@article{VerezBorriCrespoetal., author = {V{\´e}rez, David and Borri, Emiliano and Crespo, Alicia and Zsembinszki, Gabriel and Dawoud, Belal and Cabeza, Luisa F.}, title = {Experimental Study of a Small-Size Vacuum Insulated Water Tank for Building Applications}, series = {Sustainability}, volume = {13}, journal = {Sustainability}, number = {10}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, doi = {10.3390/su13105329}, pages = {1 -- 11}, abstract = {Insulation of thermal energy storage tanks is fundamental to reduce heat losses and to achieve high energy storage efficiency. Although water tanks were extensively studied in the literature, the enhancement of the insulation quality is often overlooked. The use of vacuum insulation has the potential to significantly reduce heat losses without affecting the dimension of the storage system. This paper shows for the first time the results of the heat losses tests done for a 0.535 m3 water tank for residential building applications built with a double wall vacuum insulation. The different tests show that the rate of heat losses strictly depends on the temperature distribution inside the tank at the beginning of the experiment. Compared to a conventional water tank insulated with conventional materials, the U-value of the lateral surface was reduced by almost three times (from 1.05 W/K·m2 to 0.38 W/K·m2) using vacuum insulation. However, the bottom part, which is usually used to place the support parts and the piping, is the critical design part of those tanks acting as a thermal bridge with the ambient and enhancing heat losses.}, language = {en} } @article{SovacoolCabezaPiselloetal., author = {Sovacool, Benjamin K. and Cabeza, Luisa F. and Pisello, Anna Laura and Colladon, Andrea Fronzetti and Larijani, Hatef Madani and Dawoud, Belal and Martiskainen, Mari}, title = {Decarbonizing household heating: Reviewing demographics, geography and low-carbon practices and preferences in five European countries}, series = {Renewable \& Sustainable Energy Reviews}, journal = {Renewable \& Sustainable Energy Reviews}, number = {139}, publisher = {Elsevier}, doi = {10.1016/j.rser.2020.110703}, pages = {1 -- 28}, abstract = {What commonalities are there in sustainable or unsustainable heating practices in five high-income, high-emitting western European countries? What preferences do a nationally representative sample of the public in these countries hold towards low-carbon options? It is imperative that climate policy researchers and practitioners grapple with the difficulty of decarbonizing heat, which remains the largest single end-use service worldwide and which accounts about half of total final energy consumption. Based on a comparative assessment of five representative national surveys in Germany (N = 2009), Italy (N = 2039), Spain (N = 2038), Sweden (N = 2023), and the United Kingdom (N = 2000), this study explores the demographics and geography of household heat decarbonisation in Europe. By analyzing our country level data as well as our combined sample of 10,109 respondents, it investigates how people conceive of the purposes of low-carbon heat, their preferences for particular forms of heat supply, and their (at times odd) practices of heat consumption and temperature settings. Grounded in its original data, the study organizes its findings inductively across the five themes of literacy (heating knowledge, awareness and control), sustainability (heating practices, dynamics and conflicts), temperature (heating satisfaction and preferences), desirability of change (low-carbon heating priorities, business models and trust), and culture (country and national variation). The study also explores intersections between these dimensions, using multivariate analysis, as well as how preferences differ according to varying types of actors as well as geography and space.}, language = {en} }