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Some factors involved in the improvement of building energy consumption: A brief review

Abstract:

In recent years, energy consumption in buildings is one of the fastest-growing in demand compared to others such as industry, transportation, automotive, and others. The same trend occurs with greenhouse gas emissions. HVAC and lighting systems offer thermal and visual comfort to the occupants in buildings, but these are the ones with the highest energy consumption. Many investigations are being carried out to reduce the consumption of the previously mentioned systems and other electric equipment existing in the buildings. This paper reviews some relevant works related to initiatives to reduce energy consumption in buildings such as improvements in lighting and HVAC control systems, estimation of occupancy levels through sensor networks, dimming of artificial lighting, exploitation of daylight through the control of blinds and improvement of components in air conditioning systems/heat pumps. Pbkp_rediction/estimation models of energy consumption are also analyzed, which are vital tools for reducing the operating costs of the building mainly electrical energy. Besides, we establish the future challenges and trends of the analyzed technologies.