Home > Notes > Courses > DelftX ECOBuild1x: Energy Demand in Buildings

Week 0: Introduction

First course in the Professional Certificate Program (PCP) Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems.

Buildings and energy systems are responsible for ~40% of worldwide energy consumption and carbon emissions. Therefore they have an essential role to play in carbon reduction targets and increasing sustainability.

In the 4 courses of this PCP, will acquire knowledge about thermal proceses in buildings, generation of heat, cold, and electricity, and interactions between buildings, occupants, and energy systems. This will support in making sustainable designs for buildings, and their indoor climate and energy systems. Also will help better understand policies in this area.

This first course, Energy Demand in Buildings, has been developed to teach which tools and 'buttons' can be used to quantify and reduce energy demand in buildings in order to minimize their impacts on the environment during operation while keeping them comfortable and healthy.

Lecture notes

People spend more than 80% of their time in buildings, therefore good thermal comfort and quality of the indoor environment (IEQ) is essential.

Buildings and their energy systems are responsible for around 40% of worldwide energy consumption and resulting emissions.

Big question: how can we realize the transition to energy efficiency and renewables, while improving the quality of the indoor environment.

First course: the building itself. Construction, materials, indoor spaces.

Second course: diversity of ways of producing the energy needed by buildings and occupants in a sustainable way. Energy supply.

Third course: What are the needs that people have for health, comfort, and carrying out activities in buildings. How can we translate them to measurable design requirements?

Fourth course: Combine and control energy supply, how to match it to energy demand, and how to distribute heat, cold, and air in buildings while maximizing comfort and minimizing carbon emissions.

Each can be followed separately, but knowledge builds sequentially.

Fifth course, outside the program: Dynamic Energy modeling of buildings -- Thermal Simuation. Learn and practice more advanced methods of helping answer questions like how to shift/reduce peak heating/coolind demand, how to obtain a good match with a smart grid, how to model an atrium or solar chimney?

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