Toward Energy-Efficient Buildings

Vivien Lin Lu is a Professor in the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK). Prof. Lu is a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics in Engineering (2018) and a World’s Top 2% Scientist by Stanford University in Energy. She has published 5 books/handbook chapters and over 300 SCI-cited journal papers in renewable energy, building sciences and engineering. Her current research interests focus on smart exploitation of solar energy and deep space cooling, engineered nanomaterial development towards energy smart building envelopes, and fundamentals of fluid mechanics and heat/mass transfer to enhance building energy systems. Prof. Lu has been the recipient of prestigious awards including being named one of the World’s Top 2% Scientists in Energy (Stanford University, USA). Dr. Chen is a Research Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK. He has over 10-year experience in sustainable building technology related to the passive architectural designs, renewable application in buildings and built environment modelling, and has led or managed multiple research projects including ARC, MOST, RGC and consultancy projects with the local government and industry. He has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and coauthored a book in green building and renewable application areas. Dr. Chen has been awarded the DECRA Fellow in the Australian Research Council and Fulbright Scholar in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In addition, he serves as an editorial board member of Buildings, Energies and Advances in Applied Energy. Dr. Jianheng Chen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, where he also obtained his PhD in building energy in 2011. His research focuses on the fundamental utilization of radiative sky cooling technology and its integration with buildings, with the aim to achieve low-energy buildings and move towards carbon neutrality and improved building thermal environments. Dr. Kai Jiao is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, focusing on theoretical research on phase change energy storage of paraffin and participating in the development of paraffin thermal storage units for novel photovoltaic/thermal systems. Dr. Jiao has extensive experience in heat transfer analysis of paraffin and its composites. During his doctoral studies, he established a paraffin phase change heat transfer model based on the mixture theory, which allows for accurate prediction of the phase change process of paraffin and its composites.

1. Introduction to carbon neutral buildings and energy efficient building envelopes
2. Fundamentals of building envelope design
3. Solar radiation, the energy balance of buildings, and building energy use
4. Advanced thermal regulation strategies for energy smart building envelopes: thermal insulation materials and building-integrated phase change materials
5. Energy-efficient windows and façade technologies and energy balance
6. Spectral-selective nanomaterial solutions for low-energy buildings and a cool city
7. Building-integrated renewable energy technologies
8. Building energy assessment tools and evaluation integration approaches to energy efficient buildings
9. Building energy performance modelling and simulation for energy systems
10. Novel passive energy-efficient building envelope technologies and prospects for sustainable energy systems