Design of Net Zero Energy Buildings: Feedback from International Projects

Garde, François; Lenoir, Aurélie; Scognamiglio, Alessandra; Aelenei, Daniel; Waldren, D.; Røstvik, Harald N.; Ayoub, Josef; Aelenei, Laura; Donn, Michael; Tardif, Monique; Cory, Shaan

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.1011

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…This has been seen as a promising approach to minimize the energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in the building sector and, at the same time, to increase the penetration of renewable sources in energy production. However, and although relevant work can be found in literature on the proposal of definitions and requirements [90][91][92][93][94][95][96], there is still missing a comprehensive framework to characterize NZEB, namely in the urban context. Knowing that the buildings' sector accounts for the largest energy consumption [97], and that the world's population tends to concentrate in cities [98], it can be assumed that energy consumption intensity in urban buildings will continue to increase, and further efforts are needed to counteract such tendency.…”

Section: Why Should Nzeb Take Into Account the Urban Context In The Ementioning

confidence: 99%

A review on current advances in the energy and environmental performance of buildings towards a more sustainable built environment

Soares

Bastos

Pereira

et al. 2017

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

199

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Nowadays, debates addressing climate change, fossil fuels depletion and energy security highlight the need for a more sustainable built environment in order to reduce energy consumption and emission trends in the buildings sector. Meeting these targets is a challenge that calls for innovative research to improve the use of renewable energy sources, new technologies, and holistic tools and methodologies. Such research should integrate the dynamics and main drivers of energy supply and demand in buildings to support new policies, plans and actions towards lowering the built environment burdens. This paper brings together ten research topics concerning the energy and environmental performance of buildings, which can support a shift towards a more sustainable built environment. Background information and state of the art literature on the covered research topics is briefly summarized, gaps are identified and guidelines for future research are provided. The selected topics cover different stages along the lifetime of buildings (from design and operation, to retrofitting and endof-life), different scale approaches (from building elements/components, to the building, district and urban scales), and different methods to assess the energy and environmental performance of buildings (life-cycle assessment, generative design methods and retrofitting tools). Other topics are discussed such as: nearly zero-energy buildings, the control of domestic energy resources in smart grid scenarios, the need to include end-users' behaviors in the dynamics of energy demand, the advantages of improving thermal storage by using phase change materials, the importance of reducing heating and cooling energy demand (maintaining indoor thermal comfort), and the optimization of heating and cooling fluids, and their system control.

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Section: Why Should Nzeb Take Into Account the Urban Context In The Ementioning

confidence: 99%

A review on current advances in the energy and environmental performance of buildings towards a more sustainable built environment

Soares

Bastos

Pereira

et al. 2017

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

199

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In 2008, a research project started with the framework of International Energy Agency "Towards Net Zero Solar Energy" to a harmonized understanding of what is a Net Zero Energy Building [15]. Much research in recent years has been focused on developing a clear definition of the zero-energy building [8,16] as shown in Table 1 because definition affects the designer choices to achieve and claim the success of zero energy goal [17].…”

Section: Types Of Net Zero Energy Buildings (Nzebs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Nearly Zero Energy Residential Building in Muscat

