ABSTRACT
Building energy management, in terms of both adopted technologies and occupant consumption behaviour, is becoming an essential element of sustainability and climate change mitigation programs. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential lockdowns and remote working had a notable impact on office building operations and provided a unique opportunity for building energy consumption studies. This paper investigates the COVID-19 effects on energy consumption in office buildings, particularly in the education sector. We studied different buildings at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) campus before and during the pandemic period. The results demonstrate that the changes in energy consumption due to COVID-19 in different UTS faculties are not as strongly correlated with occupant activity. The comparison shows that buildings with administrative offices or classrooms are easier to switch to a remote-working mode than those housing laboratories and special equipment. During weekends, public holidays, or conditions requiring working from home, the per capita energy consumption increases significantly translating into lower energy efficiency. Our findings highlight the essential need for some changes in office building energy management systems. We provide recommendations for office and commercial buildings in general to deal with similar crises and to reduce energy overconsumption in normal situations. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
In sparsely occupied large industrial and commercial buildings, large-diameter ceiling fans1 (LDCFs) are commonly utilized for comfort cooling and destratification;however, a limited number of studies were conducted to guide the operation of these devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducted 223 parametrical computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) simulations of LDCFs in the U.S. Department of Energy warehouse reference building to compare the impacts of fan operations, index-person, and worker-packing-line locations on airborne exposures to infectious aerosols under both summer and winter conditions. The steady-state airflow fields were modeled while transient exposures to particles of varying sizes (0.5–10 μm) were evaluated over an 8-h period. Both the airflow and aerosol models were validated by measurement data from the literature. It was found that it is preferable to create a breeze from LDCFs for increased airborne dilution into a sparsely occupied large warehouse, which is more similar to an outdoor scenario than a typical indoor scenario. Operation of fans at the highest feasible speed while maintaining thermal-comfort requirements consistently outperformed the other options in terms of airborne exposures. There is no substantial evidence that fan reversal is beneficial in the current large space of interest. Reversal flow direction to create upward flows at higher fan speeds generally reduced performance compared with downward flows, as there was less airflow through the fan blades at the same rotational speed. Reversing flow at lower fan speeds decreased airflow speeds and dilution in the space and, thus, increased whole-warehouse concentrations. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1990s, the French public authorities have changed regulations to allow commercial building conversions into housing. The COVID-19 crisis has affected the global economy, social connections, environmental trajectories and energy demand/supply. Countries have been considering measures to reduce the pandemic's long-term impact and since the beginning of 2020, national governments have recommended that companies facilitate remote work. Thus, COVID-19 has prompted some office building depopulation. With working from home expected to continue after the pandemic, due to technological, environmental and economic considerations, there is a growing impetus to convert empty office space into residential uses. The present research aims, through the Parisian case study, to consider the impacts of the pandemic and the acceleration of homeworking. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology, the study aims to (1) critically analyse the policy tools implemented by the Paris municipality following the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate commercial building conversions and (2) evaluate the potential for such conversions, considering former policies. We found that adaptive reuse policies have been implemented following the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. However, according to the collected data, conversion potential is limited, due to the continuing demand for office space despite the changes and economic considerations. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
A central issue that was recently discussed within the commercial real estate community is how the COVID-19 pandemic, and possible future pandemic events, will affect the operational performance in the long-term. Various additional factors such as confinement restrictions, lockdowns, and the reduced occupancy levels put operators under significant pressure, and force them to look for energy efficient solutions and find the right balance for the financial side while ensuring healthy environment for clients and tenants. In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis and evaluate the impact of the pandemic using real-life data collected from several commercial buildings in Estonia. The results indicate that after two years of the pandemic the situation stabilized, which may support the claim that the right balance was found at least in the current situation. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Extensive studies have examined the financial performance of green buildings in recent years. The results have frequently observed that the premium of green buildings is time-varying and dependent on the study period and markets being examined. Further, virtually no dedicated study has been devoted to examine the role of mandatory building energy rating disclosure policies on green building price premium. This raises the question of whether the mandatory energy rating disclosure policies would have an influence on the financial performance of green buildings. This study assesses the premium of green buildings by considering the role of mandatory energy efficiency of commercial building disclosure program (CBDP) using the MCSI/IPD NABERS data over 2005–2020. The results of the study showed that, in Australia, buildings with NABERS rating of 4 stars and above delivered a higher total return compared with buildings with lower NABERS ratings. This also supports the Freeman’s (1984) social impact hypothesis in which favorable social performance will ultimately lead to favorable financial performance. In addition, our empirical modelling results also demonstrated the premium of green buildings is stronger since the launch of CBDP, reflecting the importance of mandatory building efficiency disclosure. The policy implications of our studies have also been discussed as buildings play a crucial role in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly net-zero carbon emissions.
ABSTRACT
The ripple effects of the pandemic have resulted in an unprecedented shift in sectoral energy consumption as the workforce predominantly stays and works from home. Quantifying the impact of these restrictions on energy consumption offers a new direction towards intelligent energy services in a post coronavirus (post-COVID-19) world, especially for commercial buildings. Thus, utilising actual power consumption data, the study evaluates how energy usage in commercial buildings can change in a post-COVID-19 world, whilst examining the impact of digitalisation to identifying potential new opportunities. The paper analyses the changes in energy demand with occupancy rate based on data from 126 commercial businesses with varied classes across Manchester, United Kingdom. The results show that the reduction in energy demand is not proportionate to the occupancy level, resulting in high energy costs. For instance, an average footfall for February 2021 is 10% of 2020, while the costs of electricity only fall to 80% of 2020. Although most of the energy demand is from appliances, the absence of energy efficiency increases energy consumption, highlighting the urgent need for optimised energy efficiency measures to include the time of use and scheduled use of energy across people and processes. IEEE