INSPIRES)
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INSPIRES és un centre de recerca de la Universitat de Lleida. Conforma un grup multidisciplinari que posa especial atenció a la recerca al voltant de la millor gestió energètica, l’eficiència, la usabilitat, la seguretat, la computació d’altes prestacions i la resolució i optimització de problemes, entre altres temes. Tot amb nexes comuns, girant al voltant de l’àmbit de la sostenibilitat i la tecnologia. Suposa una unió d’esforços dels diferents centres de recerca que de manera separada tractaven diferents línies i àrees, ara aquests esforços es comparteixen generant sinèrgies.[Més informació].
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Browsing Institut Politècnic d’Innovació i Recerca en Sostenibilitat (INSPIRES) by Author "Álvarez Domínguez, Servando"
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- ItemOpen AccessBehaviour of a concrete wall containing micro‐encapsulated PCM after a decade of its construction(Elsevier, 2019) Cabeza, Luisa F.; Navarro Farré, Lidia; Pisello, Anna Laura; Olivieri, Lorenzo; Bartolomé, Cesar; Sánchez Sánchez, José; Álvarez Domínguez, Servando; Tenorio, José AntonioToday, our society has the duty of reducing the energy consumed in the building sector. A promising technology to achieve this goal is the implementation of thermal energy storage (TES) solutions in buildings envelope. Lately, much literature dealing with the effect of the inclusion of latent heat storage materials in construction materials to provide higher thermal inertia has appeared, mostly focusing on the evaluation of the thermal properties, density, or porosity of these new materials. However, few of them evaluated the long stability properties of the materials with embedded PCM when included in a building, very much needed since the lifetime of a building is about 50 years. Therefore, in this study, an evaluation of a house‐like cubicle of concrete with micro‐encapsulated PCM after a decade of its construction is carried out. The results are compared to the tests done in 2005 concluding that the thermal performance of this cubicle presented no degradation in the PCM effect.
- ItemOpen AccessBuilding thermal storage technology: Compensating renewable energy fluctuations(Elsevier, 2020) Guerrero Delgado, M. Carmen; Sánchez Ramos, José; Álvarez Domínguez, Servando; Tenorio, José Antonio; Cabeza, Luisa F.Emerging technologies and new intelligent management systems will be needed to rise to the energy challenges posed by buildings today. Thermally activated building systems (TABS) are attracting growing interest on the back of their energy savings potential. The TABS studied in this article, a new prefabricated panel designed for installation in residential building façades, was characterised by the high thermal inertia afforded by the phase change materials in its composition. The design and assessment of the potential savings derived from TABS require specific characterisation methodologies to estimate the amount of useful energy available to control the indoor environment. A two-stage approach was adopted for the TABS studied here with ``ideal'' operating control (the building is assumed to be at a constant desired temperature). The first stage involved a simplified method for characterising system behaviour based on performance maps developed from CFD simulations. Such maps can be used to quickly assess changes in system energy performance following on variations in design and operating parameters. In the second, the TABS was integrated into a building with a simplified model to assess monthly energy demand to evaluate the system potential for energy savings in representative types of Spanish single-family housing in different climate zones. The first-stage findings showed that given the system significant inertia, it discharged for several days, even when charging occurred only on the first, ensuring a wide operating range adaptable to renewable resource limitations. The analysis of potential, in turn, revealed that savings of over 40% in heating demand are possible even under the least favourable circumstances.
- ItemOpen AccessExperimental evaluation of different natural cold sinks integrated into a concrete façade(Elsevier, 2020) Guerrero Delgado, M. Carmen; Sánchez Ramos, José; Cabeza, Luisa F.; Álvarez Domínguez, ServandoThe new demands, the climate change and challenges set by society intend to generate major reductions in the heating and cooling demands of buildings. However, conventional measures to improve the performance of the building envelope can easily reduce the heating demand and, in many cases, worsen the cooling behaviour of the building. Therefore, we need innovative solutions that provide high heating performance and use natural heat sinks to cool the building's thermal mass when in cooling mode. This work describes and tests a solution consisting of a façade built as a precast concrete element with high thermal inertia. This solution integrates different natural cooling techniques as a natural sink. For that, it has different modes of operation when in cooling mode, which allow it to adapt to the needs of the building and the natural resources available to guarantee high performance. To evaluate the impact of the three operating modes of the proposed solution, an experimental prototype has been built and tested over two summers. This experimentation, combined with an inverse thermal characterisation model, has made it possible to estimate the real impact of three passive cooling measures (nocturnal storage of cold in the thermal mass of the façade element, nocturnal ventilation of the building itself through the façade element and pre-cooling of the air before entering the chamber by using the evaporative system). All these measures are presented as different possible modes of operation of the described solution, with hardly any extra cost on the base solution, but with a considerable energy impact.
- ItemOpen AccessGas engine heat pump system: Experimental facility and thermal evaluation for 5 different units(Elsevier, 2019) Sánchez Ramos, José; Guerrero Delgado, M. Carmen; Álvarez Domínguez, Servando; Molina Féliz, José Luis; Cabeza, Luisa F.Gas Engine Heat Pump requires simplified characterization models that allow evaluating its economic and energy impacts. These simplified solutions can be implemented in complex simulation algorithms for different commercial solutions with a low computational cost. The study aims to develop a simplified characterization model highly accurate, easy to reproduce and apply. The methodology carried out uses an experimental installation to analyze different units tested under different operating conditions. With the results of the carried out experimentation, it will be possible to know the real thermal response of these HVAC systems and to develop the simplified characterization model based on operating curves. The thermal behaviour of the systems could be evaluated using the defined curves under any operating condition of the GEHP system. Moreover, they are based on parameters available in the manufacturer datasheets. The results of the validation show that this model is highly accurate. It has a maximum error of 25% and an average error of less than 7%. Also, the formulation shows that it is easy to reproduce and to apply. Last, uncertainty analysis shows reasonable confidence in the identified performance curves.
- ItemOpen AccessPotential of energy flexible buildings: Evaluation of DSM strategies using building thermal mass(Elsevier, 2019) Sánchez Ramos, José; Pavón Moreno, M. Carmen; Guerrero Delgado, M. Carmen; Álvarez Domínguez, Servando; Cabeza, Luisa F.Energy flexible buildings through smart demand-side management (DSM) or smart demand response (DR) using efficient energy storage, are currently one of the most promising options to deploy low-carbon technologies in the electricity networks without the need of reinforcing existing networks. Although, many ignore the potential, economic and energetic benefits these alternatives could hold for buildings, users and tariffs. In the study carried out a control system of demand management measures is analyzed, based on the use of the buildings' thermal mass as thermal storage (preheating, precooling and night ventilation). This demand management system is analyzed in five existing residential buildings in the so-called reference scenario (construction, user and current prices). Subsequently, comes the analysis of the optimal manage- ment strategy choice from the system, when facing changes in the housings' constructive characteristics and electric tariffs. The dynamism of the management system stands out from the results achieved, as well as the de- pendence of the possible strategy choices on the climate zones. In the reference situation, the maximum economic savings obtained after the implementation of the management system correspond to 3.2% for heating and 8.5% for cooling. In this same manner, when the buildings are previously rehabilitated, the savings can double even generating energy savings. Finally, it can be concluded that the low installation costs of these measures make them a winning solution, as long as the electric pricing and user behavior allow the required flexibility.