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Context — More than 200 million people suffer every year natural hazards consequences around the world, sensibly affecting vulnerable populations and resulting on building's partial or total damage. In post-disaster scenarios, it is required to provide the construction of temporary facilities that can be used as shelters or educational spaces, and it is suitable to deliver low cost, fast construction, and site adapted solutions. However, many of these units are built with prefabricated...
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Thermal comfort varies significantly between individuals and regions depending on factors such as activity level, clothing, space temperature and relative humidity. This study considers the estimation of thermal comfort parameters such as air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity, emissivity of space, metabolic rates, and heat transfer coefficients to determine comfort index, predicted mean vote, and predicted percent of dissatisfied people. Several equipment were employed to...
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Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) are extremely energy consuming, accounting for 40% of total building energy consumption. It is crucial to design some energy-efficient building thermal comfort control strategy which can reduce the energy consumption of the HVAC while maintaining the comfort of the occupants. However, implementing such a strategy is challenging, because the changes of the thermal states in a building environment are influenced by various factors. The...
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Undoubtedly, the steady increase in the number of elderly people is not to be underestimated. These demographic changes call attention to new challenges regarding adequate aging-in-place strategies. Since the majority of the senior population spend up to 90% of their time indoors, appropriate and comfortable housing represents an important foundation for such strategies. In this respect, different types of data gathered from sensors, connected devices, and Internet of Things (IoT)...
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Buildings consume about 40 % of globally-produced energy. A notable amount of this energy is used to provide sufficient comfort levels to the building occupants. Moreover, given recent increases in global temperatures as a result of climate change and the associated decrease in comfort levels, providing adequate comfort levels in indoor spaces has become increasingly important. However, striking a balance between reducing building energy use and providing adequate comfort levels is a...
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Optimal control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVACs) aims to minimize the energy consumption of equipment while maintaining the thermal comfort of occupants. Traditional rule-based control methods are not optimized for HVAC systems with continuous sensor readings and actuator controls. Recent developments in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) enabled control of HVACs with continuous sensor inputs and actions, while eliminating the need of building complex thermodynamic...
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Optimal control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVACs) aims to minimize the energy consumption of equipment while maintaining the thermal comfort of occupants. Traditional rule-based control methods are not optimized for HVAC systems with continuous sensor readings and actuator controls. Recent developments in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) enabled control of HVACs with continuous sensor inputs and actions, while eliminating the need of building complex thermodynamic...
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Our planet is changing, and as with any drastic upheaval to patients' surroundings, global environmental changes affect individual health. Climate change is a major threat to ecosystems and the wellbeing of current and future generations of people. From wildfire-related evacuation of hospitals to the spread of Lyme disease and heat-related deaths and injuries, the health effects of climate change are becoming increasingly clear in Canada.1Howard C Buse C Rose C MacNeill A Parkes M The Lancet...
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Providing a thermally comfortable environment is considered to be an essential requirement for effective learning in classrooms. Providing thermal comfort by using active but energy intensive environment control systems is not sustainable in a vast country like India. Though national building codes provide some specifications for classrooms, it is not known whether adherence to these standards ensures thermal comfort in a sustainable manner. This paper presents results obtained from a...