According to the latest data for the European Union as a whole, buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of total energy consumption and therefore the impact of any effort at reduction of said consumption is important.
a) Normativa energética en el sector de la edificación
The development of new standards and the revision of that in existence call for research work that is of great relevance for the governing bodies. AICIA has developed various research projects and consultancy works in this field, having achieved notable specialization in the area of power standards in the normativa energética en el sector de la edificación sector:
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Climatic Zoning
The climatic zoning used for limiting the energy demand of the technical building code
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Building Certification Methods
The energy certification of new and existing buildings is carried out according to the methodology of the Royal Decree 47/2007. AICIA is developing calculation methods denominated as detailed because they follow exactly the methodology proposed by said decree. These methods need the hourly energy demand of the building and the simulation of the conditioning systems, also on an hourly base. Residential buildings and tertiary buildings (small and medium on one hand and large on the other) are considered separately, as well as new or existing buildings.
AICIA is also developing simplified methods in accordance to the official methodology that allows for simplified certification of various types of buildings. Energy certification of buildings, both new and existing, by a detailed method, requires a degree of definition and later a calculation time that greatly increases the certification costs; therefore, the simplified methods are in great demand in the building sector. This very simple procedure is based on knowledge of the characteristic parameters of the elements of the building (shell and systems) which are known from the requirements of other standard verifications (mainly the CTE-HE1), and can be easily implemented on very simple computer tools for the end user.
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Climatic Data for Consumption Estimation and Design
AICIA is developing works for climatic characterization of Spanish localities. The purpose of these works is to select, from those available, representative climatic data for the end pursued. Normally this is amongst the thermal installation design, for which extreme data are required, and the estimation of consumption in said installations, for which average data are necessary, representative of longer periods of at least 10 years.
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Thermal Modelling of Building Elements
AICIA is working in thermal modelling of both conventional and innovating construction elements.
The modelling of conventional elements of the building shell includes both opaque enclosures (walling, roofing, flooring, thermal bridges, etc.) and semitransparent (glazing-glass and frames-, skylights, etc.) The infinite possibilities, geometric and material, sometimes cause an apparently simple calculation of a thermal transmittance to become a specialized work.
On-going research, development and innovation in the building sector have lead to the appearance of innovative construction solutions on the market for which the conventional methods of calculation do not satisfy the requirements to calculate the contribution of said solutions to the energy demand of the building. AICIA is carrying out basic and applied research to allow works of this nature to be tackled. Outstanding amongst these are solar walls, ventilated, opaque or semitransparent facades, and those incorporating phase changes materials.
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Thermal Conditioning
AICIA is developing tools to simulate the thermal performance of thermal conditioning systems in buildings for different purposes, ranging from standard verification to the system design itself, including consumption estimation of the different energy sources used.
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Determining Energy Demand in Buildings
Calculation of the demand for energy in buildings is a prior step to determining energy consumption of thermal installations. Based on previous lines of work, AICIA has developed models to calculate the demand on a seasonal, monthly and hourly base with varying levels of simplicity, from very simplified, such as those based on the UNE-EN-13790 standard, to more detailed, such as those based on simultaneous solution of energy balance equations at each boundary of building elements, taking air circulation both natural or forced, throughout the various zones (multizones) into account.
b) Acondicionamiento climático de los espacios exteriores
El acondicionamiento climático de los espacios exteriores ha sido desde el desarrollo de los trabajos con tal finalidad para la Exposición Universal de Sevilla en 1992, una línea de actividad constante en AICIA, y se han mantenido trabajos de investigación, desarrollo e innovación que han permitido aplicar y pero también extender la base de conocimiento creada desde el primer momento en:
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Modification of Climatic Conditions
AICIA is experienced in developing works which quantify the modifications in the external conditions that a building is subjected to, because of the disturbances introduced by the urban environment in the climatic conditions of the reference observatory, normally located at an airport. Changes in temperature, and above all in solar radiation and wind speed and direction, cause the performance of the building to vary significantly in the urban environment from that predicted in the reference conditions.
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Modelling of Comfort Conditions in External Areas
AICIA has shown that magnitudes such as incidental solar radiation, wind speed and proximity to cold or hot surfaces, as well as temperature and atmospheric humidity themselves, cause the problem of comfort conditions to be completely different to the conventional one, and thus should be dealt with great detail.
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Outdoor Thermal Conditioning Systems
Outdoor thermal conditioning in summer is based on a strategy that is well defined by works of AICIA: firstly, protection from solar radiation by appropriate shading;
next, elimination of infrared radiation from nearby hot surfaces and introduction of cold surfaces such as a row of jets of water or a horizontal or vertical sheet of water; finally, temperature reduction, maintaining controlled humidity, by vapour cooling systems such as those described previously in another branch of activity.
