En los edificios de viviendas españoles podemos estimar que la mitad del consumo energético se debe a los sistemas de calefacción y refrigeración. En general, resulta aconsejable invertir en proyectos de rehabilitación para limitar su demanda energética, sin embargo, aunque las intervenciones energéticas puedan suponer un significativo potencial de ahorro de energía, habría que manifestar que en muchas situaciones, especialmente en el área sur, no siempre será así, con desviaciones importantes de los comportamientos energéticos esperados. Investigaciones recientes sobre edificios de viviendas protegidas en el Sur de España señalan que no existe habitualmente una relación directa entre demanda de energía y uso real de la misma, asociado el bajo consumo a una carencia de prestaciones de confort. Para rentabilizar las actuaciones es fundamental profundizar en investigación y caracterización de estos comportamientos. En este contexto, se han desarrollado los proyectos de EFFICACIA, AMEC y el proyecto europeo EnergyTIC.

The current European energy policies have an influence on the need to rehabilitate the housing stock in order to meet the objectives of the European Union. Most of this housing stock was built without any type of energy regulation in adverse technical and economic conditions and thus is now energetically obsolete. The major rehabilitation effort required must be approached through actions based on previous quantitative energy knowledge of the existing buildings in order to guarantee the efficiency of energy-retrofitted solutions. This assessment can be carried out through monitoring dwellings conditioned by use patterns; through simulation programs, which do not usually offer faithful representations of energy conditions; or by using test cells, which allow us to evaluate a controlled indoor environment without the influence of users. The objective of this paper is to present the design and performance of test cells as an experimental method for vertical facade analysis in order to tackle the problem of retrofitting residential buildings in a Mediterranean climate, taking into account energy and environment. With this equipment, efficiency and energy savings, as well as illumination and interior air quality, can be simultaneously and comprehensively evaluated.

The current scenario of colorimetry shows a wide variety of different metrics which do not converge in the assessment of the color rendering of light sources. The limitations of the Color Rendering Index have promoted the emergence of new metrics, such as the Color Quality Scale. As in the case of the previous metric, these new concepts are based on the analysis of the deviation of different color samples in a color space, contrasting the results with those obtained with a light source reference, which can vary depending on the color temperature. Within this context, the Daylight Spectrum Index is proposed. This new concept aims to determine the affinity with daylighting of electric light sources, comparing the resulting spectral power distributions of the lamps studied and that observed under natural light. The affinity of an electric light source with daylighting allows for lower energy consumption due to the better performance of human vision. The new metric proposed is evaluated following the results obtained from 80 surveys, demonstrating the usefulness of this new concept in the quantification of color rendering of LED lamps and the affinity of electric light sources with daylighting.

Este trabajo forma parte del proyecto de investigación Efficacia: Reducción del consumo energético y del impacto ambiental en la construcción de viviendas protegidas en Andalucía. Dicho proyecto tiene como objeto de estudio el edificio de viviendas protegidas de Cros-Pirotecnia, emplazado en el Barrio “Pirotecnia” del Distrito Sur de la ciudad de Sevilla. Uno de los objetivos de este trabajo es conocer la demanda y consumo energético, en tiempo real, de este conjunto de viviendas en régimen de alquiler. Para tener en cuenta la influencia de sus habitantes, los resultados obtenidos mediante la instalación de monitorización se ha complementado con una serie de encuestas sobre los hábitos de consumos de sus inquilinos. En este artículo se describe la metodología empleada para la monitorización y se presentan los principales resultados obtenidos, una vez transcurridos doce meses desde el comienzo del período de medida. Asimismo, se ofrecen los resultados más significativos de las encuestas realizadas a los inquilinos.

The current socio-economic scenario has promoted telecommuting at home for a significant number of workers, mainly due to the sanitary situation experienced and the improvement in communication technologies. However, the work context at home is often not suitable for teleworking since the environmental conditions are not usually adequate for good performance and the wellness of workers. The received light, both in quantity and in spectrum, affects the visual comfort and performance of the worker through the regulation of the circadian stimulus. Accordingly, the objective of the present study is to ascertain the influence of natural daylight on the performance and health of teleworkers, considering a room at home analyzed in three different locations, two orientations, two-time schedules, and two window shapes. The impact of natural light on health was assessed using the Circadian Stimulus Autonomy (CSA) produced by daylight during the morning, while the illuminance requirement was defined in accordance with the Daylight Autonomy (DA). The results obtained were contrasted with a real test cell under real daylight conditions. The conclusions of this study serve to determine the suitable windowed areas of the analyzed room where teleworkers obtain the appropriate lighting performance and well-being.

Light quality is a key parameter of building design, which is mainly defined by the perceived luminance and the color rendering. Nowadays, there is a wide variety of metrics that do not converge in the color rendition evaluation of current light sources. The obsolescence of the Color Rendering Index promoted the rise of new procedures to provide an accurate evaluation. However, the score provided by most of these metrics does not distinguish between color deviation and hue discrimination, giving a single value to assess the overall color perception allowed by a light source. In this context, a new study is proposed, based on the evaluation of seven different light sources, comparing the results of the most recent color rendering metrics and those observed using a Farnsworth–Munsell trial carried out with 115 participants. The results obtained show that there is a notable divergence between color rendition and hue discrimination, although there is a clear proportionality between both. Moreover, a clear relationship is observed between color discrimination and the correlative color temperature of light sources, providing a better hue distinction with cool light sources, even though the psychological preferences of the participants do not coincide with the optimal scenario for color discrimination.