Technologies for adaptation of buildings to climate changes: energy efficiency, photovoltaic generation and reduction of emissions in schools
This project proposes investigating building technologies to reduce energy consumption considering climate changes and includes two aspects. In the first one, the reduction of CO2 emissions is achieved by saving electricity and contributing to the insertion of photovoltaic distributed generation, reducing the use of thermoelectric plants with the insertion of renewable energy in the diversification of the energy matrix. In the second aspect, the technologies contribute to reducing the thermal discomfort in schools that tend to be aggravated by climate change by adapting the building to maintain productivity in the school environment. The technologies encompass forms of vernacular passive conditioning, such as thermal inertia and natural ventilation, and their interfaces with active-passive technologies, such as photovoltaic power generation, shape-memory materials, and phase change materials. The impacts on private and public schools are different due to the typical environmental conditioning, artificial or natural, which directs them to the first (energy/CO2) or the second aspect (thermal comfort/productivity), respectively. As classrooms are environments with a high thermal load per occupancy, climate change may aggravate the thermal discomfort in schools in the predominantly hot territory of Brazil, which may cause an increase in the use of air conditioning. A methodology for evaluating such integrated technologies will be developed through field studies in a standard typology whose thermal and energy performance simulation will be applied in different Brazilian climates and corrected by numerical climate change models. Both the technical feasibility of saving electricity, providing comfort and reducing CO2 emissions, as well as the economic feasibility of investing in retrofits, are metrics to be proposed. These results will be able to feed programs or public policies of application in scale since all the Brazilian bioclimatic zones will be evaluated.
Project funded by CNPq