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Effective Thermal Resistance of Commercial Buildings Using Data Analysis of Whole-Building Electricity Data

Wang, Tian
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6088-4405
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586524438396894

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, EMC - Mechanical Engineering.
The growing concern about climate change has created an urge to increase the energy efficiency of commercial buildings. Although the building envelope does not directly use energy, its thermal performance strongly affects space heating, cooling and lighting. This study develops a data mining method to determine the effective thermal resistance (R-value) of the building envelope and windows using whole building 15-minute interval electricity data and corresponding exterior temperature data. To do this, first the data is subset to the cooling season only, anomalous data is omitted, and only data associated with steady-state condition is analyzed. Next, a linear regression model is generated to determine the effective R-value of the entire building envelope and also for the windows. To assess the relative quality of the effective R-value, a corresponding target R-value is generated from ASHARE 90.1 building standards and compared. Then, the potential energy savings for buildings with poor R-values is estimated. A population study of 72 buildings shows that most exhibit an effective building R-value in a range between 5 to 20 °F h ft²/Btu, and their window R-values range from 0.5 to 3.3 °F h ft²/Btu. The corresponding target building R-values fall between 10 to 22 °F h ft²/Btu. Two factors that most affect the annual electricity savings are both building size and the ratio of R-value to target R-value, as expected. Results demonstrate that windows contribute significantly to energy losses in buildings. In nearly half the buildings studied, window replacement could lead to an annual savings range of 45% to 65% - a significant potential savings opportunity.
Alexis Abramson, Dr. (Advisor)
Roger French, Dr. (Committee Member)
Brian Maxwell, Dr. (Committee Member)
79 p.
Mechanical Engineering
effective thermal resistance; R-value; thermal transmittance; U-value; building envelope; windows; 15-minute interval electricity data; data mining; data analysis; energy conservation measures; annual electricity savings, virtual energy audit

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, T. (2020). Effective Thermal Resistance of Commercial Buildings Using Data Analysis of Whole-Building Electricity Data [Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586524438396894

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Tian. Effective Thermal Resistance of Commercial Buildings Using Data Analysis of Whole-Building Electricity Data. 2020. Case Western Reserve University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586524438396894.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Tian. "Effective Thermal Resistance of Commercial Buildings Using Data Analysis of Whole-Building Electricity Data." Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586524438396894

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1586524438396894
153
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Effective Thermal Resistance of Commercial Buildings Using Data Analysis of Whole-Building Electricity Data by Tian Wang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.