Combining Experimental and Numerical Tools to Analyze the Impact of the Building Envelope and the Occupants' Behaviour on Thermal Systems in Building

Abstract : The United Nations have taken many climate-related initiatives since 1992, when it issued the first Community strategy to limit CO2emissions and improve energy efficiency. However, the objective, set up according to Directive 2012/27/EU [1] on energy efficiency has not been achieved yet. More efforts must be made to achieve the objective by 2020. In France, the building sector represents 41% of global energy consumption, in which 70% are represented by heating and ventilation [2]. This constitutes a major challenge for energy efficiency policies. It is possible to reduce the energy consumption related to heating and ventilation in building by studying their interaction with occupants and the building envelope. Heating and ventilation must work as a unique system, which takes into account the thermal environment and the occupants' behaviour. The understanding of these interactions would enable a better energy management. For this purpose, an experimental facility and a numerical model have been developed and are presented in this article. The experimental facility consists of a multi-zone climatic chamber with a surface of 140m2in which the most influent parameters on heating and ventilation are controlled [3]. The numerical model was developed according to the experimental one using the dynamic thermal simulation software TRNSYS. This article describes the solutions that were employed to develop both tools. \textcopyright 2017 Begell House Inc.. All rights reserved.