1.0 Introduction Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems

In this first video of the course, prof. dr. Laure Itard introduces you to the Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems MOOC. She will explain the structure of the course, the different topics and how the different weeks are connected to each other.

Hello, my name is Laure Itard and together with my team we have set up this professional certificate program ‘Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems’. 

Welcome! All together we have a tremendous task to achieve to make the world’s building stock sustainable. With this program you will acquire the knowledge needed to understand the thermal processes in buildings and the interactions between building design, occupants and energy systems. 

This way you will be able to make better designs of building components or entire buildings, their HVAC and their energy systems, by the way HVAC stands for heating, ventilating and air conditioning. You will also be able to understand policies in this area and maybe to shape the development of future ones.

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend indoors on an average working day? Take a few seconds to think about it. Maybe you are home from 7PM to 7AM, at the office from 9PM to 6AM, and maybe you take a 1-hour break to go out, or you have a commute. That’s already 20 hours out of 24 spent indoors. So yes, people spend more than 80% of their time in buildings, therefore a good thermal comfort and quality of the indoor environment (what we call IEQ in the literature) are essential for people’s wellbeing. It is about working, lighting, a nice temperature not too cold, not too warm, cooking, hobbies, fridges. And to achieve that, energy is needed, to heat, cool, ventilate, light etc...  At the same time, buildings and the energy systems used to maintain this indoor environment are responsible for around 40% of the worldwide energy consumption and the resulting carbon emissions, resource depletion and other types of pollution. So, the big question is how we can realize the transition to energy efficiency and renewable, while improving the quality of the indoor environment. What is the role of buildings in this? This is what you are going to discover in the program ‘Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems’. 

The program is divided into 4 courses. It is designed to help you to understand and to deal with all important aspects of the energy design of buildings.

The first course is about the building itself with its construction, materials and indoor spaces.

Then, going counterclockwise, the second course is about the diverse ways of producing the energy needed by buildings and their occupants in a sustainable way. This is what we call the energy supply. Buildings and their systems should be designed to serve people’s needs for health, comfort and carrying out diverse activities. But what are these needs and how can we translate them to measurable design requirements? That is the subject of the third course. 

Finally, in the fourth course you will discover how to combine and control energy supply, how to match it to the energy demand, and how to distribute heat, cold and air in buildings while maximizing comfort and minimizing carbon emissions. 

Each of the courses can be followed separately, however knowledge builds up from course 1 to 4. 

In a fifth course outside of the program, entitled Dynamic Energy modelling of buildings: 

Thermal Simulation you can learn and practice more advanced methods helping you to answer questions like how to shift or reduce peak heating or cooling demand to obtain a good match with a smart grid; or: how to model an atrium or a solar chimney?

All courses are based on a classic system engineering approach, meaning that you will also learn about the interactions between the different components of the building’s energy system. The system we look at is the physical building with its energy systems, occupants and HVAC systems.

There are interactions between courses 1 and 3: the building influences the comfort of its occupants, and conversely, the requirements of the occupants should influence the building design.

There are also interactions between courses 3 and 4: the HVAC systems influence the comfort of building occupants, and here again, specific comfort and health needs should influence the design of the HVAC systems.

Courses 1 and 4 are also closely related: the building must offer enough space for the right HVAC components, think of ventilation shafts for instance. And in turn we will see that making a choice for a specific distribution system has implications for the building design.

Finally, the relationship between courses 2 and 4 is strong too, as the energy conversion system may take place in the building and is therefore also a part of the HVAC system. Think of a heat pump, air cooler or even photovoltaic cells for example.

A classic system engineering approach also means that requirement analysis, modelling, and simulation play an important role. Once you’ve got a good understanding of the system itself and the interactions between components, you will be able to model it and simulate its working in order to create and analyse alternative design concepts in terms of performances. 

Design concepts may entail the share of glass in a façade, levels of insulation, compactness, type of energy generating devices etc… For performance analysis we will make use of simple, but robust simulations.

You can then select suitable designs on the basis of the requirements.

Requirements may be at the level of comfort and occupant preferences, think for instance of temperature and noise. Requirements may also be at the level of energy and environmental performances, for instance energy consumption, share of renewables or CO2 emissions. 

So, don’t expect this course to give you the practical details about which type of window to use, or how to place a window frame. But after the course, you will be able to specify the required size, type and transparency of the glazing leading to the best solution in terms of comfort, energy usage, CO2 emissions and costs for your building. To take another example, the course will not provide you with a detailed comparison of the qualities of heat pumps A or B, or how to connect them to floor heating pipes. But after the course, you will be able to size the heat pump and to decide if it can be used as a stand-alone system or needs an auxiliary system. Or even, if it is better to use district heating instead of a heat pump. All these considerations have consequences for costs, energy and environmental performances and you will be able to draw conclusions on that. This will also help you building bridges in the communication between the different actors involved in building design: the architect, the energy and HVAC consultants, the installers, the energy company, the maintenance companies, and not to forget the client, and even policy makers.

Thank you for joining us, and good luck!