Raul-Gabriel ILEA’s research while affiliated with University of Bucharest and other places

The energy consumption has become a real concern in choosing the most cost- effective way and resources for indoor-heating. This experimental study tried to estimate both the energy amounts needed to heat up the residential indoor spaces and the resulting average costs that people living in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area might have to pay for heating during the winter months. The daily minimum air-temperatures, incoming solar radiation and wind- speed values provided by the Bucharest-Băneasa weather station were used to calculate the corresponding mean monthly values of an expressive compound index for December, January and February, over the 1980-2015 period. In this respect, the Cooling Energy Consumption (CEC) index has been calculated. Then, its values were related to two different types of individual heating systems (CT): a conventional CT produced by Ariston (net efficiency of 93%) and a gaseous condensation CT produced by Viessmann (net efficiency of 108%). Finally, the results were multiplied by the actual unit cost of energy in Romania (1.3 lei/kWh), provided that the total monthly consumption of electricity per household keeps less than 300 kWh/month, so that some interesting and realistic estimates of heating expenditures could be obtained for either each or all winter months in Bucharest – Romania’s capital city. This method might be useful both to local authorities and inhabitants to estimate and plan in advance their public or domestic budget to more economically sustain their energy resources and expenditures.

Climate change

Brașov is the largest city in the Romanian Carpathians, being located inside the largest low-lying area in the country and exposed to western climatic influences, with well-defined local features, especially in the cold season, when many thermal extremes may occur. The main objective of this study was to analyze the minimum air temperatures and highlight their extreme values over the 1980-2015 period. The climatic data were collected from the Brașov-Ghimbav meteorological station and a set of specific indices, generically called as indices of extremes and climate change by the WMO’s Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), were subsequently calculated. The resulting quantitative assessments of minimum air-temperature variations in the above mentioned area has also proved that they can be useful tools in calculating other derived technical parameters which may be relevant for the design and onset of heating or cooling installations, in order to maintain a comfortable indoor climate in residential buildings.