AbstractWe are interested in group meetings of the self-help group Alcoholic Anonymous and the emotional energy created therein. We examine which impact self-help group AA has on its group participants regarding: group meetings, dealing with alcoholism and identity. Group membership has great value for individuals; it provides social identity and possibility to self-value. Previous research shows that group members of self-help groups who have been sober for a period of time experience higher self-esteem and less anxiety compared to non-members. Our thesis is based on a hermeneutic approach.

This thesis is based on a case study for the real estate manager Mimer in Västerås. Mimer provides a great deal of this city?s rental apartments. Many of their buildings have ventilation systems with a type of heat-recovery called ?heatpipe?.

The governing set of regulations for structural engineering in Sweden used to be Boverket, BKR. However in the beginning of the 21st century a changeover to new regulations, the Eurocodes, started.The transition was completed in year 2011 when the Eurocodes became the mandatory design work policy for all countries within the European Union. The Eurocodes were implemented to simplify and remove potential barriers to trade that may exist when countries have different design rules.  Since the changeover it has been important for all construction companies to update their knowledge base and their design software.When comparing the two calculation processes they seem similar, but there are a couple of differences worth noting.  With the new regulations, engineers will find that the process when designing joints in timber structures has changed.  What used to be a fairly easy and straight forward calculation procedure has now become tedious and time consuming.The objective of this degree project is to present a product, a dimensioning tool that will help structural engineers when computing lateral load carrying joints in timber structures.The degree project is made up of two parts where the first part is the written report describing the background and theory behind load carrying computations. The second part of the project is the actual dimensioning tool which includes several worksheets in Microsoft Excel. The program treats single and double shear connections of the following:Nail jointsScrew jointsSteel plates (thick and thin types) The user can edit the following parameters:Type of plate/ number of shearsStrength class of timber membersMember and plate sizeType of fastenerDiameter of fastenerLength of fastenerYield moment of fastenerkmod and partial factors for design load carrying capacityThe dimensioning tool was created and developed in collaboration with structural engineers at the company Byggteknik AB.

Latent heat storage is a way to store thermal energy when a phase change material undergoes a phase change. The advantage of latent heat storage is the capability to store more energy per mass unit than other heat storage methods. The most commonly used phase change in latent heat storage is the transition between solid and liquid. Phase change materials can be divided into organics, inorganics and eutectics.In the Nordic electricity market the price of electricity is set every hour by Nordpool spot, which leads to price fluctuations because of changes in demand. The main goal of this report is to create a latent heat storage system in a single-family home and investigate the possibility to save money by charging the latent heat storage system when the price of electricity is low, and discharge when the price is high.The thermodynamic model consisted of a ?tube-in-tube? heat exchanger with phase change material in the outer tube and water as the heat transfer fluid in the inner tube.

This project operate an environmental assessment of total waste was conducted by using a life cycle assessment (LCA), that examines the environmental benefits of recycling production waste from Atlas Copco at Stena recycling. Atlas Copco is a company engaged in the development and production of rig-mounted hydraulic breakers and handheld air breakers and handheld motorized rotisserie. Stena recycling is a recycling company engaged in recycling, processing and refining of metals, paper, electronics waste and hazardous waste.The purpose of this study is to focus on Stena customer Atlas Copco and evaluate environmental benefits between to recycle and not to do it. The result shows that the total energy gain, resulting from the recycling of waste fractions, lands at 6 990 089 MJ, corresponding to drive 3 times around the Equator with a truck (40 t). The result shows that recycling 3040 kg paper provides an energy gain of (38 600 MJ) compared with burning paper (19 500 MJ) is 19 100 MJ, which corresponds to heat a house for 11 weeks.

Wind power is an energy source that is becoming increasingly popular in Sweden and around the world. The establishment of large wind farms supply and contributes to energy production within grid in search of a more sustainable energy production. Wind power is becoming more popular and opens up new areas of implementation. More cities are starting to use small-scale urban wind power, everything from full-scale work for a little less work adapted to the villas. Sweden has high goals regarding the production of green electricity and the work which deals with the conditions Sweden plays in achieving those goals.

Most of the beef production in Sweden has been integrated with milk production. Since the 1990:s, the number of dairy cows has decreased. A specialised beef production has developed in purpose to compensate for this decrease. The consumption of beef have increased in the last decade, but the Swedish production has no followed this trend. In 2004, the percentage of beef self-sufficiency in Sweden was 60 %.

