Both ground source heat pumps operating on electricity and micro-combined heat and power systems operating on fossil fuels offer potential for the reduction of green house gas emissions in comparison to the conventional approaches for providing heating, air conditioning and electric power to residential homes. Factors that may impact the relative merits are actual system operating efficiencies, regional primary energy sources for electric power generation, actual space conditioning and electric demands as well as regional climate factors. The purpose of this study is to make a consistent, real

Although water heating accounts for roughly 14% of residential electricity usage, the impacts of different water heating technologies on greenhouse gas emissions are as of yet poorly quantified. This research article compares carbon emissions resulting from the operation of three water heating technologies—namely, electric resistance water heaters (ERWH), heat pump water heaters (HPWH) and gas fired boilers—by combining real-world high frequency data with physically-based models. Models based on heat transfer principles are forced with real world hot water demand time series from multi-unit re

As one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the electricity sector is anticipated to go through the following transitions in order to meet deep decarbonization targets for a sustainable future: 1) on the supply side, the electric grid is increasing its reliance on renewable generation, such as wind and solar; 2) on the demand side, heating is shifting from direct burning of fuel on site to electric, namely heat pumps. This dissertation evaluates the benefits of selected methods to alleviate pressing challenges associated with the electricity sector transitions on both the supp

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) as part of the refurbishment of one of its’s data centres will install water to water heat pumps to use the heat produced by the computing servers to provide heat for the university via a district heating system. This will reduce the use of high carbon intensity natural gas heating boilers, replacing them with electricity which has a lower carbon intensity due to the contribution from wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear and biomass sources of power sources. The QMUL GridPP cluster today provides 15PB of storage and over 20K jobs slots mainly devoted to the ATLAS experiment. The data centre that houses the QMUL GridPP cluster, was originally commissioned in 2004. By 2020 it was in significant need of refurbishment. The original design had a maximum power capacity of 200KW, no hot/cold aisle containment, down flow air conditioning units using refrigerant cooling and no raised floor or ceiling plenum. The main requirements of the refurbishment are: To significantly improve the energy efficiency and reduce the carbon usage of the University; Improve the availability and reliability of the power and cooling; Increase the capacity of the facility to provide for future expansion; Provide a long term home for the GridPP cluster to support the computing needs of the LHC and other new large science experiments (SKA/LSST) into the next decade. After taking into account the future requirements and likely funding allocation, floor space in the data c

The increasing penetration of renewable energy decreases grid flexibility; thus, decentralized energy management or demand response are emerging as the main approaches to resolve this limitation and to provide flexibility of resources. This research investigates the performance of high energy efficiency appliances and grid-integrated distributed generators based on real monitored data from a social demonstration project. The analysis not only explores the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of high energy efficiency systems in the private sector, but also evaluates public grid lo

Heat pumps with the help of electricity use a renewable energy source to supply heat for homes or industrial buildings and to heat tap water. Heat Pumps is a heating unit that will provide us with heat for our home for some 20 to 30 years to come and has a potential to replace traditional heating systems powered by gas, oil or coal. At this time, there is no other heating system that supplies clean heat with the help of up to 80 percent of the renewable solar energy during all year. The paper points to the technology of heat pumps as a renewable energy source, unlike other, neither of alternat

Renewable energy is electricity generated by fuel sources that restore themselves over a short period of time and do not diminish. Although some renewable energy technologies impact the environment, renewables are considered environmentally preferable to conventional sources and, when replacing fossil fuels, have significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This book focuses on the environmental and economic benefits of using renewable energy, which include: (i) generating energy that produces no greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and reduces some types of air pollution, (

Buildings account for more than one-third of the global final energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The building sector offers a significant potential in the transition towards the decarbonisation of societies. To achieve this goal, different concepts and implementations of Net-Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts (NZPEBD) have emerged in the last years and are still in progress. This book is the collection of the articles published in the Special Issue “Net-Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts” of the Buildings journal. This reprint includes 17 research articles covering diffe