Francois Garde

University of Reunion Island · Laboratory of Physics and Mathematical Engineering for Energy and the Environment (PIMENT)

In this work, we propose a method to couple the behaviour models developed with Python in a previous paper with the dynamic thermal simulation software EnergyPlus, an advanced code used in research and design. The proposed coupling method is applied to the thermal model of an office building situated in the humid tropical climate of Reunion Island...

This paper focuses on the modelling of occupant behaviour in the case of a non-residential mixed-mode building on the tropical island of La Réunion. For such areas and types of buildings, occupants can operate passive solutions to achieve comfort while energy-consuming ones can offer alternatives during the hottest months. Yet, compared to other cl...

This paper presents the Post Occupancy Evaluation of the first naturally ventilated lecture theatre built in a tropical region. The challenge was to design a bioclimatic amphitheatre of 550 seats, which does not use air conditioning and remains comfortable at the same time. A post-occupancy evaluation has been carried out based on, in parallel, ind...

One of the handicaps of the large-scale integration of solar energy is due to its variability and its intermittency. The main way to overcome this issue is the energy storage technology. Knowing the high cost of batteries and their impact on the environment, we simulate a storage system based on compressed air and acting as a battery system. The CA...

En raison de la variabilité et de l'intermittence de l'énergie solaire photovoltaïque, son intégration à grande échelle dans le mix énergétique de micro-réseaux intégrant différents moyens de production demeure compliquée. Une des solutions pour surmonter ces handicaps est le stockage d'énergie qui est généralement basé sur l'utilisation de batteri...

To implement the concept of integrated design, an urban modelling, simulation and design platform was developed. It embeds a design framework built upon the strengths of parametric modelling and existing building performance simulation tools. The centralisation of the synthesis, analysis, evaluation and optimisation activities in a single interface...

Cities all over the world are redefining their urban landscapes with new buildings integrated within existing environments. Due to the dearth of climate and context consideration, as well as the lack of interoperability of existing design tools, buildings are mostly designed as stand-alone entities which limits their potential utilisation of natura...

This technical report gives a review of 30 fully documented net ZEBs case studies that have been identified by the Sub Task C participants. It reports a compilation of all technical and non-technical information of the 30 case studies that formed the foundation on which the analysis of Volume 3 of the Source Book was based. 1.1 Objectives of Sub T...

L’intégration à grande échelle des énergies renouvelables devient de plus en plus nécessaire pour l’accomplissement de la transition énergétique envisagée par de nombreux pays lors de la conférence des parties en 2016 (COP22 à Marrakech). Il est connu que la faiblesse majeure de certaines sources renouvelables comme le solaire demeure leur variabil...

Net Zero-Energy Buildings have been the object of numerous studies in recent years as various countries have set this performance level as a long-term goal of their energy policies. This book presents a unique study of 30 NZEBs that have been constructed and have had their performance measured for at least 12 months. The study is based upon an Inte...

Net Zero-Energy Buildings have been the object of numerous studies in recent years as various countries have set this performance level as a long-term goal of their energy policies. This book presents a unique study of 30 NZEBs that have been constructed and have had their performance measured for at least 12 months. The study is based upon an inte...

In this chapter, the data (buildings and measures) gathered from the Task 40 Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings Research Project is presented with detailed descriptions and summaries. As discussed in Chapter , the thirty case study buildings are partitioned into five groups by Climate and Building type. The measures deployed by these buildings are gro...

In this chapter, Net ZEB design is discussed from an architectural perspective. This can be characterized as bringing some issues traditionally the concern of Building Engineers (predominately energy-based) into the building design domain which has been traditionally dominated by an Architectural view point. Although the word design may have been u...

In this chapter, the methodology for analyzing the zero energy case study buildings is presented. The underlying principles of this methodology are presented in this introductory Section , including the potential ways in which the balance between energy load and generation may be calculated. The methodology itself is presented in Section . A summar...

