Interpretación de criterios de evaluación de eficiencia energética. Caso de estudio: área rural del cantón Gualaceo

Abstract

Energy efficiency in the design of a home can minimize the impact on the environment, reduce construction and operating costs. The energy efficiency criterion is to reduce ener gy consumption and meet energy demands for user comfort. Energy performance is analyzed according to the definition of ASHRAE - Net Zero Energy, in which the home must “... generate equal or more renewable energy than is consumed ...”. An architectural project is proposed, located in the rural area of San Juan, Gualaceo, Ecuador. For the architectural design, construction strategies are proposed with criteria of energy efficiency and thermal comfort. The constructive strategies must be in agreement with the climatic factor and the physical properties of the materials. Different factors interact in the environment, such as the incidence of solar radiation, direction and force of the wind, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity. The physical properties of the materials considered are insulation, thermal mass, thermal inertia, and solar gain. In addition, to supply electrical and caloric energy to the architectural project, photovoltaic panel systems and vacuum tube systems are used, respectively. The research project demonstrates that certain traditional construction strategies are energetically preferable. To do this, by means of Eco-Designer (BEM “Building Energy Modeling” software) integrated in Archicad (BIM “Building Information Modeling software) the annual energy consumption of a basic dwelling is quantified, then in different stages the dimensions are varied and new materials are proposed, based on each of the four proposed strategies; Finally, the energy consumption is counted, with which the efficiency of each strategy is compared with the information of the base