Mapping energy-efficient technological advances in home appliances

The present study employs patent data on three groups of large energy-efficient appliances (i.e. freezers/refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers) and provides a methodology for (i) mapping components related to energy efficiency improvements, (ii) mapping their evolution over time and (iii) testing the technological fungibility of these components. Our analysis model exploits an original patent selection process and the concept of technological relatedness using co-occurrence analysis of patent classes as input for self-organising maps (SOMs), an unsupervised artificial neural network able to represent high-dimensional data in a visually attractive and two-dimensional distance-based map. The results confirm the pervasive nature of energy efficiency to be nested in many technological components. In addition, we show that a dematerialisation process has affected the evolution of energy efficiency technologies over time, in a technology space characterised by a high level of complexity and variety. Energy efficiency has links with information technologies embodied in the appliances, which are far from their maturity path. Consequently, innovation and information policies are of utmost importance in order to achieve more ambitious energy efficiency targets in the groups of appliances analysed.     

Economic analysis of the energy-efficient household appliances and the rebound effect

Many strategies, such as improving energy efficiency, were identified as solutions to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Nonetheless, the presence of a rebound effect could lead to a decrease in potential energy savings and carbon reductions resulting from technological advances in energy consumption. This study focuses on direct and indirect rebound effects on households’ behavior. We examine the situation where consumers demand two types of energy services and explore how their choices are affected by changes in the efficiency of providing these services—and, importantly, the consequent implications for energy use. We employ a (narrowly construed) general equilibrium methodology in an attempt to provide a complete picture of the interactions in play in a theoretically confined setting. We limit the general equilibrium problem to two categories of energy appliances but include consideration of the production side of the equation and consequent budget implications, thus “closing” the system in a general equilibrium sense. We find that rebound magnitudes (both indirect and direct) are large.     

Willingness to pay and price elasticities of demand for energy-efficient appliances: Combining the hedonic approach and demand systems

This article proposes a combined approach for estimating willingness to pay for the attributes represented by energy efficiency labels and providing reliable price elasticities of demand (own and cross) for close substitutes (e.g. those with low energy efficiency and those with higher energy efficiency). This is done by using the results of the hedonic approach together with the Quantity Based Demand System (QBDS) model. The elasticity results obtained with the latter are then compared with those simulated using the Linear Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS). The methodology is applied to the dishwasher market in Spain: it is found that 15.6% of the final price is actually paid for the energy efficiency attribute. This accounts for about €80 of the average market price. The elasticity results confirm that energy efficient appliances are more price elastic than regular ones.     

Investment in energy-efficient houses: An estimate of discount rates implicit in new home construction practices

Data on residential construction practices in 1975–1976, together with climatic data, construction costs and fuel costs, are used to calculate discount rates implicit in homeowner's decisions to invest in energy-saving measures in new homes. This process is repeated for ten cities for three heating fuels in each city. The resulting discount rates are significantly higher than market rates of interest, suggesting market imperfections which reduce the level of investment in energy efficiency below the socially optimal level.     

Introduction: Natural gas development begins at home

International trade in natural gas by pipeline and as LNG was the fastest growing element in the world gas business during the last two decades. However, less than 15% of world gas output crosses frontiers, a proportion closer to that of coal (10%) than of oil (50%). Gas, like coal, should be considered a “market locating” fuel, since its transport cost often far exceeds that of other manufacturing inputs. Moreover, gas export projects suffer from heavy front-end investment costs and from uncertain demand growth in the importing countries. For these reasons, developing countries with a potential for natural gas production must seriously consider all opportunities for local gas utilization. In order to maximize the availability of gas for domestic uses, policies which provide adequate incentives for gas development are required. Imaginative formulae to encourage exploration specifically for gas, and imaginative technology to make local gas development commercial on a smaller scale than most developers have considered so far, are the current prerequisites for natural gas in developing countries.     

Barriers and opportunities for labels for highly energy-efficient houses

Promoting energy efficiency in the building sector is essential if the agreements of the Kyoto Protocol are to be honoured. Different initiatives for energy labelling of highly energy-efficient residential buildings have emerged throughout Europe as an essential method to stimulate market demand, to control grants or to ensure the quality of demonstration projects with excellent energy performance.     