The aim of this chapter is to examine the lessons learned by the design teams and the users of Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEBs). The chapter presents observations, anecdotes, and experiences gathered from a series of selected face-to-face interviews with the design team, architects, engineers and occupants of Net ZEBs. Seven non-residential bui...

In Section the motivations and reasons for monitoring building energy and comfort are presented from the point of views of building manager and building occupants. The energy performance of the 30 Task 40 Case Study buildings is presented in Section . In Section a detailed description of monitoring Net ZEBs throughout the various phases of a buildi...

Meeting the demand in electricity for houses or buildings provided by means of photovoltaic panels is relatively tricky, especially because of the stochastic character of solar radiation. There are some solutions in terms of storage and among them, the one consisting in converting electricity in high-pressure compressed air, seems promising. This o...

L'intégration à grande échelle de l'énergie photovoltaïque aux réseaux électriques décentralisés est souvent difficile à cause du caractère intermittent et variable de la ressource solaire qui peut provoquer l'instabilité du réseau. Pour ces mêmes raisons, rendre autonome des bâtiments tertiaires ou résidentiels par le photovoltaïque (seul) s'avère...

The conversion of renewable energies such as solar or wind is usually difficult due to their intermittency and their variability. Reunion Island, a tropical French island situated 200 km off the West coast of Mauritius, has no possibilities to be grid connected to other countries. As the island expects to reach the electric autonomy by 2030, Renewa...

This work aims to investigate the application and replicability of parametric solar design to both existing and future development urban areas in two extreme climate conditions: Øvre Rotvoll in Norway (subarctic climate) and Ravine Blanche in Reunion Island (tropical humid climate). The interplay between urban morphology and its potential for passi...

L'amphithéâtre du Moufia est le premier amphithéâtre en milieu tropical à fonctionner entièrement en ventilation naturelle, sans climatisation. L'objectif est de vérifier les performances du bâtiment en terme de confort thermique. Cette étude présente les résultats d'une campagne de mesure sur la saison 2014-2015 et permet d'évaluer le niveau de sa...

By now, the increasing in energy demand, the decrease of fossil resources and the environmental and climate problems caused by these fossil resources are the mains challenges of the researchers. To overcome this issues it is necessary to develop optimized and sustainable energy systems.The Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and the development of...

Producing electricity for houses or buildings often provided by mean of photovoltaic panels is relatively tricky especially because of the stochastic character of the solar radiation and of the storage influence. There exist some solutions and among them, the one consisting in converting electricity in high-pressure compressed air seems promising....

This paper deals with new considerations about the design of Net Zero Energy Buildings and Net Zero Energy Neighbourhoods in the future. The perspectives presented here are the results from an international work named Task40/Annex52 “Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings” conducted within the framework of the International Energy Agency (SHC-EBC)...

The International Energy Agency (IEA), through the Solar Heating and Cooling programme (SHC) Task 40 and the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems programme (ECBCS, now named EBC) Annex 52, works towards developing a common understanding and setting up the basis for an international definition framework for Net Zero Energy Building...

A photovoltaic (PV) greenhouse has a part of its transparent covering replaced by (opaque) PV components. This system allows for a " double use " of the resource land, because it generates energy in the form of biomass (crops, or flowers, or algae) and, also, electric energy. In islands, where land is limited, the energy demand is increasing; the u...

Net Zero Energy Building (NetZEB) design has become a crucial topic of research in recent years. Because of its complexity, discussion has been carried out on methodological criteria useful to define and assess NetZEBs (building system boundary, conversion factors, energy balance, interaction with the grid, monitoring, etc.), mainly with the engine...

In building studies dealing about energy efficiency and comfort, simulation software need relevant weather files with optimal time steps. Few tools generate extreme and mean values of simultaneous hourly data including correlation between the climatic parameters. This paper presents the C++ Runeole software based on typical weather sequences analys...

The aim of this report is to present a model of a rigid-rotor system based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which is applied on a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) research. Its originality results from the use of the average value of the variable rotational speed method taken in a periodic steady-state (PSS) of the VAWT rotor instead of the...

