Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The inclusion of the concept of suitable TES technology to satisfy the building
energy requirements from the scheme inception to the final construction stages of
the building can help to achieve sustainability in every step of the design process.
By combining the renewable energy-based thermal storage systems, the heating
or cooling energy demand in buildings can be largely met with, which can serve to
maintain the environmental sustainability as well in and around the building
envelope and its landscape.
There are several merits that can be realized through the utilization of thermal
storage systems, which as prescribed by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED), BREEAM and other internationally recognized organizations,
would earn much more ratings for the buildings.
The newly built dwellings or the refurbished constructions that are complete
with any of the aforementioned TES system can be designated to be energy
efficient based on the credits earned throughout their development process. The
points and credits attained by such buildings would help them to reduce the GHG
emission per square metre, with an objective of creating a nearly zero-energy
building design and sustainable built environment.
11 Conclusion
The success in the energy conservation and energy management strongly depends
on the ways by which the total energy demand has been matched with the energy
supply in buildings. The focus on the value-added technology implementation has
a vital role to play at every step of the design and development of building
envelopes.
From this perspective, the TES systems offer a wide range of opportunities to
bridge the gap between the energy supply and the energy demand in several ways.
The TES systems integrated with HVAC system are capable of efficiently shifting,
levelling as well as limiting the cooling/heating load demand in buildings.
The acceptable heat storage and release characteristics of the PCMs allow them
to be pronounced as potential candidates for the TES systems meant to satisfy the
cooling and heating requirements in buildings.
Furthermore, the utilization of efficient and advanced nanomaterials into the
latent functional PCMs would pave way for a new venture in meeting out the
immediate, intermittent, short-term, long term energy storage and energy security
benefits as applied to the newly constructed and the refurbished buildings.
In total, the energy performance of the existing building envelopes can be
enhanced with the application of renewable and non-renewable energy-based TES
technologies, without losing energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