An energy-efficient air-conditioning system for hydrogen driven cars

In this paper a new operation principle of an air-conditioning system for hydrogen driven cars is proposed and experimental results of a laboratory prototype are presented. The system is able to utilize the potential energy of the compressed hydrogen gas as main driving energy to generate a cooling effect usable for e.g. air-conditioning. Therefore, it is able to partially reuse the compression energy originally spent in order to increase the energy density of hydrogen but is so far wasted onboard. The underlying principle of the process is based on a chemical reaction of a metal hydride (Ti_0.99Zr_0.01V_0.43Fe_0.09Cr_0.05Mn_1.5) with hydrogen at different pressures and corresponding equilibrium temperatures. The laboratory prototype consists of two alternating capillary tube bundle reactors (together around 5 kg and 1.5 l) and is able to generate a quasi-continuous cooling effect at 13 °C in the order of 900 W.     

End-user interfaces for energy-efficient semantically enabled smart homes

The need for energy efficient technological solutions is becoming ever more prevalent in today’s world. However, current advances are failing to offer end-consumers with a flexible solution that can be widely implemented in domestic or business environments. This is particularly relevant at the user interface level where energy consumers should be allowed to easily engage in effective energy saving technology. With the help of semantically linked data, we aim to actively assist end-consumers in making well-informed decisions in order to successfully control their energy consumption. By integrating smart metering and home automation functionality, our SESAME system offers end-consumers energy-efficient and cost-cutting options for their homes or businesses. The developed SESAME system conceptualizes, demonstrates and evaluates a variety of innovative end-consumer services, here focusing specifically on their user interface paradigms. In this paper, we present three types of interactive participatory user interfaces, all of which enable users to interact with the house automation settings modelled as semantic rules, as well their evaluation in user studies based on the demonstrator system. We show that the proposed interfaces have the potential for broad acceptance, and provide a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of their varying design principles and features.     

Designing for an imagined user: Provision for thermal comfort in energy-efficient extra-care housing

Regarded as one solution to the problem of how to enable older people to retain their independence, extra-care housing, where each resident has their own self-contained dwelling and access to communal facilities and to care, has received extensive funding in recent years. Implicit in the concept of specialist housing is the notion of ‘special’ occupants, imagined older people. Adopting a socio-technical approach, this paper considers how ideas about ageing inform those aspects of extra-care-housing-design that relate to thermal comfort. The paper draws on semi-structured interviews with 13 people involved in the design, development and management of UK-based extra-care housing. Participants characterised imagined occupants as vulnerable to cold, at risk from fuel poverty and liable to be burned by hot surfaces or fall from high windows. These user representations were reportedly inscribed into the design of extra-care housing schemes through the inclusion of building features such as communal heating, under-floor heating, restricted window opening and heated corridors. The utilisation of stereotypical user representations of older people raises questions, given that older people's thermal comfort needs can be highly diverse. The paper explores the implications for energy demand.     

Sustainability approaches for incarceration architecture

Incarceration architecture by definition negates many aspects of sustainability. Natural and humane values embedded in the penal system can be in many ways ambiguous. Throughout history, it was mainly the role of sociologists to advance theories and applications of incarceration architecture. Sustainability in this type of architecture however tends to rely heavily on technical solutions [1], [2]. There are many different definitions for sustainable architecture [3]. Recent publications claim that the root of sustainable architecture goes back to Ruskin and Morris. This paper argues that the sustainable features of natural and human values on the one hand and the technical issues on the other are inseparable in this type of buildings.Historical review of prison buildings reflects the emergence of new kinds of architecture associated with reform [4]. This paper critically evaluates the design theories of prison buildings. A historical review of prison design is carried out in order to verify the sustainable factors that affected the development of prison design. The review traces sustainable issues in the development of prison buildings. The argument in this paper stems from the theory of space as an aspect of social life [5].The paper stresses the need to apply social factors as well as technical aspects of energy conservation to achieve sustainable architecture for prison buildings.     

Sustainability of photovoltaics: The case for thin-film solar cells

To ensure photovoltaics become a major sustainable player in a competitive power-generation market, they must provide abundant, affordable electricity, with environmental impacts drastically lower than those from conventional power generation. The recent reduction in the cost of 2nd generation thin-film PV is remarkable, meeting the production milestone of $1 per watt in the fourth quarter of 2008. This achievement holds great promise for the future. However, the questions remaining are whether the expense of PV modules can be lowered further, and if there are resource- and environmental-impact constraints to growth. I examine the potential of thin-films in a prospective life-cycle analysis, focusing on direct costs, resource availability, and environmental impacts. These three aspects are closely related; developing thinner solar cells and recycling spent modules will become increasingly important in resolving cost, resource, and environmental constraints to large scales of sustainable growth.     

