Browsing by Subject "energia"

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan älykkään sähköverkon teknologian kotouttamista. Tutkimuksen viitekehys pohjautuu yhtäältä teknologian kotouttamisen tutkimuskirjallisuuteen ja toisaalta kulutuksen energiankäytön ja -käyttäjien tutkimusperinteeseen. Teknologian kotouttamista tarkastellaan myös arjen ja rutiinien näkökulmasta. Tutkin sitä, millä tavoin asukkaat ovat kotouttaneet talossa olevat älykkään sähköverkon ratkaisuja. Lisäksi tutkin sitä, mihin talon suunnittelussa on pyritty ja millaista kuvaa asukkaista energiankuluttajina taloa toteuttamassa olleiden yritysten edustajien puhe heijastelee. Empiirinen tutkimus kohdistuu kerrostaloon, joka on suunniteltu ja toteutettu älykkään sähköverkon ajatuksella. Talon keskeisimpiä älykkään sähköverkon ratkaisuja ovat aurinkosähköjärjestelmä, taloautomaatiojärjestelmä ja energian käytön seurantalaitteisto, talon eristys sekä ilmanvaihto ja sähköauto. Aineistoni koostuu kuuden kerrostaloasukkaan teemahaastatteluista sekä kolmen eri yrityksen edustajan haastatteluista. Haastatteluaineiston analyysissa on hyödynnetty teemoittelua. Lisäksi haastateltavien kertomuksia on tyypitelty omiin ryhmiinsä, jotka muodostuvat edellä mainituista teknologisista ratkaisuista. Tutkimuksen mukaan asukkaat ovat parhaiten omaksuneet heille vaivattomimmat ratkaisut eli aurinkosähköjärjestelmän sekä huoneiston automaatioon kuuluvan kotona/poissa -kytkimen. Aurinkopaneelit nähtiin myös edelläkävijyyden symbolina. Energiankulutuksen seuranta kiinnosti vain osaa haastatelluista. Kiinnostus olikin vähäisempää kuin yrityksissä oli suunnitteluvaiheessa ajateltu. Kulutuksen seuraaminen oli havainnollistanut asukkaille kodin energiankulutuksen tason. Tämä taso nähtiin kuitenkin matalana, eivätkä haastateltavat ole kokeneet muuttaneensa energiankulutustaan saamansa tiedon perusteella. Kerrostalo on suunniteltu vähän energiaa kuluttavaksi ja asukkaita miellyttävätkin matalat asumisen kustannukset sekä asumisen mukavuus. Taloyhtiön hallitus on työskennellyt ahkerasti tukeakseen kotouttamista. Ilmanvaihdon sopivasta lämpötilasta ei ole vielä yhteistä näkemystä. Yhteinen sähköauto jäi vuoden kokeiluksi, kun sitä ei kokeilun jälkeen päätetty lunastaa taloyhtiön käyttöön. Talon suunnittelua ohjannut kuluttajakuva perustuu näkemykseen, että käyttäjillä ei ole suurempia vaikeuksia omaksua teknisiä järjestelmiä ja he toimivat rationaalisesti energiankulutustietoa saadessaan. Yrityksissä oli myös tullut esiin kehitysideoita vuosien aikana. Esimerkiksi kotitalouksien välisen vertailun avulla on mahdollista motivoida asukkaita muuttamaan rutiinejaan ja säästämään energiaa.

