Browsing by Keyword "HVAC"
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Item Analysis of building energy upgrade technologies for implementing the dual energy efficiency and demand response scheme for non-residential buildings(2019-09) Macías, Olga; Noyé, Sarah; Tellado, Nagore; Torrens, Ignacio; de Agustin-Camacho, Pablo; Tsagkrasoulis, Dimosthenis; Bucur, Mircea; Southernwood, Jo; Tecnalia Research & InnovationThe continuous growth of renewable energy and the transition to a more de-centralised electricity generation adds significant complexity to balance power supply and demand in the grid. These imbalances are partially compensated by demand response programs, which represent a new business opportunity in the building sector, especially for ESCOs. Including demand response to their traditional energy efficiency-based business model adds an additional revenue stream that could potentially shorten payback periods of energy renovation projects. This paper introduces this new dual-services business model, and evaluates the potential suitability of HVAC, generation and storage technologies to ensure proposed energy efficiency and flexibility goals.Item Designing a generalised reward for Building Energy Management Reinforcement Learning agents(IEEE, 2021-09-08) Martinez, Ruben Mulero; Goikolea, Benat Arregi; Beitia, Inigo Mendialdua; Martinez, Roberto Garay; Mulero, Rubén; Arregi, Beñat; Mendialdua, Iñigo; Garay, Roberto; Solic, Petar; Nizetic, Sandro; Rodrigues, Joel J. P. C.; Rodrigues, Joel J.P.C.; Gonzalez-de-Artaza, Diego Lopez-de-Ipina; Perkovic, Toni; Catarinucci, Luca; Patrono, Luigi; DIGITALIZACIÓN Y AUTOMATIZACIÓN DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN; EDIFICACIÓN DE ENERGÍA POSITIVA; Tecnalia Research & InnovationThe reduction of the carbon footprint of buildings is a challenging task, partly due to the conflicting goals of maximising occupant comfort and minimising energy consumption. An intelligent management of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems is creating a promising research line in which the creation of suitable algorithms could reduce energy consumption maintaining occupants' comfort. In this regard, Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches are giving a good balance between data requirements and intelligent operations to control building systems. However, there is a gap concerning how to create a generalised reward signal that can train RL agents without delimiting the problem to a specific or controlled scenario. To tackle it, an analysis and discussion is presented about the necessary requirements for the creation of generalist rewards, with the objective of laying the foundations that allow the creation of generalist intelligent agents for building energy management.Item FMECA Assessment for Railway Safety-Critical Systems Investigating a New Risk Threshold Method(2021) Catelani, Marcantonio; Ciani, Lorenzo; Galar, Diego; Guidi, Giulia; Matucci, Serena; Patrizi, Gabriele; Tecnalia Research & InnovationThis paper develops a Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) for a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in railway. HVAC is a safety critical system which must ensure emergency ventilation in case of fire and in case of loss of primary ventilation functions. A study of the HVAC’s critical areas is mandatory to optimize its reliability and availability and consequently to guarantee a low operation and maintenance cost. The first part of the paper describes the FMECA which is performed and reported to highlight the main criticalities of the HVAC system under analysis. Secondly, the paper deals with the problem of the evaluation of a threshold risk value, which can distinguish negligible and critical failure modes. Literature barely considers the problem of an objective risk threshold estimation. Therefore, a new analytical method based on finite difference is introduced to find a univocal risk threshold value. The method is then tested on two Risk Priority Number datasets related to the same HVAC. The threshold obtained in both cases is a good tradeoff between the risk mitigation and the cost investment for the corrective actions required to mitigate the risk level. Finally, the threshold obtained with the proposed method is compared with the methods available in literature. The comparison shows that the proposed finite difference method is a well-structured technique, with a low computational cost. Furthermore, the proposed approach provides results in line with the literature, but it completely deletes the problem of subjectivity.Item Hybrid Liquid Desiccant System Design and Operation Under High Latent Load Conditions in Taiwan(2019-09) PEÑA, Xabier; ALONSO, Laura; DIAZ DE MENDIBIL, Andoni; PRIETO, Juan; GOMMED, Khaled; SISTEMAS TÉRMICOS EFICIENTESHybrid Liquid Desiccant systems (HLDS) combine the liquid desiccant technology for dehumidification of air with conventional compression cycle technology for cooling. They are an alternative to conventional compression cooling systems, being more efficient and offering the possibility of independently control temperature and humidity. In this paper the design and operation of a HLDS is presented, for the air conditioning of a high latent load application with high ambient humidity levels. An analysis of the daily evolution of the performance of the system under different environmental conditions has been included. The innovative demonstration unit placed in Taiwan, in continuous operation since November 2015, achieved Energy efficiency Ratios (EER) up to 4.6.