This technical report gives a review of 30 fully documented net ZEBs case studies that have been identified by the Sub Task C participants. It reports a compilation of all technical and non-technical information of the 30 case studies that formed the foundation on which the analysis of Volume 3 of the Source Book was based.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), through the Solar Heating and Cooling programme (SHC) Task 40 and the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems programme (ECBCS, now named EBC) Annex 52, works towards developing a common understanding and setting up the basis for an international definition framework for Net Zero Energy Building...

Reunion Island is a small French island located in the Indian Ocean, 900km off the East coast of Madagascar in the Southern hemisphere. The population is 800,000 inhabitants and will rise to one million in 20 years. The total area of the island is 2,500 km2 with only 313 km2 available for urbanization. The climate is tropical with a summer season a...

The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology using simulation to help optimising the design of passive buildings through a comfort approach. The study will concentrate on the design of solar shading that plays an extensive role in tropical climates and that has a direct impact on the thermal and the visual comfort of the building users. Indica...

This paper deals with new proposals for the design of passive solutions adapted to the climate of the highlands of Madagascar. While the strongest population density is located in the central highlands, the problem of thermal comfort in buildings occurs mainly during winter time. Currently, people use raw wood to warm the poorly designed houses. Th...

Green roofs provide environmental benefits by protecting buildings against solar radiation and temperature fluctuations and by reducing building's energy consumption by direct shading. Our objective was to evaluate for the first time the performance of an extensive green roof in Reunion Island (Indian Ocean) influenced by a tropical humid climate....

A bioclimatic approach to designing comfortable buildings in hot and humid tropical regions requires, firstly, some preliminary, important work on the building envelope to limit the energy contributions, and secondly, an airflow optimization of the building. For the first step, tools such as nodal or zonal models have been largely implemented. For...

The purpose of our research deals with the description of a methodology for the definition of specific weather sequences and their influence on the energy needs of HVAC system. We'll apply the method on the tropical Reunion Island. The methodological approach based on a detailed analysis of weather sequences leads to a classification of climatic si...

The beginning of this work is the achievement of a design tool, which is a multiple model software called " CODYRUN ", suitable for professionnals and usable by researchers. The original aspect of this software is that the designer has at his disposal a wide panel of choices between different heat transfer models More precisely, it consists in a mu...

This paper deals with the elaboration of global quality standards for natural and low energy cooling in french tropical island buildings. Electric load profiles of tropical islands in developed countries are characterised by morning, midday and evening peaks arising from all year round high power demand in the commercial and residential sectors, mo...

Simulation codes of thermal behaviour could significantly improve housing construction design. Among the existing software, CODYRUN and TRNSYS are calculations codes of different conceptions. CODYRUN is exclusively dedicated to housing thermal behaviour, whereas TRNSYS is more generally used on any thermal system. The purpose of this article is to...

As part of our efforts to complete the software CODYRUN validation, we chose as test building a block of flats constructed in Reunion Island, which has a humid tropical climate. The sensitivity analysis allowed us to study the effects of both diffuse and direct solar radiation on our model of this building. With regard to the choice and location of...

The paper deals with an empirical validation of a building thermal model. We put the emphasis on sensitivity analysis and on research of inputs/residual correlation to improve our model. In this paper, we apply a sensitivity analysis technique in the frequency domain to point out the more important parameters of the model. Then, we compare measured...

Cited By (since 1996): 13, Export Date: 10 April 2012, Source: Scopus

A bioclimatic approach to designing comfortable buildings in hot and humid tropical regions requires, firstly, some preliminary, important work on the building envelope to limit the energy contributions, and secondly, an airflow optimization of the building. For the first step, tools such as nodal or zonal models have been largely implemented. For...

Located in the French tropical Island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, the ENERPOS building was inaugurated in January 2009. The building is located in the Saint Pierre Campus of the University of Reunion Island. It was designed to be a net zero-energy building with mixed-mode air-conditioning systems in some areas (natural ventilation, ceiling f...