Micro-generation systems and electrolysers for refuelling private bi-fuel cars at home

An assessment is presented of the prospective use of micro-generation systems in conjunction with electrolysers and hydrogen stores for refuelling private bi-fuel (gasoline/hydrogen) cars with hydrogen. For a range of system sizes and three power source operating modes, predictions are made of the annual travel range on hydrogen and the associated CO₂ savings. A basic system (Mode A) operating solely from the output of a photovoltaic array was found to generate sufficient hydrogen to allow a passenger vehicle with a fuel efficiency of 8.5 l/100 km (33 mpg) to travel 613 km annually per kW of PV installed. An alternative system (Mode B) that permitted network electricity to contribute to hydrogen production, provided that the CO₂ emission factor of the generated hydrogen was half that of gasoline, enabled an annual travel distance of 772 km per kW of PV installed. A hybrid micro-generation system comprising a PV and micro-CHP system (Mode C), where the electricity that would otherwise be exported from the dwelling was diverted to hydrogen production, achieved a more consistent hydrogen production rate across the year. This resulted in a lower on-site storage requirement; when compared with Mode A, it provided an additional annual travel distance on hydrogen of between 1285 and 1833 km. A utility factor was employed to indicate the extent to which a system design could deliver a given daily driving distance on hydrogen across the year. High utility factors (>70%) were only achievable for modest daily driving distances (10–17 km) for the considered range of PV sizes (1.7–8.5 kW).     

国内外球墨铸铁活塞环材料

介绍球墨铸铁活塞环材料的性能要求、铸造工艺、材料种类等内容，详细介绍国内及德国、日本、美国、英国等国家活塞环铸造材料规格、金相组织和力学性能。     

Solar orbital power: Sustainability analysis

Solar power plants positioned in space for terrestrial electricity use have been proposed due to the ever-rising world energy consumption and its environmental impacts. This idea is analysed here in the context of sustainability of such power generation. To that end we have performed some new economic, environmental and social effects analysis of electricity generation by solar space power plants of both photovoltaic and solar thermal types power using the best currently available technology. The plants in the analysis were assumed to be in different Earth orbits, or on the Moon built by a robotised factory. One of our results is that both economically and environmentally the best scenario may be to launch a thermal solar power plant to the geostationary orbit from the Moon. Electricity produced in this way could be economically competitive to that generated by fossil fuels on Earth already for as few as 100 space power plants of about 5-10 GW each. This option is also deemed socially responsible with its capacity to reduce poverty with large amounts of cheap clean energy, and environmentally friendly, because it produces more than a hundred times less emissions than the same amount of electricity produced from fossil fuels on Earth.     

Analysis of tax incentives for energy-efficient durables in the EU

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges faced by societies this century. Energy consumption is directly associated with CO₂ emissions and climate change. The European Commission has set out emission reduction targets that require a great deal of energy consumption savings in the next 10 years in European countries. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the potential cost-effectiveness of different policy options aimed to foster the production and consumption of energy-efficient appliances in different European countries. Our results suggest that incentives to promote the use of energy-efficient appliances can be cost-effective, but whether or not they are depends on the particular country and the options under consideration. From the cases considered, tax credits on boilers appear to be a cost-effective option in Denmark and Italy, while subsidies on CFLi bulbs in France and Poland are cost-effective in terms of €/ton of CO₂ abated. Comparing the subsidies against the energy tax options, we find that the subsidies are in most cases less cost-effective than the energy tax.     

Sustainability: An integral engineering design approach

The work described in this paper won an Engineering Award from the UNESCO and the United Nations. It qualified among the top 30 finalists from a pool of about 3200 engineering entries from the world's most prestigious universities in 89 countries, including Cambridge, Oxford, MIT, Stanford and Yale. This paper describes the methods employed in a sustainability project titled ‘Global Basic Needs in an Integrated Sustainable Approach’ submitted by the author to the UNESCO in agreement with the United Nations Millennium Goals and within their framework of the Mondialogo Engineering Award. A six-nation international jury of renowned leading scientists and engineers selected this project for a nomination award. While we all anxiously wait for science to provide the solutions to global warming and catastrophic climate change, a holistic engineering approach was used to halt pollution, and to provide sustainable shelter, clean water, energy, food and education to the global population. This approach can be used anywhere in the world and conceptualizes a revolutionary sustainability paradigm for present and future societies. This work is a contribution to the advancement of the science of sustainability everywhere on the planet.     

Sustainability considerations for electricity generation from biomass

The sustainability of electricity generation from biomass has been assessed in this work according to the key indicators of price, efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, availability, limitations, land use, water use and social impacts. Biomass produced electricity generally provides favourable price, efficiency, emissions, availability and limitations but often has unfavorably high land and water usage as well as social impacts. The type and growing location of the biomass source are paramount to its sustainability. Hardy crops grown on unused or marginal land and waste products are more sustainable than dedicated energy crops grown on food producing land using high rates of fertilisers.