Energy and Buildings最新文献

{"title":"Association of <i>PVL</i> Gene in MSSA and MRSA Strains among Diabetic Ulcer Patients from Odisha, India.","authors":"Swatishree Pany, Bayasis M Sharma, Shibani K Sen, Bibhuti B Pal","doi":"10.1177/15347346221091355","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15347346221091355","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> has emerged as an important pathogen among diabetic foot ulcers in patients with diabetes. Infections with <i>S. aureus</i> in diabetic ulcers need surveillance of resistant microbial profile to provide the basis for empirical therapy for the reduction of lower extremities amputation. Panton valentine leucocidin (<i>PVL</i>) is considered as one of the major virulence gene of <i>S. aureus</i> which is responsible for destruction of white blood cells and tissue necrosis. This pore forming cytotoxin gene is carried out by both methicillin-susceptible <i>S. aureus</i> (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant <i>S. aureus</i> (MRSA) strains. The present study described the prevalence of <i>PVL</i> gene in MSSA and MRSA strains isolated from diabetic ulcer patients treated during November, 2019 to January, 2021 from a tertiary care hospital, Odisha. Infected tissue and blood samples from these patients were collected aseptically and sub-cultured using different media and standard techniques. The isolated genomic DNA of MSSA and MRSA strains were subjected to PCR assay for the detection of <i>PVL</i> gene. Two hundred ten <i>S. aureus</i> out of 402 diabetic ulcer patients were isolated having 59.52% MSSA and 40.47% MRSA strains. Wagner's grade III and grade IV ulcers were most prevalent in these ulcer patients. The prevalence of <i>PVL</i> gene in MSSA strains was more in comparison to MRSA strains. Forty five resistance patterns were observed from the antibiogram profiles of <i>S. aureus.</i> The present study highlighted that <i>PVL</i> gene could not be a marker for the detection of MRSA and MSSA strains in diabetic ulcer patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"223 1","pages":"349-354"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76352311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the impact of urban climate and heat islands on building energy performance: A critical review","authors":"Farzad Hashemi ,&nbsp;Gerald Mills","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115946","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115946","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) substantially alter local climates, yet their impacts on building energy performance remain inconsistently quantified and poorly integrated into simulation workflows, energy codes, and planning practice. This review critically synthesizes U.S.-based studies that model the impacts of the UHI effect on building heating and cooling loads, revealing substantial variability in the reported energy impacts. Depending on climate conditions and building type, studies report cooling load increases ranging from 4% to 65% and heating load reductions from 3% to over 100%. These wide ranges stem largely from methodological inconsistencies, including divergent UHI quantification techniques, mismatched spatial scales between climate and energy models, and inconsistent integration strategies. The review highlights key gaps, including the widespread use of oversimplified rural baseline weather files, the exclusion of non-thermal microclimatic variables such as wind and humidity, over-reliance on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) prototype buildings, and limited representation of colder and warm-dry climate zones. Moreover, results are often difficult to compare due to inconsistent reporting metrics and a lack of reproducibility. Addressing these gaps requires standardized UHI-adjusted weather data, expanded research across all climate zones, and greater consideration of non-code-compliant buildings and socioeconomic disparities. The research advocates the need to address these issues by integrating UHI effects into Building Energy Modeling (BEM) workflows, energy codes (e.g., ASHRAE, IECC), and urban climate policies to enhance predictive accuracy and inform climate-resilient design and planning strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115946"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Semantic Digital Twinning for Cost-Optimal HVAC Operation: Real-Time Application to a House with Smart Thermostats and PV/Battery under a Time-of-Use Tariff","authors":"Matin Abtahi ,&nbsp;Luis Rueda ,&nbsp;Benoit Delcroix ,&nbsp;Andreas Athienitis","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115938","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115938","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Semantic digital twinning has traditionally supported design coordination, documentation, and planning during the early stages of building projects. However, its application in building operation and maintenance—particularly in real time—remains limited. This study proposes a methodology for cost-optimal HVAC load management using an operational digital twin, and demonstrates its real-time application under a residential time-of-use pricing scheme. The framework is implemented in a grid-connected single-family house equipped with smart thermostats, rooftop photovoltaic panels, and battery storage, and is evaluated under two progressive layers of control and system integration: predictive thermostat control alone, and combined coordination of thermostats, on-site generation, and battery systems. Each configuration