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The proposal Energy Dialogue with Invisibles by Genku Kayo and Nobue Suzuki was awarded with an honorary in the Aalto Energy Efficiency & Low Carbon Competition 2014-2015. The competition is an idea competition aiming to find and promote existing best practises and uncover novel ideas in the fields of energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction.

Adjusting the temperatures

The scientists propose to control the temperatures flexibly according to the actual use of the space. They also suggest building up an environmental information system to have a dialogue with the students and involve them in HVAC control decision.

The proposal takes advantage of two branches of science: Kayo is working in Department of Energy Technology, Suzuki investigates human behavior in built environment.

The campus is connected to district heating. The heating demand is reduced slightly in night time but all the space is heated with the same way 24 hours a day even in weekends and holidays. The heating control does not consider whether there are activities in the space or not.

According to the proposal the heating period during the working days could be cut down from current fourteen hours to nine hours. Hereby the energy need for space heating would decrease 3–5 percent.

The space should be heated in a flexible manner considering the use of the space. Furthermore the use of the space should be guided from inactive rooms to more active rooms. So the temperature in the less active rooms could be adjusted a bit lower than normal.

“If the base temperature in an empty space is lowered by one degree the heat demand per day decreases about 11 percent. If the temperature is lowered two degrees the energy saving for space heating reaches almost 17 percent” Kayo says.

Suzuki and Kayo suggest installing an environmental information network in the campus buildings. Besides delivering information, it could also collect feedback from the students. The network would serve as awakener of energy dialogue among students, personnel and visitors of the university. Energy dialogue also gives you an opportunity to face with the energy issues.

According to the jury the case analysis of the proposal provides concrete possibilities to utilize the idea in both teaching and research, and serve as a concrete action of the Ecocampus 2030 objectives.

Read the whole story of the competition