Simon Paul Borg

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• PhD Mechanical Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at University of Malta

Across Europe domestic electricity consumption is on the rise. In an attempt to counter this increase, various initiatives have been introduced to promote the replacement of less energy-efficient appliances with more efficient ones. Whilst the likely aggregate effect of such measures over long time periods has been modelled extensively, little is k...

Trigeneration has long been proposed as a means to improve energy-efficiency for large and medium sized buildings. To curb increasing energy demand in the residential sector, researchers are now focusing their attention on adapting trigeneration to residential buildings. Literature is full of examples pertaining to the performance of trigeneration...

The influence of courtyard height on the cross-ventilation of a room abating a courtyard building is addressed in this work. While the cross-ventilation performance of isolated buildings has been thoroughly documented in the literature, the phenomenon is still not tackled in the context of a courtyard building, both in isolated as well as urban con...

One parameter that may affect the performance of a ground source heat pump is the shank-space, the center-to-center distance between the two branches of a vertical U-tube used in a ground heat exchanger. A 3D steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a U-tube ground heat exchanger was used to investigate the influence of varying shan...

Despite ample technological advancements, the building industry is still seen as an unsustainable activity. To counteract this, building development is now being requested to be more sustainable. Due to the increasing complexity of sustainable projects' criteria, the project manager's role, tasked with the overall management of a building's differe...

To deal with the heat generated by the information technology equipment hosted in data centres, dedicated cooling systems allowing the information technology systems to operate at their optimum thermal conditions continuously, are typically used. Being constantly in operation these cooling technologies have a large impact on the overall energy perf...

Data centres are infrastructural spaces which accommodate the requirements of servers that are responsible for data storage and data communication. To be able to deal with the high levels of heat generated by the Information Technology equipment hosted in these centres, data centres are coupled with mechanical cooling systems which allows the IT sy...

One way of minimising pedestrian exposure to car produced pollutants is to passively divert the latter away from the pedestrian zone. In this research, the aerodynamics of roadside barriers and their impact on improving air quality within the pedestrian zone was explored. Full scale wind measurements were performed in a purposely built model urban...

Heating and Cooling constitute a major part of society’s final energy use and a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The world society ought to mitigate climate change through decarbonisation, which must include the transition to low-temperature, sustainable and renewable heating and cooling technologies. Shallow Geothermal Energy i...

Project management originated as a necessary tool, supporting building professionals and related trades. To effectively manage, optimise and deliver complex projects with vast resources. The current urgent climate-context, make attainment of environmental sustainability objectives an added mandatory part to traditional project management goals. Thi...

One of priorities of the EU’s climate change policy is the energy performance of buildings. This is reflected primarily through the series of Directives the EU has enacted along the years, but is most precisely conveyed in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). As part of the European Union, Lithuania has enacted its own long-term st...

One of priorities of the EU's climate change policy is the energy performance of buildings. This is reflected primarily through the series of Directives the EU has enacted along the years, but is most precisely conveyed in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). As part of the European Union, Lithuania has enacted its own long-term st...

The Double C Block (DCB) is an innovative composite Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) developed to offer enhanced thermal performance over standard hollow core blocks (HCBs). The DCB features an original design consisting of a polyurethane (PUR) foam inserted between two concrete c-shaped layers, thus acting as the insulating layer and the binding agent...

As per general provisions of European Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy efficiency of buildings (recast), the Lithuanian government transposed the Directive into Lithuanian national law. In the process, the Lithuanian government prepared strategic documents in the field of energy performance and renewable energy that were integrated together throu...

In Europe, the energy consumed for heating and cooling purposes by the hospitality sector is significant. In island economies such as that of the Mediterranean Island of Malta, where Tourism is considered essential to the local economy, energy consumption is perhaps even more significant, and energy-efficient systems, or the use of renewable energy...

Concrete Masonry Units (CMU) are a popular construction technology manufactured in a variety of thicknesses for the building of load and non-load bearing walls. The Double C Block is a novel composite CMU developed to offer enhanced thermal performance over the standard blocks. It features an original design registration where a polyurethane foam i...

In Europe the energy consumed for heating and cooling purposes by the hospitality sector is significant, estimated at around 8TWh. In island economies such as that of the Mediterranean Island of Malta, where Tourism is considered essential to the local economy, such an energy consumption is perhaps even more significant, and energy-efficient system...

As standards and green practices become more widespread and important, one aspect which must be considered is how these standards are enforced, and are effectively used in construction methodologies. Having the tools readily available must work in tandem with the aim of implementing these standards. The research being presented in the paper, seeks...

The general consensus among academics is that the spatio-temporal humidity distribution is more or less uniform in an indoor space. This has, for the large part, not yet been proven by an academic study; subsequently, this paper aims to demonstrate that this is not always true. The paper makes use of a validated transient CFD model, which uses the...

Despite ample technological advancements, the building industry is still seen, as an unsustainable activity. To counteract this, buildings' development is now being requested to be more sustainable. Due to the increasing complexity of sustainable projects' criteria, the project manager's role, tasked with the overall management of a building's diff...

Humidity is an important parameter in understanding the micro-climate in indoor spaces. Existing literature focuses mostly on spatially averaged humidity levels leaving a gap on the spatio-temporal character of this variable. This is contrary to the well populated literature on other environmental parameters such as air temperature and air velocity...

Passive building design involves consideration of a number of design variables which can be optimised with respect to some design objective. The use of optimisation methods in building design is well established but the implementation of the Big Bang-Big Crunch algorithm to passive building design is still as yet unexplored in detail. The aim of th...