is assessed against a static reference derived from two baseline weeks without energy flexibility. Results show that predictive thermostat control reduced electricity costs by an average of 34.7 %, with a total increase in energy import of approximately 84 kWh, while maintaining average indoor temperature deviations below 0.3 °C. Coordinated control achieved 78.4 % average cost savings, reduced net grid import by 115 kWh, and enabled 25.3 kWh of energy export. Relative demand shift analysis confirmed effective load advancement and midday demand reduction, delivering both economic and grid-responsive outcomes. These findings highlight the feasibility of deploying real-time predictive control in operational residential buildings to enhance load flexibility and improve alignment with dynamic electricity pricing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115938"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144168202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An online dynamic model based on Physical-Constraint Broad Learning System for extrapolation scenarios of chillers","authors":"Anjun Zhao ,&nbsp;Qihang Ren ,&nbsp;Wei Quan ,&nbsp;Na Zhang ,&nbsp;Liu Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115939","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115939","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chillers account for the majority of energy consumption in central air-conditioning refrigeration stations. However, conventional models lack strong out-of-sample generalization, making it difficult to accurately reflect chiller performance variations under multiple operating conditions. Consequently, there is a lack of reliable multi-condition performance data to support energy-efficient regulation of chillers and optimization of refrigeration station control. To address this issue, this study proposes a physics-constrained broad learning System (PCBLS) method by introducing an error backpropagation mechanism and a customized physics-based loss function into the broad learning framework. This approach enhances the out-of-sample generalization of chiller models, enabling accurate prediction of chiller performance under unseen operating conditions based on measured data from existing conditions. The core idea is to ensure that the model’s predictions for unknown conditions remain consistent with physical laws. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to methods without out-of-sample generalization enhancement, the proposed approach reduces <em>MAE</em> by 53.38%, <em>RMSE</em> by 55.47%, and improves <em>R</em>² by 19.62%, while decreasing the custom physics-based loss by approximately 99.37%. Additionally, the method maintains high accuracy while achieving fast training speeds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115939"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144168200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainable thermoelectric energy harvesting in fly ash bamboo fiber reinforced concrete for smart infrastructure","authors":"Yong Luo ,&nbsp;Chunpeng Liu ,&nbsp;Dianah Mazlan ,&nbsp;S.S. Naveen Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115927","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115927","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Concrete is widely used in infrastructure, and its waste heat recovery for thermoelectric power generation holds remarkable potential for energy utilization. However, optimizing the thermal conductivity of concrete to enhance thermoelectric conversion efficiency remains a critical challenge. This study investigates C40 concrete modified with bamboo fibers and fly ash, evaluating the thermal conductivity and heat transfer characteristics of different concrete types. On the basis of the findings, thermoelectric generator (TEG) modules were embedded at the concrete interface, and three composite concrete structures were developed: fly ash-plain reinforced concrete, fly ash-bamboo fiber reinforced concrete, and plain-bamboo fiber reinforced concrete. The mechanical properties and electrical output of these structures were tested, and finite element simulations were conducted to assess the effects of ground temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed on thermoelectric generation efficiency. Experimental results showed that fly ash-plain reinforced concrete exhibited the highest compressive strength, while bamboo fiber reinforced concrete demonstrated superior tensile strength, highlighting the toughening effect of bamboo fibers and the micro-filling effect of fly ash. Bamboo fiber reinforced concrete had the lowest thermal conductivity coefficient, reducing it by 68.8 % compared with plain concrete, thus exhibiting excellent thermal insulation performance. The “plain-bamboo fiber concrete” structure was found to maximize the temperature gradient, thereby enhancing thermoelectric conversion efficiency. Simulation analysis further revealed that ground temperature is the dominant factor affecting thermoelectric performance. This study elucidates the relationship between the thermal properties of concrete and thermoelectric generation efficiency, providing theoretical support for renewable energy utilization and the design of smart, sustainable infrastructure. Future work will focus on scaling up the system for real-world applications and integrating phase-change materials to improve thermal regulation further.