The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

Business is changing and so are society?s expectations. Companies are expected to take responsibility for their trade and the context they are operating in, by looking at socially, economically and environmentally aspects. Many companies handle it by implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their line of action. This is often handled by collaborating with other organisations, such as non-governmental organisations.

Intelligent IT-based solutions, often called Smart Grids, are considered to be the future balancers of renewable energy sources. One area within the Smart Grid concept is called demand response, which is focused on making customers more consumption flexible by making them more active in their consumption. In this thesis the aim is to analyze a business model by investigating the income potential for a demand response solution as well as its market potential. This has been done through literature studies, interviews and development of a computational model.The use of 5000 households with flexible consumption can provide a cost reduction of 17.2% or 2.4 million SEK for a balance responsible party during an average year. If the solution is used to make strategic bids on the regulation markets the study indicates that the largest potential for revenues lies within this strategy.

Agricultural soils constitute the base in human food production and soil content of organic matter and plant nutrients together with soil microbial activity are all important parameters for high crop yield of good quality. These parameters are dependant on proper fertilization.Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes for biogas production generates a liquid residue called biogas residue (BR). It contains organic material and plant nutrients which makes ita potential fertilizer for arable cropping. However, it also contains heavy metals and toxic organic compounds and it is therefore in need of evaluation before usage.Microbial tests were performed aiming to evaluate the agronomic traits of four different BR and to find a viable procedure for evaluating slurry fertilizers. Two experiments where soil respiration and soil potential denitrification activity (PDA) was measured at fertilizer addition were performed.

Sustainable design - a study on sustainable design and its incentives and barriersThe purpose of this study was to investigate the incentives and barriers existing within companies focusing on eco-design. The aim was also to examine the consumers? thoughts on eco-design and sustainable products. A further aim was to try to concretize important lessons for future work on sustainable production and consumption. Two methods were used for completing this study; a literature study and a practical study consisting of interviews with companies focusing on eco-design and a survey among students.

Drain water heat recovery is an uncommon measure in multi-unit residential buildings. There istechnology available for the purpose but the knowing and experience of the heat recovery systems islittle. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the future potential of drain water heat recovery inmulti-unit residential buildings.A major part of the multi-unit residential buildings in Sweden were built during modernismen andrekordåren (1940?1975). Many of the buildings have worn out drain and water supply systems andmany are in need of a general refurbishment.

In today?s modern age, energy consumption has become a major issue, both from an environmental viewpoint and cost perspective. Because of a rapid technologic change and increased costs of production of electricity, the demand to develop effective methods for energy efficiency industries have grown.The electricity-intensive industries, such as plastic industry, the demand to reduce energy consumption has grown significantly over the past 10 years, which have led to the development of different methods to determine and locate energy-consuming parts in the industry. This also means being able to prioritize and organize activities in the industry.In this study the measurements of voltage, current, power and PF performance on injection molding machines (K-TEC 275 form Ferromatik Milacron in Germany) with a focus to locate, within a machine, various measures that could improve energy use in the plastics industry, in this case RostiGP in Gislaved. These measurements have been carried out with the help of a power quality clamp meter to carry out time logs of the machines for some time during normal word rate.

The examination has been performed at Bjerking AB, which is an architectural and engineering company. Bjerking AB has the ambition to be a member of Green Building.The Green Building program developed in year 2005 by The European Commission, the program is an environmental system with the aim to improving energy efficiency within the sectors of non-residential buildings. The minimum requirements to participate the program are following: in new-built buildings the calculated energy consumption must be 25 % lower than the requirements in the BBR (Building regulations) and in refurbishment the reduction must be 25 % lower than before the optimization.The aim of this study has been to examine and review the company Bjerking AB's energy efficiency work in the project of building the school/kindergarten S:ta Maria Alsike, where the goal is to get this building Green Building classed. A description of requirements to become a member of the Green Building has also accomplished in the thesis.The methods performed in this study are literature review, searches on the Internet, studies on the project database for facts/values, calculation of energy consumption and interviews of members of the Green Building. The following issues have been dealt with in the report;-          Did the building in the project manage the requirement to achieve an   energy consumption that is 25% lower than the requirements in BBR?-          What technical measures/system was selected in the building?-          What kind of cooperation was the project based on?-          What is required for consultancy companies and real estate owners to become members of the Green Building?The study of the project and calculation of estimated energy consumption in the building, give the result 47 kWh/m2, year.

