Residential buildings consume about a quarter of all energy (including electrical and thermal) in industrialized countries and emit around 20% of the carbon emissions there. Older and outdated heating and cooling technology causes high energy demand and, depending on building type, secondary causes can include ventilation and lighting. Technology is available to mitigate high energy consumption, and to enable the use of renewable or environmentally friendly energy, partly generated locally. This book, written by international experts from academia as well as industry, compiles and describes several key technologies available to reduce a residential building's energy consumption. Key themes include local energy generation, such as the use of sunlight to reduce heating needs, and photovoltaics for electricity. Case studies are included in most chapters to provide real-world context for the technologies described.
Inspec keywords: buildings (structures); renewable energy sources; sunlight; passive solar buildings; phase change materials; building integrated photovoltaics; sustainable development; energy conservation; secondary cells
Other keywords: solar radiation analysis; PV solar systems; photovoltaic arrays; efficiency; energy generation; secondary battery; solar energy generation; clean energy generation; nature-based building solutions; green residential buildings; phase change materials
Subjects: Storage in chemical energy; Buildings (energy utilisation); Solar power stations and photovoltaic power systems; Secondary cells; Solar energy; Photoelectric conversion; solar cells and arrays; Energy conservation; Monographs, and collections; Solar cells and arrays; Secondary cells; General electrical engineering topics
The book chapter shows that the increasing number of buildings, the general increase in the size of dwellings, growing quality of life, and increasing home electrification are reasons for the upcoming trend in the energy consumption by this sector. Thus, moving forward, it is critical to employ more efficient energy systems based on renewable energy resources, to reduce the energy demand in this sector, and to reduce the environmental impacts of this sector.
Due to the recent investigations, buildings consume a considerable amount of the electricity, drinking water, global final energy use and as a result are responsible for one third of the global carbon emissions. Therefore, building sector has a key role to reach global energy targets. In this sight, this study draws attention to the sustainable energy performances of green buildings (GBs) and aims towards the GBs concept which includes renewable sources in the construction and lifetime utilization.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are relatively new and there is not a large amount of performance data available for them with which to compare design calculations. This comparison is also necessary to provide confidence that newer systems will perform as predicted. This chapter describes a year's monitoring of a 60 kW PV system near Strathmore, Alberta, latitude 51°, installed in November 2016. The modules were flush mounted to a roof with 8° of pitch. There was no shading and the installation was near an Alberta Department of Agriculture meteorological station which provided the weather data. The measured capacity factor was 13.8%, and there was a loss of 11%-12% of the yearly production to snow. We demonstrate that satellite-based production forecasts of the array irradiance underestimated the solar resource at this location. The predictions of actual energy production from two different modeling tools showed that the more detailed System Advisor Model software was more accurate than RETScreen.
Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy has been a popular renewable electricity generation source at the building and community levels. With the recent rise in the demand, residential level PV installations have been under scrutiny primarily to improve their efficiency. Electricity generation potential of a roof-mounted PV system depends on the local PV potential, building orientation, shading effect, roof angle, and roof size. Moreover, the economic viability of the PV system needs to be justified before being implemented on site. This research investigates the optimal PV solar energy potential (PvSEP) of a standalone rooftop PV system using building information modeling (BIM). Two building shapes (square and rectangular), three roof types (hip, gable, and shed), eight orientations (E, W, S, N, NE, NW, SE, and SW), and nine roof slopes (starting from 10° to 50° with an interval of 5°) were analyzed at two geographical locations in British Columbia (i.e., Kelowna and Fort St. Johns). The BIM was created in the Autodesk Revit platform, and 432 simulations were performed for each location using the Revit Architecture extension Insight. Results indicated that even though location, roof angle, orientation, and roof types are significant factors for PvSEP, building shape do not have a significant impact. This has been consistent with the published literature. The PV system with the maximum PvSEP results in the minimum payback time and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This research aims to aid PV system installation decision-making by using state-of-the-art technology during the pre-construction stage.
This chapter presents concentrating collector-based technologies for capturing solar energy that may be utilized to produce power for energizing small homes (remotely located). The various types of existing solar thermal concentrating collectors, energy receivers of various shapes, sizes, and materials for selective surfaces, thermal energy storage systems, solar-powered heat engines, e.g., Stirling engine, solar-Rankine heat engine, solar-Brayton engine, are also presented thereof. The renewable hybrid technologies, e.g., solar power integration with biogas, geothermal and wind energy along with its advantages as well as limitations are discussed. It concludes with the challenges need to be faced in remote regions.
