Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution

The energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma is well known and the main drawback to operate the mechanical ventilation is electricity costs as concluded from previous studies. Educational buildings are one of the places where future taxpayers spend a lot of time. This paper aims to study an al...

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Main Authors: Asere Liva, Blumberga Andra
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2020-01-01
Series:Environmental and Climate Technologies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0020
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spelling doaj-9ee6a0573d1b47088dd71e87232c07802021-09-05T14:01:32ZengSciendoEnvironmental and Climate Technologies2255-88372020-01-0124135736710.2478/rtuect-2020-0020rtuect-2020-0020Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible SolutionAsere Liva0Blumberga Andra1Institute of Energy Systems and Environment, Riga Technical University, Azenes iela 12/1, Riga, LV–1048, LatviaInstitute of Energy Systems and Environment, Riga Technical University, Azenes iela 12/1, Riga, LV–1048, LatviaThe energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma is well known and the main drawback to operate the mechanical ventilation is electricity costs as concluded from previous studies. Educational buildings are one of the places where future taxpayers spend a lot of time. This paper aims to study an alternative solution on how to reduce energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma in educational buildings by adopting systems that use renewable energy sources. A typical education building in Latvia is taken as a case study by changing it from a consumer to prosumer. This building type has a specific electricity usage profile that makes the choice of photovoltaics (PV) power quite challenging so the various power options have been analysed and used for an electricity solution. Also, the more decentralised preference is chosen – disconnect from a public heating provider and using a local system with a pellet boiler. Educational buildings using PV can reduce the electricity tariff, but the payback periods are still not very satisfactory without subsidies. The average electricity tariff per month varies between scenarios and the best one is for the scenario with 30 kW installed power. The educational building partly using 16 kW PV system reduces not only its bill for electricity but also reduces CO2 emissions by around 36 tons. The education buildings as energy prosumers using renewable energy sources are reducing GHG emissions by having high indoor air quality.https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0020educational buildingsenergy efficiencyindoor air qualityprosumersrenewable energy sourcesghg emissions
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Asere Liva
Blumberga Andra
spellingShingle Asere Liva
Blumberga Andra
Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
Environmental and Climate Technologies
educational buildings
energy efficiency
indoor air quality
prosumers
renewable energy sources
ghg emissions
author_facet Asere Liva
Blumberga Andra
author_sort Asere Liva
title Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
title_short Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
title_full Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
title_fullStr Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
title_full_unstemmed Energy Efficiency – Indoor Air Quality Dilemma in Educational Buildings: A Possible Solution
title_sort energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma in educational buildings: a possible solution
publisher Sciendo
series Environmental and Climate Technologies
issn 2255-8837
publishDate 2020-01-01
description The energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma is well known and the main drawback to operate the mechanical ventilation is electricity costs as concluded from previous studies. Educational buildings are one of the places where future taxpayers spend a lot of time. This paper aims to study an alternative solution on how to reduce energy efficiency – indoor air quality dilemma in educational buildings by adopting systems that use renewable energy sources. A typical education building in Latvia is taken as a case study by changing it from a consumer to prosumer. This building type has a specific electricity usage profile that makes the choice of photovoltaics (PV) power quite challenging so the various power options have been analysed and used for an electricity solution. Also, the more decentralised preference is chosen – disconnect from a public heating provider and using a local system with a pellet boiler. Educational buildings using PV can reduce the electricity tariff, but the payback periods are still not very satisfactory without subsidies. The average electricity tariff per month varies between scenarios and the best one is for the scenario with 30 kW installed power. The educational building partly using 16 kW PV system reduces not only its bill for electricity but also reduces CO2 emissions by around 36 tons. The education buildings as energy prosumers using renewable energy sources are reducing GHG emissions by having high indoor air quality.
topic educational buildings
energy efficiency
indoor air quality
prosumers
renewable energy sources
ghg emissions
url https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0020
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