I participated in the Energy Conservation Committee.

Yesterday, I attended a regular energy conservation committee meeting in Osaka, which was attended by about 10 people including researchers from the Building Research Institute, university professors, Osaka Gas, and Kansai Electric Power. I have been invited to attend the meeting for several years, and one of the topics that came up in the discussion was:
・Regarding the mandatory energy conservation measures to be implemented in 2020, opinions are still completely divided as to whether minimum standards or fuel efficiency display will be mandatory.
・The current web program for calculating primary energy consumption selects the closest results from over 1 simulated examples and displays the results. Perhaps next year, the area and UA value will be calculated on a per-house basis. (This is purely a server-side issue.)
・There are a large number of electric water heaters remaining in apartment buildings, but they cannot be replaced with EcoCute because there is no space. When building a new house, EcoCute consumes extra volume for the heat pump, so many people are reluctant to choose this company, but some local governments exclude the heat pump portion of EcoCute from the floor area ratio calculation...
I don't understand why this isn't done in every local government...
- Heat loss through range hoods is not insignificant. As most homes are not of the simultaneous intake and exhaust type, problems were raised such as front doors being difficult to open and the floor of the living room and dining room getting extremely cold. One participant calculated that there was a 16% difference in heating energy required with or without simultaneous intake and exhaust. Despite this, no one pointed this out. Therefore, I proposed that the results be changed depending on whether or not there is simultaneous intake and exhaust in the options of the web program.
- Compared to the world of detached houses, the world of apartment buildings is far behind in terms of awareness of energy conservation... in fact, it is almost nonexistent.
Well, that was about it. The leader of the web program was also there, so I thought there was a possibility that I might be hired... I waited with hope.
July 14, 2017