Due to the efficient performance in energy storage density, solar thermal energy storage (TES, especially latent type) applications are drawing more attention in the research field of solar energy. Among all of the types of solar thermal storage technologies, the latent heat storage system using phase change materials is the most efficient way of storing thermal energy. It has some dominant factors such as high density energy storage and isothermal operations, i.e., very small temperature range for heat storage and removal. Thus, latent heat storage systems have greater applicability over the other types of TES systems. This chapter initially presents an analysis of a latent-type solar thermal energy storage (TES) system involving some of the important cases carried out comprising the application of ambient conditions with various geometries and working conditions. The analysis is carried out in MATLAB® and COMSOL®, which contains transient simulations of latent heat storage functioning with 1D and 2D modeling. It comprises the validation of numerical 1D analysis with corresponding analytical solution, observation of the change in thermophysical properties at the melting point, etc. Further in this study, the phase change material (PCM) is assumed to be incorporated in a brick wall structure, which can improve its thermal performance. A 1D numerical model on COMSOL Multiphysics is developed to analyze the thermal performance of the PCM-filled brick wall unit. The numerical model and the adopted hypotheses are illustrated in detail. The comparison between temperature distributions of a simple brick wall and a brick wall with a PCM layer is presented. The results show that using the numerical tool, it can be observed that the thermal performance of the PCM-filled brick wall is efficient over the simple brick wall without PCM. This concept of the PCM-impregnated building structure is found to be successful in shifting the energy requirement of the equipped building sector from a high peak electricity demand period to an off-peak period.
Insulation is a key component of green building design. A well-insulated home should keep your space warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and this in turn cuts down carbon emissions linked to global climate change. In terms of energy efficiency, investing in high levels of insulation materials for your home is more cost-effective than investing in expensive heating technologies. Insulation materials work by resisting heat flow, measured by an R-value (the higher the R-value, the greater the insulation). R-value depends on the type of insulation, its thickness, and its density. In this sight, this study draws attention to the importance of building insulation materials in green buildings' sustainable energy performance.
Residential buildings have accounted for more than 20% of total energy usage in the United States over the last decade. Reducing household energy consumption has environmental and economic impacts. Building scientists and construction engineers have attempted to obtain accurate energy use prediction; however, few have focused on the relationship between construction cost and energy use. This chapter investigates the associations among detailed construction cost takeoffs and actual energy use in multifamily green buildings. The researchers employ advanced machine-learning analytics to model the correlations between construction costs and energy use data collected from multifamily residential units. The findings identify cost divisions in the construction stage that significantly correlate with energy use in the operational stage. The model allows developers to predict energy consumption based on construction costs and enables them to adjust their investment strategies to amplify the energy efficiency of green building technologies.
Electrical energy storage (EES) systems provide various benefits of high energy efficiency, high reliability and controllability, low cost and environmental impact, and so on, by storing and retrieving energy on demand. Historically, electrochemical battery storage systems have by far spurred the greatest interest of research, offering immediate response times, medium-to-long term storage duration and no power-rate limitations. Based on electrochemical oxidation-reduction reversible reactions, batteries can convert chemical energy stored in their active materials directly into electricity and vice versa. In this work, the most important battery technologies are reviewed and compared along with their contribution in global battery market. Lithium-ion monopolize in portable electronic devices, whereas lead-acid holds the exclusivity in automotive starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) applications and is considered as the best choice for small-to-medium scale stationary applications of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and back-up power. In terms of safety and simplicity, both systems are considered viable options for small-scale residential applications, while advanced lead-acid and high-temperature batteries are suited in medium-to-large scale applications including commercial and industrial consumers. The most discussed aspects relating to electrochemical storage are the exhaustible material reserves which may cause their cost to increase and battery disposition which locally affects consumers and globally the whole of mankind. However, a key solution exists, namely recycling, and is supported by various processes. Once the impacts from the collection and transportation of all types of spent batteries are minimized, the field of electrochemical EES integration will be expanded more and more, resulting in a sustainable development.
Utilization of renewable energy resources is gradually increasing in developing countries as well as the developed ones. Although the use of these resources is becoming increasingly important to meet energy demands, efficient use of limited resources requires planning and in-depth analysis beforehand. Correspondingly, in recent years, countries have started to work on increasing the share of renewable energy among other energy-production methods to ensure energy independence. In this study, in order to design PV system for maximum efficiency under certain climatic conditions, a comparative analysis of solar energy potential for two cities in certain climatic conditions is conducted. Based on the calculations, the values of the indicators show that potential for photovoltaic systems in both cities correspond to expected levels. The study aims to determine the most efficient solar panel by utilizing the real solar radiation values obtained for the photovoltaic system design.
This chapter proposes a circular agricultural system for integration of naturebased solutions, mainly photosynthetic elements into buildings and cities and evaluates its potential for utilization. The proposed system consists of the integration of three main nature-based solutions into a building: green roofs that filter water, photobioreactors (PBRs) that cultivate microalgae inside and aquaponics that grow both fish and vegetables. The system is powered by solar energy and its main purpose is to grow food in the urban context. Although there have been some studies about the energy and environmental effects of integrating nature-based systems in buildings, they are usually utilized for different purposes, yet the present chapter proposes and assesses one of the first examples, where three systems are combined together.