Everyday life of consumers revolves around housing, food and transport. Consumption related to these areas forms a burden to the atmosphere through direct or indirect energy consumption which causes climate warming GHG emissions. Climate change itself results in deepening global economic and humanitarian problems while the human populations constantly grows. In this quantitative study I researched the relationship between sociodemographic variables and residential location to attitudes towards climate change, possibilities of individual influence and political guidance of consumption. My target was to find perspectives on how to further sustainable consumption and the shift to ecological options. The empirical part drew on the 2016 European Social Survey’s Finnish material due to its comprehensiveness and the good quality. The data was analyzed using data processing program SPSS. Everyday life and sustainable consumption were studied using a practice theory approach. Everyday practices are routinized actions which are not actively given thought. Routines are formed to ease everyday life, but they stand as obstacles for change. These routines must be broken and there must be sufficient incentives for consumers to shift to new ways of executing practices. Consumption can be made more sustainable by changing its quality or quantity. Technological solutions offer more ecological options, but the level of consumption should be decreased as well. My analysis showed that education has a positive relationship with attitudes toward climate change, the probability to conserve energy, how one sees their own influence and responsibility as well as political guidance of consumption. Income had the same effect as education. Age and residential area had an opposite effect. With age grew skepticism and efforts to save energy dropped. Moving from large cities to the countryside the phenomenon was similar. Objection to political guidance was also strongest in the countryside. My observations showed that worriedness about climate change and perceived level of responsibility and possibilities of making change through one’s own actions increased the level of energy saving and the support for political guidance of consumption. Because consumption related to everyday practices is highly routinized breaking these routines is needed to enable change. This requires the understanding of one’s role as a consumer, supporting of the transition to more sustainable options of consumption and the guidance of market offerings through political decisions. In my opinion the role of education and young consumers in central in driving change.

The Finnish forest industries are going through heavy adjustments as especially the western world is moving towards a more digitalized model where the amount of paper and pulp consumed is diminishing. It is obvious that the whole industry is in need for new solutions. These new solutions and innovations can be found from the field of bioenergy. Finland is rich with forest-based raw material which can provide a long-term and local source of energy. In the future this will be of primary importance as the prices of the non-renewable energy sources will climb higher as the deposits of the fossil fuels dry up. The usage of the renewable energy sources are also very important in order to prevent the global climate change and to achieve the goals regulated for Finland in the Kyoto Protocol and the European RES-E directive. This Master’s Thesis takes a look at the current state and the future trends of the Finnish wood pellet industries. The domestic wood-based pellet industries are studied with a concise literature review and a SWOT analysis based on the earlier literature. The analysis is linked to the future expectations and current retailer perspectives with a survey conducted between June and October 2013. The sample consists of 39 low, medium and high sales volume wood pellet manufacturers and retailers whom mostly do only domestic pellet trading business. Most of the strengths of the domestic wood-based pellet industries are related to different kinds of ecological aspects or different kinds of raw material related issues. In the future especially the prices of the raw materials, prices of other energy sources and prices of the end-product will be in a crucial role. Most of the survey participants underlined the significance of the governmental acts concerning the future of the whole business in Finland: a favorable taxing policy and different subsidies can make Finland truly a greener economy but this have not happened yet, much due to the unfavorable domestic politics. According to the survey respondents, in the future the demand of wood-based pellet services, especially tailored and ready-to-use services from maintenance to deliveries are going to increase.

Tutkielman tarkoituksena oli luoda mittari, jonka avulla voisi vertailla viljankuivauserien ominaisenergiankulu-tusta ja kuivaustehokkuutta. Tutkielma tehtiin yhteistyössä Antti-Teollisuuden kanssa. Viljankuivaus on maatalouden suurimpia energiankulutuskohteita. Nykyisin viljankuivauksessa 110 °C kui-vauslämpötilatkaan eivät ole poikkeuksellisia. Tällöin energiaa kuluu paljon, mutta myös kuivausajat ovat lyhyitä. Viljankuivureiden ohjauskeskukset ovat kehittyneet viime vuosina voimakkaasti. Nykyiset ohjelmoitavaan logiik-kaan perustuvat ohjauskeskukset mahdollistavat kuivaustapahtuman tarkan säädön ja datan tallentamisen jälki-tarkastelua varten. Tutkielmassa käytettiin Antti-Teollisuuden Ultima-ohjausjärjestelmän tallentamaa dataa. Ultima on Antti-Teollisuuden monipuolisin viljankuivurin ohjausjärjestelmä. Ultima mahdollistaa kuivurin reaaliaikaisen säädön lisäksi mm. erä- ja siilokirjanpidon. Tutkielmaan otettiin keskiarvot kaikista vuoden 2021 kuivauseristä, kuivauk-sen kannalta olennaisimmista arvoista. Ehtona oli, että erän kokonaispituus oli oltava yli yksi tunti. Eristä suoda-tettiin pois kaikki selkeästi virheelliset erät. Eriä jäi jäljelle 1065 kappaletta. Datan pohjalta kuivauserille laskettiin kennokohtainen veden poisto (kg/h) ja ominaisenergiankulutus (kWh/kg). Veden poistosta ja ominaisenergiankulutuksesta luotiin selkeä pistekuvaaja, joka kuvaa erän onnistu-mista näillä mittareilla suhteessa koko dataan. Epävarmuutta tuloksiin aiheuttaa kuitenkin ilmamäärän mittaus, joka perustuu osittain puhallinvalmistajan tietoon, jonka luotettavuutta ei voida täysin todistaa. Tämä saattaa olla yksi syy, miksi tutkielmassa lasketut ominaisenergiankulutukset olivat selkeästi pienempiä aiempiin tutkimuksiin verrattuna. Kuvaajasta tuli selkeä ja helppolukuinen. Kuvaajan huonoja olivat tietyn pisteen identifioiminen ja mahdollisuus tarkastella vain yhden muuttujan vaikutuksia kerrallaan.

