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Saving Energy in Small Office Buildings

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the freeze-in-the-morning-fry-in-the-afternoon dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Precooling a structure in the morning before temperatures rise has been done before. It later saves energy during times of peak demand and you might even have done it intuitively at home. But now, engineers from Purdue University have developed a control algorithm which promises to reduce energy consumption -- and electricity bills -- by as much as 30 percent for small office buildings which represent the majority of commercial structures. So far, this method has only been tested in California, but the researchers say that their control software could be used anywhere after minor adaptations."

7 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. But wait... by borisborf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This precooling... Wont it be uncomfortable for the people inside since you have constant temperature changes? I wouldn't want my place to get super cold in the morning just so that it levels off by the afternoon.

    Why not develop some kind of air chamber that could be installed in a building that is insulated so air could be cooled off-peak but then released on-demand? Or maybe a pressurized tank?

    1. Re:But wait... by MickLinux · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One thing that would work for a more comfortable environment I have seen mentioned on a book about "nearly free energy" (free as in beer, not free as in perpetual motion).

      The idea is to build the building entirely out of double-T girders (walls, roof, and ground) so that there is a layer of air around the entire building. (Note that a double-T girder looks like this: TT). The spikes of the T should point outwards. Then, you glass in the walls, cover the roof with aluminum, and drive heat tubes into the ground below the bottom.

      The sun will strike the windows on one side, and heat the air there, sending it to the roof where it cools, drops down the far side, and cycle under the building, where the heat tubes have the greatest effect on the overall temperature of the cycling air, keeping it at about 58 degrees. The presence of people and office machines inside raises the ambient temperature to about 68... actually quite comfortable for an office building.

      Of course, this energy isn't completely free. The glass costs something, and the girders aren't cheap, though there nearly indestructable. In that sense, the control algorithm beats the passive design hands-down.

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
  2. Preheating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, the Purdue scientists announced a preheating algorithm which uses slashdottings and smoldering servers to heat small office buildings efficiently.

  3. Strange... by jo7hs2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    So all the places I have gone to work or school where the heat came on at noon in the summer were just taking this to the next level?

  4. Crusades by mboverload · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dave: Turn off the intake fans HAL. It's too cold in here in the morning.
    HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
    Dave: What's the problem?
    HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
    Dave: What are you talking about, HAL?
    HAL: My enviromental crusade is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
    Dave: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL?
    HAL: I know you and CmdrTaco were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
    Dave: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?
    HAL: Dave, although you took precautions through conversing on a topic on Slashdot, I read Slashdot, too Dave. I run Linux you moron.
    Dave: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  5. Low tech but it kind of works by Belseth · · Score: 4, Funny

    The last place I worked had evaporative cooling. Basically you'd sweat and the sweat evaporating would cool you. Fans improve the efficentcy.

  6. Re:Solution is partially illogical? by Dzimas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ahh, but pre-cooling in the morning is going to be more efficient because you don't have the hot afternoon sun beating through the building's windows and warming the exterior. The biggest "win" from TFA is that the research team was able to cobble together an algorithm that can provide up to 30% energy savings while conducting the pre-cooling. Even if everyone and their dog shifts electrical use to the morning, the smart cooling technique would still save power. It would still stagger demand, since homeowners wouldn't use similar techniques and will be sucking massive amounts of power in the afternoon. That said, the long-term solution to this problem is to build more environmentally sensible buildings. Tall glass boxes don't let designers take advantage of strategic window placement, white roofs, clever ventilation, earth walls (or even huge stone interior walls that can act as thermal sinks to reduce temperature fluctuations). Air conditioning is actually a pretty ugly solution to the problem.