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115927"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144168198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sizing, safety, lifetime performance, environmental impact and costs of residential A-to-A heat pumps: Current and future scenarios according to new F-GAS regulation and EPBD","authors":"Alfonso William Mauro,&nbsp;Adelso Flaviano Passarelli,&nbsp;Francesco Pelella,&nbsp;Luca Viscito","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115896","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115896","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 2024 F-GAS Regulation mandates the phase-out of fluorinated gases across multiple sectors, promoting the adoption of natural refrigerants like propane, which pose flammability risks. Simultaneously, the 2024 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) introduces stricter requirements for building thermophysical parameters, potentially reducing heating and cooling peak loads. Together, these changes will significantly influence the design and optimization of residential heat pump systems.</div><div>This study aims to identify optimal heat pump design solutions for various building types—both existing and new EPBD-compliant structures—focusing on performance, environmental impact, and costs under the new F-GAS regulation. A numerical approach was used to simulate the performance of different air-to-air heat pump configurations, with cooling capacities ranging from 1.5 to 5 kW. Lifetime performance, total costs, and equivalent warming impact were evaluated across diverse climate conditions and room sizes, taking into account safety constraints from the EN378 standard on refrigerant charge limits.</div><div>Preliminary comparisons of refrigerants show that R32 offers the best performance and cost-efficiency, while propane performs similarly but with the lowest environmental impact. R454C, however, performed the worst. In terms of lifetime performance, heat pumps in EPBD 2024-compliant buildings are projected to consume 30–40 % less energy compared to 2021 standards, and up to 70 % less than buildings from 1976. Furthermore, the reduced operational costs, especially in warmer climates, decrease the necessity for high-performance systems. Finally, we provide a methodology to extend these results to other European climates, in order to provide indications for both heat pump manufacturers, to face with correlation between required heating and cooling buildings loads, heat pumps energy classes and employed refrigerants, and policy makers, to remark the consequences on the heat pump market and to show various possible future scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115896"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144168201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatiotemporal mapping of urban air temperature and UHI under TMY condition: A reference station based machine learning approach","authors":"Pengyuan Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban heat island (UHI) has been one of the most prominent results of anthropogenic related land use change. To achieve accurate and computationally efficient spatiotemporal mapping of air temperature and UHI under typical climate conditions, in this study, a reference weather station-based framework is presented for high-resolution and representative urban temperature mapping in a cost-effective and easy-to-implement way using Shenzhen as a case study. The method employs multi-source data including Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification, remote sensing data, and machine learning techniques to produce spatially and temporally continuous air temperature fields, rather than land surface (LST) temperatures typically used in previous studies. The XGBoost-based framework achieves good predictability (MAE: 0.56 °C, R²: 0.980) while requiring the weather data from only one single reference station during spatiotemporal mapping. Then, integrated with Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data of the reference station, it is found that the annual mean UHI intensity (UHII) across all time periods and urban typologies in Shenzhen varies from −0.93 °C to 1.11 °C, with peak instantaneous UHII exceeding 1.2 °C during early afternoon hours (13:00–15:00) in high-rise urban areas. The research shows that high-rise urban areas in Shenzhen experience maximum temperature rises during early afternoons while vegetated areas remain cooler throughout the day. It is also found that urban morphology can significantly influence local temperature patterns, with buildings and vegetation density playing an important role in shaping how temperatures vary across urban areas. The proposed framework enables the integration of TMY data to develop applicable microclimates that serve as foundation for building energy simulations and urban planning related studies. It also provides practical value through its capability to create high-resolution air temperature mapping while requiring low infrastructure, making it accessible for cities worldwide facing urban heating challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115923"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144146820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ice-Source heat pumps: Sustainable heating solutions for urban areas utilizing water and gas networks","authors":"Ramin Mehdipour,&nbsp;Seamus Garvey,&nbsp;Zahra Baniamerian,&nbsp;Bruno Cardenas","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115916","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115916","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Achieving net-zero emissions in residential heating requires sustainable alternatives to gas-powered systems and effective use of existing gas infrastructure. This study introduces ice-source heat pumps, leveraging the latent heat of fusion for efficient heating combined with innovative water transmission methods.