Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

How Effective Is Group Feedback In Encouraging Occupants Of An Office Building To Reduce Energy Consumption?, Ushik D. Shah Apr 2015

How Effective Is Group Feedback In Encouraging Occupants Of An Office Building To Reduce Energy Consumption?, Ushik D. Shah

Open Access Theses

Lighting contributes to a high percentage of the total energy use in office buildings. The lack of financial incentive often dissuades office workers from trying to save electricity at their work place. This thesis aims at reducing the total power consumed by an office building by using persuasive technologies on the occupants to promote environmentally conscious and energy saving behavior. ^ A three week field study was conducted by providing occupants of an office building feedback about their energy consumption along with messages to encourage them to save energy. Feedback was provided via television screens and flyers placed strategically at …


Development Of Simulation Modules For Liquid Desiccant Systems In Sorpsim, Zhiyao Yang Apr 2015

Development Of Simulation Modules For Liquid Desiccant Systems In Sorpsim, Zhiyao Yang

Open Access Theses

Liquid Desiccant Systems (LDS) have been an attractive alternative to the conventional vapor-compression air conditioning technology in HVAC applications for their thermally-driven nature and the expertise in dealing with large latent load in a more energy-efficient way. Much effort has been made during the past decades to study the performance of LDS and their components both experimentally and through modelling approach. However, predicting the performance of LDS is still a skill-demanding task because it involves model implementation, retrieval of fluid properties, solving procedure setup, and preparation of a good set of initial guess value to model just one component. It …


Overcoming Fundamental Barriers In Photovoltaic And Terahertz Generation, Chao Zhou Apr 2015

Overcoming Fundamental Barriers In Photovoltaic And Terahertz Generation, Chao Zhou

Open Access Theses

Several fundamental barriers limit the performance of opto-electronic conversion processes below 100%. Two specific examples of current technological interest include photovoltaic conversion of sunlight into electricity (i.e., solar cells), and terahertz generation from optical sources. In particular, solar cells are limited not only by the Carnot limit associated with the second law (approximately 86% at room temperature), but also by radiative recombination, non-reciprocity, carrier thermalization, and sub-bandgap losses. In the case of terahertz generation, the typical process of difference frequency generation relies on two input optical waves with only a small difference between them to generate the desired output; however, …


Multimedia Learning For Increasing Knowledge On Energy Efficiency And Promotion Of Proenvironmental Behavior: A Study Of Undergraduate Students In Costa Rica, Yoselyn Walsh Jan 2015

Multimedia Learning For Increasing Knowledge On Energy Efficiency And Promotion Of Proenvironmental Behavior: A Study Of Undergraduate Students In Costa Rica, Yoselyn Walsh

Open Access Theses

Promotion of energy efficiency practices among household has been employed in many interventions with a varying degree of success, mainly on developed countries. The purpose of the study is to promote and measure knowledge of proenvironmental behavior in undergraduate students in the Costa Rica Institute of Technology. The intervention used for this purpose provided personal and altruistic information about the impact of energy consumption activities in household. People’s perceptions and attitudes about behaviors that contribute and mitigate climate change were also investigated. Participants were students from undergraduate programs who are also inhabitants of the residence hall provided by the institution. …


Co2 Heat Pumps For Commercial Building Applications With Simultaneous Heating And Cooling Demand, Supriya Dharkar Jan 2015

Co2 Heat Pumps For Commercial Building Applications With Simultaneous Heating And Cooling Demand, Supriya Dharkar

Open Access Theses

Many commercial buildings, including data centers, hotels and hospitals, have a simultaneous heating and cooling demand depending on the season, occupation and auxiliary equipment. A data center on the Purdue University, West Lafayette campus is used as a case study. The electrical equipment in data centers produce heat, which must be removed to prevent the equipment temperature from rising to a certain level. With proper integration, this heat has the potential to be used as a cost-effective energy source for heating the building in which the data center resides or the near-by buildings. The proposed heat pump system utilizes carbon …