No abstract

Retrofitting Solutions and Services for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings (RESSEEPE) is an EU funded project which aims to bring together design and decision making tools, innovative building fabric manufacturers and a programme to demonstrate the improved building performance achievable through the retrofit of existing buildings at a district level. The RESSEEPE framework is being validated by a strong demonstration programme, envisaging the renovation of 102,000 square metres of public buildings. The core idea of the project is to technologically advance, adapt, demonstrate and assess a number of innovative retrofit technologies implemented on several pilot cases with different climate conditions across Europe (Coventry-UK, Barcelona-Spain and Skellefteå-Sweden) to ensure a high potential replication of the retrofit solutions. The three demonstration sites are involved as the main promoters of a very ambitious district level renovation, demonstrating a systemic approach to technology installation and evaluation, taking into account the benefits of a set of technologies, which properly combined in terms of cost effectiveness and energy performance could achieve reductions around 50% in terms of energy consumption.Coventry University is acting as a Living Lab in order to test some advanced technologies already in the market and others developed specifically within the RESSEEPE project. Those innovative technologies implemented in the pilot case are: Vacuum Insulated Panels, PCM tubes, Ventilated façade with Photovoltaic Panels, Electrochromic windows and Aerogel Mortar. The main feature of this installation is that it acts as a testing bed for where to install different advanced technologies covering specific areas of the building, rather than refurbishing it as a whole. This paper documents the testing of prototype technologies in a pilot case in Coventry University, analysing the process of selection of the different technologies and showing all the challenges faced during installation and coordination of installation activities. The installation 1 This research was supported by the RESSEEPE project, which has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, Project ID: 609377The article reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. The information in this document is provided as is and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability.

There is international pressure for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed as the main cause of climate change. The countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region heavily rely on fossil fuel as the main energy source for buildings. The concept of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) has been defined and standardized for some developed countries. While most of the developing countries located in the MENA region with hot and tropical climate lack building energy efficiency standards. With pressure to improve energy and environmental performance of buildings, nZEB buildings are expected to grow over the coming years and employing these buildings in the MENA region can reduce building energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Therefore, the paper focuses on: (a) reviewing the current established nZEB standards and definitions for countries in the hot and warm climate of Europe, (b) investigate the primary energy consumption for current existing buildings in the MENA region, and (c) establishing a standard for nZEB and positive energy buildings in kWh/m2/year for the MENA region using a building simulation platform represented using Autodesk Insight 360. The result of the simulation reveals high energy use intensity for existing buildings in the MENA region. By improving building fabric and applying solar photovoltaics (PV) in the base model, significant reductions in primary energy consumption was achieved. Further design improvements, such as increasing the airtightness and using high efficiency solar PV, also contributed to positive energy buildings that produce more energy than they consume.

Historically, fire incidents in high-rise buildings reveal that Fire and Rescue Services frequently rely on the stay-put tactic (i.e., occupants of high-rise buildings should remain in their apartments) during an inferno. Recent fire occurrences in high-rise buildings reveal that there are two opposing viewpoints on the stay-put tactic. First, the understanding that the stay-put tactic is a beneficial practice used to protect, control, and facilitate smooth evacuation of occupants during fire incidents. Second, the argument that the stay-put tactic is a misjudgement and futile strategy that leads to fatalities, particularly in high-rise buildings. The aim of this study was to provide awareness and understanding of fire and rescue services use of the stay-put tactic in high-rise buildings. We attempted to answer the questions: is the stay-put tactic a misjudgement or magnificent strategy? The study adopted phenomenological research strategies with various focus groups consisting of seasoned firefighters and survivors with first-hand accounts of stay-put instructions in high-rise buildings. The study also scrutinised three case studies of fire incidents in high-rise buildings in two countries. The study revealed that the stay-put tactic is obsolete; with the potential to cause catastrophic misjudgement, mostly during conflagrations in high-rise buildings. There is a need to advance research on the use of artificial intelligence communication systems and infrared image detectors camera to enhance quick and smooth fire evacuation in high-rise buildings.

This paper presents an evaluation of wind energy potential in the northern and southern region of Nigeria on the basis of Weibull and Rayleigh models. The aim of this study is to know which of the locations in the regions would have more wind power density where wind energy conversion system (WECS) could be installed for electricity generation in Nigeria with excellent percentage of clean energy. From the analysis of the wind speed data collected from Nigeria meteorological station, Abuja at 10m height from years (1990-2006) the locations in northern region of Nigeria that were found quite viable for electricity generation are (Jos, Kano, Sokoto and Maiduguri) while for the southern region of Nigeria are (Lagos and Enugu). These locations were found to have wind power density above 100W/m 2. The Weibull model was found to be more applicable in estimating the power density because it returns a lower percentage error than the Rayleigh model. Probability density function in the northern region has a peak value of 1.01795 and 0.2937 in Bauchi for both Weibull and Rayleigh respectively while for the southern region the probability density function has a peak value for Weibull as 0.8347 in Calabar and Rayleigh as 0.2341 in Rivers southern region of Nigeria.