L'objectif des simulations est d'apporter un appui technique à l'équipe de maîtrise d'œuvre du projet pour l'optimisation du confort hygro-thermique et des consommations énergétiques. Les simulations seront effectuées sur les zones de l'Administration et du bâtiment central avec le logiciel CODYRUN et pour deux périodes de l'année (été et hiver). E...

The paper deals with the integrated building design process in the French tropical island of La Reunion throughout the design of the first Net Zero Energy Building named ENERPOS. So far the design process in France is not well adapted to the design of zero energy buildings and does not allow the easy achievement of energy efficient buildings. A reo...

The work presented in this paper aims to compare two different climates in Australia and Reunion Island and to identify the similarities in terms of bioclimatic design of low energy building. This approach is to perform a real evaluation of the sensation of thermal comfort in the workplace for different climates on the basis of the "bioclimatic cha...

Research experts participating in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 40 project on Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEB) were asked to classify their countries climate. Six of the participating countries researchers categorised the residential and non-residential buildings, placed in the same location, into different climate zones. This indic...

This paper proposes to study the role and the user in the operation of the building and its impact on energy performance of buildings. Some comparisons of the energy consumption and production of the buildings were calculated during the design stage are made against the measured data of the consumption and production of the buildings when they are...

The Savonious rotor is a slow running vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) which gets stabilized after a certain period of functioning. This work aims to assess the results of an aerodynamic study concerning a Savonious rotor. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a technique used to solve the airflow around the wind turbine rotor. In this paper,...

The green roof technology provides environmental benefits by protecting the base roof membrane of buildings against solar radiation and temperature fluctuations and by helping to reduce building's energy consumption by direct shading. Although several investigations have been performed to explore the energy performance of vegetated roofs as natural...

Solar shades are efficient architectural elements in order to reduce the thermal loads inside buildings. In one way, they can reduce significantly the energy needs of cooling systems. But in other way, they can decrease the visual comfort and increase the energy consumption of artificial lighting. Actually, the sizing of shading devices is mainly a...

This work deals with a different use of sensitivity analysis to characterize the steady-state behavior of solar collectors and more specifically evacuated tube collectors, which are often used for solar cooling. First, a dynamic model of evacuated tube collector (ETC) is presented. Then, a sensitivity analysis based on a spectral analysis (FAST met...

the paper deals with the feedback of the measurements conducted in the first zero energy building “EnerPos” constructed in the French tropical Island of La Reunion. The building was designed to operate as long as possible by using passive techniques (cross natural ventilation, day-lighting). The purpose was to reach an annual energy ratio below 55k...

This paper proposes to study the role and the user in the operation of the building and its impact on energy performance of buildings. Some comparisons of the energy consumption and production of the buildings were calculated during the design stage are made against the measured data of the consumption and production of the buildings when they are...

Zero Energy performance buildings have gained more attention since the publication in 2010 of the EPBD recast [1]. Meanwhile the USA promotes “marketable zero energy homes in 2020 and commercial zero energy buildings in 2025” [2]. Japan proposes “carbon neutralized buildings”, including existing buildings, by 2050 [3]. The UK government aspires to...

The paper presents the results of a French National research project on Net zero energy design that just ended in December 2009. The project named "ENERPOS" has focused on the development of new methods and tools for the design of Net Zero Energy Buildings in hot climates. Three French university research laboratories and two HVAC practices have be...

This study reports the flow physics past a Savonious wind turbine rotor. It is based on the modeling and numerical simulation of a VAWT experiments. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques was used with a rigid-rotor system to model the coupling. The SST k-ω model is the turbulence model taken into account in this dynamic study of a Savon...

In 2020, French energy policy plans that every new building will be positive energy. It is then essential to develop new methods for the design of such buildings. In addition, energy monitoring should be studied on existing positive or near zero energy buildings to ensure that they really respect these characteristics but also to estimate the impac...

In order to assess the efficiency of buildings or renewable energy systems, simulation software needs relevant meteorological files. These weather data are generated thanks to statistical methods. Actually, these methods are derived to treat high quality hourly databases or monthly average of the weather parameters. When only inconsistent hourly da...