Under-ventilation and high energy consumption are some of the problems associated with school classrooms. Thus, it is necessary to develop a ventilation strategy that is characterized by high energy-saving and ventilation efficiency. To this end, this study aims to investigate natural ventilation as a possible strategy to improve the indoor environment while reducing ventilation loads and maintaining energy costs during intermediate seasons. Ventilation and cooling load reductions based on the opening and closing of several windows were analyzed. Window flow coefficients and ventilation rates were measured and used for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to obtain pressure coefficients for 16 wind directions. The results obtained showed that the improved natural ventilation strategy could be used to effectively establish required indoor conditions (26 °C, 60% RH). Additionally, compared with the mechanical ventilation system with variable refrigerant flow, this natural strategy resulted in a decrease in energy consumption of approximately 30%. However, its application requires that internal heat gain and CO2 emissions, which depend on human population density, as well as the room usage schedule should be considered.
An investigation was conducted into temporary modular housing for use in disaster areas to assess the feasibility of energy independence. Flexible modular units have been proposed as a temporary housing solution in disaster areas, as they can be deployed in combination with energy units across a wide range of environments. A dynamic energy simulation was used to examine the heating/cooling requirements and the potential photovoltaic power generation of such modular housing in an East Asian climate. This was used to assess the potential for energy independence. The building performance was analyzed based on measurements of airtightness, insulation performance, and thermal bridge phenomena taken from mock-up modular housing. According to the wall assembly method, it was confirmed that the airtightness performance was poor. Further investigations explored the possibility of reducing the annual heating/cooling loads by improving the airtightness, which would contribute to greater energy independence. In general, the specific housing needs of different victim groups can easily be satisfied through the application of different modular unit combinations.
If a data center experiences a system outage or fault conditions, it becomes difficult to provide a stable and continuous information technology (IT) service. Therefore, it is critical to design and implement a backup system so that stability can be maintained even in emergency (unforeseen) situations. In this study, an actual 20 MW data center project was analyzed to evaluate the thermal performance of an IT server room during a cooling system outage under six fault conditions. In addition, a method of organizing and systematically managing operational stability and energy efficiency verification was identified for data center construction in accordance with the commissioning process. Up to a chilled water supply temperature of 17 °C and a computer room air handling unit air supply temperature of 24 °C, the temperature of the air flowing into the IT server room fell into the allowable range specified by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers standard (18–27 °C). It was possible to perform allowable operations for approximately 320 s after cooling system outage. Starting at a chilled water supply temperature of 18 °C and an air supply temperature of 25 °C, a rapid temperature increase occurred, which is a serious cause of IT equipment failure. Due to the use of cold aisle containment and designs with relatively high chilled water and air supply temperatures, there is a high possibility that a rapid temperature increase inside an IT server room will occur during a cooling system outage. Thus, the backup system must be activated within 300 s. It is essential to understand the operational characteristics of data centers and design optimal cooling systems to ensure the reliability of high-density data centers. In particular, it is necessary to consider these physical results and to perform an integrated review of the time required for emergency cooling equipment to operate as well as the backup system availability time.