Monitoring and common exchange

Minutes- Monitoring and common exchange between Lyon-Zaragoza communities

2^nd Technical session, 28^th April 2009

Chair : Rodrigo Vásquez (UdZ)

Reporter : Hervé Pabiou (INSA-CNRS)

I- Presentation by Rodrigo Vásquez.
I-1 DESIGN VERIFICATION
State of progress:

Optical network

Meeting with Endesa

Meeting with GasAragon

Installation sensors finished
Slide 5 : First information obtained by connected network in Valdespartera. The information given in this presentation are the first one.

First local data on P12 & P14

Example of the solar thermal energy : measurement of higher temperatures in the balcony due to solar radiation. In winter this solar energy supply is essential.

Measurement of solar radiation? : yes.

No local weather station  data collected from the meteorological institute of Zaragoza

Currently, 1 month is needed to get the data, in the future data will be available on-line.

Measurement of the electrical power of each building  measurement device provided by Endesa. The growth of the energy consumption that is currently observed is due to the arrival of the inhabitants in Valdespartera.
I-2 ANALYSIS of LOCAL WEATHER
Measurement of the temperature, humidity and correlation with comfort in buildings.

Measurements of winds

I-3 CERTIFICATION STUDIES
Activities to obtain a norm better than the legal one:

Use of simulations of the energy consumptions in the buildings.

Infra-Red Thermography

Verification that the thermal characteristics in the wall are equal to the values given by the builder : thermal transmittance.

Blower door test to estimate air leakages

Technical inspection of heating systems

 global view for the certification
How the transmittance is measured? First, in laboratory with known materials and surface temperature measurements. Second, acquisition of a new device for a measurement of the temperature of the surfaces in the building + measurement of the humidity

Local or global measurement? If the IR measurements show a non uniform façade, local measurements will be done.

Simulations of P24 & 27 with another software EnergyPlus instead of TSBi3

(see Slide14) New simulations will be done with EnergyPlus.

Examples of IR measurements in laboratory are shown: a door without insulation; façade with different materials.

IR measurement in situ: Measurements on several buildings. Examples of a heated room; evidence of thermal bridges; effects of junction of a balcony with a façade.=> discussion with workers; impact on the roof …

I-4 HUMAN BEHAVIOR IMPACT
Two examples of the impact of the human behaviour are given: when works are done in empty dwellings, the balconies are opened which is an important energy loss in winter (losses are all the more important since some heating systems are still working).

Also in winter, some balconies are closed by curtains or blinds which prevents the solar radiation to heat the dwelling.

To limit these problems one can inform the inhabitants about the usual errors.
I-4 COMMON MONITORING
See next technical session.
I-5 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
What is the French norm on air leakage? In France, the air leakage through the envelope is express in m3/h/m2 (flow of air per m2 of façade), which is not relevant. A relevant unit, which corresponds to a relevant process of measurement, is vol/h under 50pa (air flow for a relative pressure of 50pa inside the building – vol = volume of the envelop).

An ambitious objective is 0.6 vol/h under 50pa, which was adopted in Lyon. Blower door tests were made and some default were corrected.

In Lyon Confluence: the problem of permeability is taken into account. Training of the workers on the air permeability are done.
Rodrigo Vásquez asks how to do these measurements before the end of the building? : When the dwelling is closed, a first test allows corrections and when it is finished a second tests is done but no other corrections can be made.
In Zaragoza, the blower door tests are made with ventilation system opened and closed. What is the protocol in France?

In France all apertures are closed in the dwelling to characterized only the envelope.

In Zaragoza, the monitoring is centralized. Do the inhabitant will have access to these results? The results are anonymous, so the inhabitants will not have access to the results. But, if an inhabitant makes an agreement with the University of Zaragoza (UdZ), he can access his results.
Will IR thermography measurements be done in Lyon? : Yes

What is your [Olivier Sidler] opinion about the measurement in Zaragoza? When a thermal bridge exists, is the difference of temperature large enough to be measured with the IR camera? : Olivier Sidler answers that IR camera is more relevant to detect air leakage. The problem of thermal bridge is now well known and when you see them it is too late. IR camera is more useful to detect air leakages.

In Zaragoza, we try to include in the certification IR measurements and blower door tests during the construction. But the problem is that during the work, there is no heating system so IR camera results are limited. Olivier Sidler makes visits on the construction site to explain what must be done. These visits are essential.