Kraven på att nybyggda bostäder ska vara energisnåla i driftskedet ökar hela tiden av flera anledningar. Dels vill brukarna hålla driftskostnaderna så låga som möjligt och dels är det miljöaspekten som spelar in. Men hur energisnål kan en villa egentligen göras och hur påverkas arkitekturen då den görs extremt energieffektiv?I den här rapporten utreds tio energieffektiva principer som kan användas för att göra en villa mer energisnål och energiproducerande. Alla tio principer har tillämpats i en villa som projekterats under arbetets gång.

The wind power increase of Gotland as well as other parts of Sweden during the last ten year period has meant that this renewable energy source has increased its share over other fossil sources. The year of 2011 became the first when the wind power produced more energy than an average nuclear reactor. Now that wind power is in an expansive phase, the land issue will be of great interest. Land with good wind resources will be of interest to wind energy developers. The problems that this essay is based on are; how can landowners altering the economic conditions at a wind power establishment? What opportunities and obstacles exist for landowners who choose to set up wind power on their land? The purpose of this essay is to highlight the economic conditions that exist for landowners for the establishment of wind farms, with regard to compensation for the leasing and return on invested capital.

En jämförelsestudie har genomförts mellan två värmesystem. Analysen har genomförts med ett flerbostadshus som referensfasighet. Fastigheten är lokaliserad i Södertälje kommun. Analysen går ut på att bestämma vilket värmesystem som är fördelaktigt vid renovering av äldre flerbostadshus med avseende på energi och kostnad. De systemen som har behandlats är ett centralt värmesystem med motströmsvärmeväxlare och ett centralt värmesystem med frånluftsvärmepump.Det centrala värmesystemet (Eq aggregat) är ett centralt från- och tilluftssystem med återvinning (FTX system).

The purpose of this study has been to investigate advantages and problems with distributionsystem metering in substations. This report is a study in cooperation with Göteborg Energi.The analyses in this report are made for GENAB, a subsidiary company of Göteborg Energi.To analyse advantages and problems in advance is interesting information for GENAB. Theresult of the report could be based upon whether installation of metering in distributionsubstations will be implemented and in that case which kind of measurement that is relevant.The most relevant and strategic place to implement measurement is at the distributionsubstations on the secondary side (400V), this is due to the placement of the currenttransformers. The measurements in this study involve current, voltage, power, power factor,temperature, energy and power quality.Measuring instruments that are relevant to implement are intended to measure current,voltage, power, power factor, energy and, possibly, power quality in the same measuring unit.It is desirable to have a measuring instrument that measures both energy and power qualitybut since it is most often a cost question, it can be established that energy meters have a lowercost.Metering in distribution substations gives a better illustration of the power network. Thisresults in many advantages for GENAB.

Lumilos is a work investigating the possibilities to use light and color in an interactive design context. I have explored different light sources and compared them to each other and given a short description of the history of light and how it has been developed during the industrialization in the western world. I have also investigated what is currently done in the field and summarized that with examples in the categories passive-, colored-, material- and interactive light. The conclusion is that working with interactive color and light is a hard task. There are many different angles to take into account such as personal likings and earlier experiences that is uncontrollable by the designer. Yet there are many possibilities and light is a material that is moldable in many forms. I have put the knowledge about light and color into practice and developed an interactive light wall that is visualizing energy consumption with the use of different colors of light and animations.

The company Olofsfors AB manufactures drive belts for forest machinery, known as ECO-Tracks, and abrasion-resistant steel and cutting edges for graders, excavators and tractors, known as Bruxite and SharqEdges. Manufacturing these products requires the steel to be heated and molded, then submerged in water and hardened. The water used in the hardening of steel is pumped to the process from pits below the floor and then pumped back to the pit after it?s been used. Since the temperature of this water rises after being used to harden the steel the temperature of the pumping pit needs to be adjusted to maintain its setpoint of 21°C.

When the Swedish Forestry Act was changed in 1994, brushing of young stands became non mandatory. Since then the annual need for brushing in the country has increased by about 100 000 hectares per year. In later years the price for biomass energy has increased to the same level as pulp wood. The high price on biomass energy and the large areas of stands in the need of brushing has created a new market with its own technical, economical and environmental conditions. There is a development of various techniques to manage the forestry stands with late brushing.

Land consolidation is a major problem in many countries in Europe. In Sweden, mainly the state of Dalarna, there is a strong consolidation of forestland, probably the strongest in all of Europe. The consolidation is a big obstacle for forest management and ownership questions due to the often long and narrow strips of land. One of the main reasons for land consolidation in Dalarna results from the heritage procedure, were land is divided between all of the inheritors. To improve the consolidation large surveys in the consolidated villages in Dalarna are carried out. Many laws have to be followed due to the survey.