A preliminary scenario analysis of the impacts of teleworking on energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

This paper uses scenario analysis to investigate the broader impact of teleworking in four scenarios including the COVID-19 pandemic, worst-, moderate-, and best-case scenarios on building-level energy use, energy consumption in transportation, and information and communication technology (ICT) usage by using the databases of the Government of Canada. The COVID-19 scenario relies on the available data for the pandemic period. The worst-case scenario is when telework has an adverse effect on energy use while the moderate- and best-case scenarios are when the minimum and maximum savings are achieved by telework. The data includes commuting distances, electricity and natural gas consumption for offices and residential buildings, and ICT usage. Then, the associated GHG emissions are calculated for transportation, residential and office buildings, and ICT and the analysis are carried out by applying a potential fraction of saving to the associated GHG emissions of each domain and scenario. This paper demonstrates the potential energy savings of teleworking significantly depends on teleworker behavior to a degree that in the worst-case scenario no potential saving is observed while the savings are significant in the best-case scenario. Therefore, the impact of telework is highly uncertain and complicated and current statistics are insufficient for accurate estimates. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.

C-HVAC: A practical tool for assessing ventilation capacity for HVAC systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although many health organizations are advising commercial and public sectors to maximize the outdoor air circulation and ventilation rates, such actions may not be completely feasible and impose a significant energy load on the HVAC systems. While the social distancing measures are being implemented, the aim of this paper is to present a feasible and practical solution for various stakeholders to calculate the maximum number of people that can occupy buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic when the HVAC systems of buildings work based on outside air or a combination of outside and recirculated air. As a result, C-HVAC, as an easy-to-use tool, was developed using thermodynamic principles that can calculate the maximum number of people that can occupy buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic based on ASHRAE's Building Readiness recommendations. The current paper is part of ongoing research on preventing the spread of highly infectious airborne diseases such as COVID-19 in indoor environments. The beta version of the tool is made publicly available through this article. © 2020 Owner/Author.