Reducing energy consumption in buildings via the use of energy-efficient technologies has become essential. The Ground Source Heat Pump, capable of delivering space conditioning with enhanced energy-efficiency compared to conventional air sourced systems, is one such technology. An important aspect dictating the performance of said technology is th...

As opposed to steady state characteristics which have been, in the past, estensively investigated, the transient dehumidification characteristics of silica gel under different flat bed configurations, has not been studied in detail with respect to varying mass and air flow rates. Such data is essential in the design of systems employing this method...

The present case study sets out to investigate the potential and limitations of passive building design in a typical Mediterranean climate. The Maltese Islands were taken as the case study location. Assuming a fully detached, cuboid-shaped, generic multi-storey office building, one representative storey was modelled by means of the building energy...

The physical effects of upstream flow obstructions such as vegetation on cross-ventilation phenomena of a building have rarely been investigated in the literature. Moreover, there is a lack of guidelines as regards to how vegetation is considered when performing Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. The aim of this work is to establish the cros...

One strategy typically utilized to reduce the energy demand of buildings is the use of onsite renewables, typically photovoltaic systems. In this context, whereas the roof space allocated for photovoltaics is quickly reaching saturation, façade-integrated photovoltaics could be a good alternative. Unfortunately, however, compared to roof-installed...

The main aim of this paper was to study traditional and modern Maltese building construction methods to assess their potential contribution towards thermal retrofitting alterations to local building stock, both old and new, and to establish the payback period for such retrofit jobs, typically with a given budget. Three local case studies with simil...

The ever-increasing aesthetically driven demand for fully glazed façades poses a design challenge; not least in controlling the cooling demand of such buildings, especially in a southern Mediterranean climate. This study was concerned with determining which glazing technology would be most suited in a building within the central Mediterranean regio...

Energy-efficient design of building façades has so far predominantly been confined to static rigid forms. Recently however, attempts have been made to design environmentally responsive façades, hereby called Climate Adaptive Façades. These have the potential to better address the occupant's requirements, while also reducing energy demand. The prese...

Considering the high energy bill paid by developed countries when it comes to energy, especially that related with the built environment, it is not surprising that improving energy-efficiency in buildings is high on both the national and international political agenda. Unfortunately improving the energy-efficiency of buildings through applications...

Research has amply shown that by improving the energy efficiency of buildings, the European Union (EU) could reduce its total energy consumption and associated carbon emissions by a considerable amount. To address this aspect, the EU in 2002 issued Directive 2002/91/EC (later repealed by Directive 2010/31/EC), primarily requiring Member States to s...

The effect of roof mounted photovoltaics on the heat transfer performance of roofs has primarily been investigated in the context of the resulting shading effect. The convective heat transfer coefficient will change as a result of the blockage caused by the photovoltaic panels. In this work, a quantification is given of the differences between heat...

Even if initially dominated by cost concerns, energy-awareness is today maturing towards a vision aimed at curtailing energy consumption and reducing carbon emissions. In consideration of today’s large amount of tyres being used and disposed of, the purpose of this research was to investigate options for utilising recycled rubber as a building mate...

The 'Power Converter and Appliance Power Profile Simulator' makes use of a series of equations and assumptions based on the knowledge of the operating behavior of certain appliances to provide a tool, coded using Visual Basic for Applications, whose aim is to assist and facilitate students and researchers alike in creating fine temporal precision p...

The 'Power Converter and Appliance Power Profile Simulator' makes use of a series of equations and assumptions based on the knowledge of the operating behavior of certain appliances to provide a tool, coded using Visual Basic for Applications, whose aim is to assist and facilitate students and researchers alike in creating fine temporal precision p...

Reducing energy consumption in buildings has become a priority for most countries. However, designing energy-efficient buildings is not a straightforward task - the increasing demand for high comfort standards, provided by conventional ‘energy-hungry’ cooling and heating devices conflicts with the need for demand reduction. Trigeneration, the simul...

The aim of this research was to explore the potential of exploiting ground source cooling, utilising the high thermal mass of the indigenous sedimentary rock, globigerina limestone, typical of the Maltese Islands. Based on earlier studies of horizontal and vertical pipe configurations, it was established that the vertical U-tube pipe is more effici...

Although absorption cooling has been available for many years, the technology has typically been viewed as a poorly performing alternative to vapour compression refrigeration. However, rising energy prices and the requirement to improve energy-efficiency is driving renewed interest in the technology, particularly within the context of combined cool...

The domestic sector accounts for a substantial 25% of the total energy consumption within the EU. Although a number of measures aimed at reducing this energy consumption have successfully been implemented, in southern Europe this reduction has been partly offset by the increased penetration of residential air conditioning relying on vapour compress...

Although some literature on the benefits of improving the thermal characteristics of Maltese buildings already exists, further research is required in order to quantify the full extent of these benefits. This is particularly relevant when considering that many new buildings are multi-storey complexes whose thermal characteristics differ from floor...

Changes in lifestyle have led to increased use and ownership rates of domestic appliances resulting in increasing electrical consumption in the residential sector. An important element of this consumption is due to domestic washing and drying of laundry. Given current and predicted ownership rates, the market for drying facilities is still not full...

Today, passenger cars alone are responsible for around 12% of European CO 2 emissions. An opportunity to reduce CO 2 emissions in transport is provided by the use of biofuels with beneficial life cycle CO 2 emissions. The Carbon Labelling project (Project No. EIE/06/015) promotes the use of biofuels by implementing different labelling initiatives i...

Malta enjoys favourable weather conditions that encourage the use of solar water heating systems, but their market penetration has so far remained low. In an effort to identify the reasons behind this lack of impetus, the Institute for Energy Technology has devised a number of study programmes. This paper deals with one of those studies, namely the...