</div><div>The system offers advantages such as compact design, cost-effectiveness, and reduced electricity consumption without requiring new piping infrastructure. While slightly less efficient than water-source systems, ice-source heat pumps reduce water consumption by 37.56 times, with minimal thermal losses, making them highly effective during peak cold periods. For an average UK residential unit, the water distribution network capacity required is 2.3 times greater than the potable water network for average monthly use and 4.88 times greater under peak conditions without auxiliary systems.</div><div>The feasibility of repurposing gas pipelines after phasing out natural gas was also examined. Results show repurposed pipelines can provide water transfer capacities equal to 39.66 % of the energy previously supplied by natural gas during peak demand, making this approach valuable for non-fuel heating systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115916"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144146819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Occupancy estimation using indoor air quality data: opportunities and privacy implications","authors":"Domen Vake ,&nbsp;Niki Hrovatin ,&nbsp;Jernej Vičič ,&nbsp;Aleksandar Tošić","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115894","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115894","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has long been a significant concern due to its health-related risks and potential benefits. Readily available air quality sensors are now affordable and have been installed in many buildings with public buildings taking center stage. The dynamics of IAQ are commonly studied in relation to different materials used in construction, building design, room utility and effects on occupants. However, besides what the sensors were designed to measure, it is possible to infer other information. In this paper, we present a Machine Learning (ML) model that predicts the presence of people in the room with an accuracy as high as 93 % and the exact number of occupants with 2.17 MAE. We validate our proposed approach in the use-case of an elementary school in Slovenia. In collaboration with the elementary school in Ajdovščina, 8 air quality sensors were placed in classrooms and air quality parameters (VOC, CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></math></span>, Temperature, and Humidity) were monitored for 6 months. During the monitoring period, school staff collected anonymous data about classroom occupancy. The indoor air quality data was paired with external weather data as well as occupancy to train the model. Moreover, we compare our approach with other commonly used ML approaches and provide results related to our use case. Finally, these results highlight the privacy concerns related to structural monitoring due to the established ability to infer potentially sensitive information.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115894"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144168199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of balcony greenery on indoor temperature reduction in tropical urban residential buildings","authors":"Udayasoorian Kaaviya Priya ,&nbsp;Ramalingam Senthil","doi":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115915","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115915","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urbanization poses significant challenges, including strain on infrastructure, environmental degradation from increased resource consumption and pollution, and climatic impacts like the urban heat island phenomenon, which contributes to elevated city temperatures. Urban greenery effectively reduces urban heat stress; however, space constraints often limit implementation. This study uses experimental measurements and simulation analysis to examine the impact of residential greenery on indoor temperature regulation in a three-storey apartment in a tropical region. Experimental data were collected from a north-facing balcony with plants, measuring air temperature and humidity during the peak dry season. The residential greenery showed lower temperatures than the reference one. The most significant indoor temperature difference was 2.5 °C with a combination of potted plants and a living wall, followed by 1.0 °C for the living wall and 0.8 °C for the potted plants alone. A simulation study on seasonal and orientation indicated that the living wall was most effective for cooling in the west and east during the dry season, reducing surface temperatures by up to 4.5 °C and 4.3 °C, respectively. They helped regulate wet season temperatures in the north, reducing them by 2.6 °C. One-sided balcony enclosures with 75 % living wall coverage were most efficient in enhancing natural ventilation and cooling on lower floors, while upper floors experienced higher temperatures. The findings highlight the impact of residential greenery on thermal comfort by reducing indoor temperatures, demonstrating its potential as a viable solution for enhancing urban green spaces amid urbanization challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11641,"journal":{"name":"Energy and Buildings","volume":"343 ","pages":"Article 115915"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144134682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}