Energy analysis of a public services building: North Aveiro School, Portugal

Abstract The goal of this paper is to undertake an energy performance analysis of the North Aveiro School (ESAN) building, located in the municipality of Oliveira de Azeméis (Portugal). This building uses HVAC technologies that are unusual in Portugal, such as ground source heat pumps associated with floor heating and ventilation with air preheating, using solar panels and heat recovery. Although these technologies were intended to provide thermal comfort conditions with low energy consumption, they have failed to do so. A thermal dynamic simulation of the building was made using the DesignBuilder software, including features such as envelope, lighting, occupancy, equipment and HVAC systems. Based on the building model and the analysed results, the researchers found that the heterogeneity of the glazed surfaces, the the differences in thermal loads in the different rooms, and the three shared cooling systems cause major thermal imbalances and difficulties to provide thermal comfort conditions in the building. This study can be applied to other buildings, especially buildings located in regions with broad daily and/or seasonal thermal amplitudes, which need both heating and cooling. This study is important because it demonstrates that with good planning, it is possible to design buildings with energy efficient thermal comfort strategies.