Thermal control of waste heat utilization in buildings

As the world population has increased and the countries have become more and more industrialized, the need for energy has become a crucial item in all sectors, e.g. in the residential, the commercial and in the industrial sector as well as in transportation systems. For this reason, during the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in energy conservation in residential sectors, particularly in buildings. The described research deals with waste energy utilization and the thermal comfort in buildings. In this regard, the paper deals with three significant aspects: waste heat utilization, waste water utilization and optimum thermal control of water temperature at different flow rates. In this respect an experimental set-up was constructed to study the control mechanisms: PID-controler to provide optimum temperatures and flow rates is used in various sections since different flow rates are used in practice for different applications in the kitchen, the bathroom, etc. Sometimes, all of them are used together and an optimum control of the temperatures and the hot water flow rates become essential in order to provide energy savings. In summary, the presented system proposes a new technique to utilize waste heat (and/or waste water) in buildings and to provide optimum thermal control together.