Research has shown a steady rise in global temperatures and is attributed as the cause of adverse climate conditions, natural disasters and a greater need for resilient design that is more adaptable to change. Among the many sectors affected by these changes, buildings are particularly important as they already consume a significant portion of total domestic energy, creating a growing need for retrofits and performance improvements. Recent work has shown that some retrofits and performance improvements may actually cause greater building envelope risk, damage and costs in future climate conditions due to increased biodegradation risk and freeze/thaw damage risk. The same is also true for HVAC equipment which is designed to meet peak loads which may change significantly with climate change. Among the many alternatives for heating and cooling technologies available, micro cogeneration has emerged as a potential, transformative technology for the residential sector. Micro cogeneration and micro trigeneration technologies have the potential to reduce domestic energy consumption and create more resilient buildings. These systems are sized for the application based on the building’s heat-to-power ratio. With global temperature rise, this ratio will change making todays systems operate differently and potentially inefficiently in future climates. In this work, variations in residential heat-to-power ratio due to climate change are assessed in the Northeastern climate of the United States. Simulations of high R-value walls are compared to older wall constructions in current and future climate conditions. Impacts on current micro cogeneration design are discussed. The study explores the interrelationship between climate, enclosure and micro cogeneration heat-to-power ratio with the goal of developing and designing enclosure and micro cogeneration systems that are more adaptive to climate change.
Citation: 2017 Winter Conference, Las Vegas, NV, Conference Papers
Product Details
- Published:
- 2017
- Number of Pages:
- 8
- Units of Measure:
- Dual
- File Size:
- 1 file , 810 KB
- Product Code(s):
- D-LV-17-C041