Introduction: The incidence of gestational diabetes (GDM) is rising in the Western world along with the increment in young women’s overweight and obesity rates. GDM poses short- and long-term threats to the health of both mother and child, which in turn might add to the economical burden and cause human suffering. Lifestyle counseling and nutritional management are key to managing adverse outcomes in both the woman with GDM and her unborn child. Objective: The aim of this thesis is to study whether the intake of energy, energy nutrients, and fiber change after the diagnosis of GDM. The changes in intakes of energy, energy nutrients, and fiber are compared between women with GDM and women with normal glucose tolerance. In addition, the changes in energy nutrients and fiber in different food sources are studied and compared between groups. Materials and methods: The study was conducted based on data from the control group in The Finnish gestational diabetes prevention study (RADIEL). RADIEL is a prospective, randomized, controlled intervention that was carried out in 2008–2014, and in which women at high risk of GDM pregnant in the first half of pregnancy or planning pregnancy were enrolled. The control group received usual care at antenatal clinics. The data was collected before the initiation of this thesis. Study participants with 3-day food record data from both the first and the third trimester of pregnancy were eligible for this study (n=111). GDM was diagnosed by a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test in 22 of the participants in 22–28 weeks of gestation. Of the participants, 89 remained healthy by their glucose metabolism. The differences between women with GDM and women with normal glucose tolerance were tested using a t-test for normally distributed variables, and Mann-Whitney U test, χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test for non-normally distributed variables. Analysis of covariance was used to test the differences in change in intake of energy, energy nutrients, and fiber between the first and third trimester. GDM, previous GDM, age, body mass index (BMI), education in years, and the intake of the nutrient at baseline (first trimester) were used as covariates. Results: The women with GDM had significantly lower prepregnancy BMI (p=0.025) and a history of GDM (p=0.011) was more common among them compared to women with normal glucose tolerance. Moreover, at baseline, their fasting insulin (p=0.033) and HOMA-IR (p=0.041) were lower and their HbA1c (p=0.038) higher than that of the women with normal glucose tolerance. The intake of energy, and energy nutrients and fiber in relation to energy did not differ between groups (p>0.05). However, as compaired to women with normal glucose tolerance, women with GDM reduced their intake of carbohydrates (adj. p=0.002) and sucrose (adj. p=0.002), and increased their intake of fat (adj. p=0.037) and fiber (adj. p=0.002) in relation to energy from the first trimester to the third. In food sources, the only difference between groups regarded the change of fiber (p=0.049) in relation to the total intake of fiber; this was seen in the food source of bread and flour, in which the proportion of fiber increased in women with GDM. Conclusions: The dietary intake changes significantly differently between women with GDM and women with normal glucose tolerance in regards of carbohydrate, fat, sucrose, and fiber. In women with GDM, the changes in beforementioned nutrients are in line with the Current Care Guidelines of GDM, with the exception of fiber that still changes towards the guidelines. The proportion of fiber changes differently between groups in the food source of bread and flour. Nutrition management of GDM should focus more on the importance of fiber and the composition of fatty acids in the diet, but it should also focus on increasing the proportion of protein to optimize the intake of carbohydrates and fat. The fact that women with GDM in this study had a relatively low energy intake from carbohydrates and a high energy intake from fat, raises the possible need to study how this affects the blood glucose and body composition of the child.