Rodrigo Vásquez says that when the insulation is put, some defaults can be seen by using IR camera. He suggests doing these tests with the builder. If the builder see and understand the problems, he will be able to improve the rest of the building.

Verifications between measurement and simulation will be done in Zaragoza? : Absolutely because we work on certification that will lead to a report indicating all the characteristics.
Summer comfort data will be available in 4 months.


II - PRESENTATION BY OLIVIER SIDLER
II-1 PRESENTATION
Monitoring is not a new technic but it has evolved since 15 years.

The first monitorings were focus on the envelope (insulation).

But now two important parameters have been identified: human behaviour and air leakages through the envelop especially in very efficient buildings.

For example, an inside temperature of 24°C leads to an increase of 50% of the energy consumption by comparison with a building with an inside temperature of 19°C.

In efficient buildings, heat flux are more important between dwellings of different temperature than heat flowing through the envelop of the building.
Enertech tries a lot of new monitoring systems. The aim is to know what it is working and what is not working. The aim of Concerto is not to say that everything is OK.
In each building: every energy consumption is measured  global results

Weather station.

In dwelling: measurements of temperature, humidity, Inside Air Quality, ventilation (every 10min), heat meter with pulse transmitter for each kwh.

Measurement of the temperature at the entry./exit of hot water network; DHW (including solar part) = measurement of the water flow of the solar panel (every 10min, 1h, 4h); cold water consumption.

Measurements of ventilation: consumption of the fan (high consumption) and air flow.

Electrical consumption in 15% of the dwellings:

Electric meter at the entry of the dwellings

Measurements in common area in all buildings.

Heat meter on each boiler + wood quantity that is delivered, pump and regulation consumption (may be important in efficient buildings)
Results express in kWh/m2 (global consumption and consumption by uses)

Greenhouse effect gases balance

Evaluation of the winter/summer comfort

Reconstitution of the thermal and energy balance

Analysis of the occupancy modes and human behaviour
Presentation of the cumulative frequency

Relative contribution of the different loads

Zaragoza and Lyon are complementary: Zaragoza is focusing on the envelop and Lyon on the different loads in the dwellings

 interesting synthesis

II-2 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

Rodrigo Vásquez: How do you know that an increase of 1°C in the building implies an increase of 15% of the energy consumption?

Olivier Sidler : simple calculations and dynamical simulations  12% to 15% of energy consumption increase (can reach 20% in positive energy buildings). In the future, the deviations in consumption will come from the temperature value in buildings.
In Lyon Confluence: when the measurements will be done, keeping in mind that good results can be obtained one year after the delivery? : It is right. New buildings contain a large quantity of concrete to dry. But it is not possible to wait one year before beginning the monitoring. In Lyon, there will be 3 months before the beginning of the monitoring.
What low consumption means in term of figures? : In France a consumption of 80 kWh/m2/year (heating needs express in primary energy)

In Lyon Confluence the target is 60 kWh/m2/h, which was ambitious in 2003.

But today a low consumption building means less than 50 kWh/m2/year

German label PassivHaus < 20 kWh/m2/year

But DHW can represent three times the consumption for heating. We must work on DHW, and especially on the recovery of the heat from used water.
In Lyon, inhabitants will have access to the measurements made in their dwellings. In agreement with builder, the inhabitants will have a detailed report with advices plus a gift from the builder. But these results must be explained.
What is the global budget of this kind of monitoring? Around 1500 sensors will be installed. But Enertech began 15 years ago on monitoring, and it had developed its own sensors.

For this project, the budget is 260 k€ which is not very expensive regarding the number of sensors

For human behaviour: will a global meeting be done with inhabitants? What happened if an inhabitant installs its own air conditioning system?

2 kind of information will be given: a booklet will be given to all the inhabitant of the Concerto building and another booklet will be given to the inhabitants of the district with exhaustive information.

Global meeting will be done with all inhabitants to give them the reasons of the project.
How to reduce consumption of household appliance? A lot of measurements had been done including the new appliances like lcd screen, computers. It is not the aim of Concerto to reduce the energy consumption. Information is given to the inhabitants that are free to use efficient appliances or not. The aim of the measurements in Concerto is to evaluate the thermal energy supply by these facilities.

WP2 – Monitoring exchange between Lyon & Zaragoza communities –

Technical session Minutes - 28th April 2009- Lyon