Sharif

Leman

Krizou

et al. 2020

Journal of Thermal Engineering

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The building sector is the largest consumer of the primary sources of energy worldwide. The most commonly used primary sources of energy to generate electricity are oil, coal, peat, shale, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, renewables, biofuels, and waste. The energy demand by the building sector is about 40% of the world's energy production.Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) is the best solution recommended by the energy experts to reduce substantial pressure on primary sources of energy contributed by the building sector. There is a marginal gap between estimates made during the design stage and actual energy performance of residential buildings, primarily due to a lack of understanding of the factors affecting energy use and whole building simulations software limitations. The purpose of this research work was to conduct a comparative analysis of a predicted versus actual energy consumption of prototype Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) constructed at Higher College of Technology, Muscat. Hourly Analysis Program (HAP V4.2) was used to predict energy demand of NZEB at HCT and same size regular house in Muscat. PVWatts calculator was used to determining possible power generation by the PV system installed on the roof in the form of a canopy. The constructed house was tested for one month to perform multiple tasks as per competition requirements in which one of the major tasks was to produce onsite energy production by PV panel's equivalent to the energy consumed by the house. The actual energy consumption results were compared with the simulated result and observed that actual energy demand of house was approximately 20% lower than that predicted by the simulation tool. The comparison of simulation results between NZEB and regular house indicated 61.24 % less energy demand of NZEB, mainly due to less HVAC load. The simulation result for BEI of NZEB showed 87.20 kWh/m 2 /year as compare to 225.1 kWh/m 2 /year for same size regular house. The simulated result obtained from PVWatts calculator for competition period and actual production of an installed PV system at the top roof showed a minor deviation of 0.73% only. It is also observed from the results during the competition period house exported 1221 kWh energy to the grid.

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“…In addition to regulative requirements, the term "cost-optimal level" refers to "the energy performance level leading to the lowest total cost over the estimated economic life cycle" [1]. While nZEBs realised so far have clearly shown that the nearly zero-energy target can be achieved using existing technologies and practices, most experts agree that a broad-scale shift towards nearly zero-energy buildings requires significant adjustments to current building market structures [8]. Cost-effective integration of efficient solution sets and renewable energy systems are the major challenges [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parametric multi-objective energy and cost analysis in the life cycle of nearly zero energy buildings − an exhaustive search approach

et al. 2019

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Possible cost saving potentials in planning and construction of high performing nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs) with advanced energy standards are often not sufficiently assessed, as only a few, out of numerous possible variants of technology sets are considered in the traditional planning process. Often planning and analysis are not carried out in parallel, and the alternative technical options are discarded at an early stage. If, on the other hand, possible variants are realistically compared in the planning phase, a profound decision can be made. nZEB-design is also a multi-objective optimization problem where stakeholder interests' conflict with each other. This research addresses a methodological approach to better understand the effects that technical variables have on energy, environmental and economic performance over the whole life cycle of a multi-family residential building in Sweden. The research goal is to identify the most significant technical nZEB design variables organized into a consistent framework. In this paper, in a first step an exhaustive search method is assessed for a multi-family residential building in Sweden that systematically investigates all possible variant combinations. In a second step the derived results are applied to multiple objectives and optimisation goals for a multi-target decision-making framework so that different actors can decide between optimal solutions for different objectives. This approach seeks to explore a set of optimal solutions rather than to find a single optimal solution. On the one hand, a variety of technologies, such as insulation of the building envelope, ventilation or electricity and heat supply, and on the other hand a variation of the boundary conditions (such as observation period, user behaviour, energy price increases or CO2 costs) was investigated. The results were analysed energetically and economically over the life cycle of the building with the objectives of identifying coherences, deriving trends and optimizations over a time span of 40 years. The results show that the variance in the financing costs (20%) and the net present value (15%) is relatively low, whereas the primary energy demand (66%) and the CO2 (73%) emission vary in a broader range. The optimum cost curve in relation to CO2 emissions is very flat. Low emissions and energy requirements can, therefore, be achieved with different energy concepts as long as the envelope is very efficient. Due to the nature of an exhaustive search approach, it is also possible to find technical solution sets and design strategies with nearly equal financing cost and/or net present values, but with less primary energy consumption and/or CO2 emissions.

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Design of Net Zero Energy Buildings: Feedback from International Projects

Cited by 19 publications

References 1 publication

A review on current advances in the energy and environmental performance of buildings towards a more sustainable built environment

A review on current advances in the energy and environmental performance of buildings towards a more sustainable built environment

Analysis of Nearly Zero Energy Residential Building in Muscat

Parametric multi-objective energy and cost analysis in the life cycle of nearly zero energy buildings − an exhaustive search approach

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