In recent years, moisture damages have been noticed in rendered, undrained stud walls. The design is built on the principle one-stage tightening which means that there is no air gap in the construction. The damages have occurred when water has permeated through the rendering in leaking connections and fittings for windows, doors, canopies, balconies, terraces and awnings. Behind the plaster carrier, which consists of either polystyrene or rigid mineral wool, plasterboard has often been used as a wind protection barrier. In many cases the wind protection barrier and the underlying wooden studs have been exposed to mould and in some cases even rot.

Transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methyl mercury (MeHg) is a biotic process that is proposed to be conducted primarily by sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). The formation of MeHg is of great interest because it is the mercury species that biomagnifies to the greatest extent in the aquatic food webs; about 90 % of all Hg in fish is MeHg. Our understanding of factors involved in the production of MeHg is very important for making a reliable risk assessment. The purposes of this study were to investigate the different factors that control the solubility of Hg and the production of MeHg in a contaminated lake sediment. The lake Ala-Lombolo, Kiruna municipality, is well-known to be contaminated by mercury from different sources. Sediment cores were sampled at three different locations (N, SW and SE) in the lake and divided in three different layers; 0-5, 5-10 and 10-15 cm.

The study aims to reduce energy consumption in apartment buildings where individual metering and charging of heat is applied. The aim is to develop planning and design for individual metering and charging in apartment buildings.The study is based on literature review, interviews and case study that include analysis of existing documents. Interviews were carried out with the property developer and the involved consultants who planned the apartment building Yasuragi. To investigate the differences the condominium association has noted in heat consumption between flats, the debit values of the heat were used to discern which houses that were furthest from the average consumption. On these flats there were temperature measurements and thermal photo shoots made for discriminating behavior and possible construction techniques which could be the explanation for the heat spread.Boverket shows that the consumption of heat can be reduced by 10-20% after insertion of individual metering and charging in an apartment block.

KRAV-certified organic dairy herds generally have a lower milk yield than conventional dairy herds. A high-level of milk yield requires a feeding regime with high amounts of concentrates, a factor known to contribute to the development of claw lesions (Bergsten, C. 2003). The aim of this study was to compare claw health between organic and conventional dairy herds in free and tie stall systems. The number of herds from different domestic animal health associations was chosen in proportion to the association´s total portion of Swedish dairy producing herds of each type, respectively.

This paper studies patterns of consumption within a product category. Using make-up as a base for the study, we applied the Mokken Scale to examine if consumers follow a hierarchical pattern when buying items within the product category. Based on a survey of 250 female respondents, we establish a hierarchic scale for consumption. Assuming generally accepted attributes for determining physical attractiveness, the results of the Mokken Scale study were cross referenced with a survey among 200 male and female respondents. Students were asked to evaluate pictures of a model using different combinations of make-up, i.e.

The subject of this bachelor-level thesis in archaeology in the transition from archaic sapiens to anatomically modern humans, and what might have caused this transition. A part of the study aims to prove or disprove whether an increased consumption of shellfish might have caused this development. Another part of the essay deals with the connection of said evolution and the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices in South Africa circa 100 000 BP and an evaluation of the arguments concerning the aquatic ape hypothesis, and their usefulness for the subject.The result of investigation of the theory about the increased consumption of marine resources as a probable cause of the last biological step of creating our species points to the conclusion that it is a probable explanation. There is even some evidence that there could be a connection between consumption of marine resources and the "Out of Africa 2"-theory. It is harder to find a proven connection between the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices, even some evidence seems to strengthen the idea.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient but a surplus could lead to eutrophication. Furthermore, the minerals used to produce the mineral phosphate is a non renewable resource. There are in other words several reasons to reduce the leakage of P and the agriculture is one important area to attend. The aim of this work has been to investigate if carbon-rich arable soils content contain more P than arable soils with low carbon content. Moreover it has been calculated if the carbon-rich soils could pose a risk of P leakage by comparing their delivery of P with the plant uptake. The work has consisted of compiling the results from former gathered and analysed soil samples of 130 Swedish arable soils. The fractions of P considered are water soluble P (Pw), ammonium lactate-extractable P (P-AL), hydrochloric acid-soluble P (P-HCl), organic ammonium lactate-extractable P (Porg-AL) and inorganic ammonium lactate-extractable P (Porg-HCl).