Essay On Energy Architecture

Current trends of making houses sustainable and use zero-net energy will take time and research to be implemented most effectively and used on a large scale, but it is the drastic change that is needed to solve the issue. There are many different combinations and approaches to a sustainable zero energy building. In order to describe the current trends I will look at two different buildings, the ZOE building located at Discovery Park and America’s most efficient home built in Salt Lake City, Utah. I will also explain LEED certification, HERS and ENERGY STAR in order to explain how the efficiency of sustainable buildings and appliance are nationally measured.

As mentioned earlier in this paper, an intelligent buildings does not magically appear simply just by implementing various systems to make it intelligent. Thus, this decision was implemented early during the design stage, of which the architect, Serina Hijjas, have developed the concept of the headquarters to be an intelligent building with the then-availability of modern technology using mechanical and electronic systems onto structure. With that in mind, the design team advances into the concept of developing a single unified form to harmonize aesthetics with utility (McGillick,

Through this rule-based design strategy, the form of the building is easy to change by modifying the constraints of the parameters. The time cost of the model could save because the whole model does not need to rebuild. By parametric design, we could use the characteristics of Building Information Modeling (BIM) elements to response the data from the environmental analysis, such as solar radiation and wind velocity. Considering BIM providing a corporation system for information to share and use by architects, which not only could build three-dimensional models, predict the performance of the building, but also enable to analyze the environment, BIM already become one of the most significant computational design tools for contemporary architecture. The author uses sun shades as an example to show the approach used by designers to complete a façade design step by step and the relationships between analytic data, BIM and different software, such as Revit, Ecotect, and Excel. Also, the limitations of parametric design are mention in the

Being environmentally friendly isn’t merely a trend. After thousands of years of using the earth’s resources, we have finally come to realize that we are destroying this beautiful gift we were honored with. Architects play an influential role in trying to preserve this gift by encouraging a multitude of strategies that can be more cost efficient in the long run, be more comfortable for its users, and most importantly, have a lower carbon footprint. Strategies can include drastic changes to heat and air systems, construction material selections, or even specific design details to the architecture of a building that would reduce the amount of energy it consumes.

Energy use by buildings would be reduced by a Factor 10 or more below that of conventional buildings. The purpose of factor 10 is a long-term

It is cold here! For 8 months out of the year, our low temperatures don't get out of the 40's at night, making for cold rooms and cold houses.

Heat load on the buildings are reduced through thermally insulated facades and roof, light coloured roofing, natural shading devices.

The residential building sector is one of the major energy consumers in North America. It accounts for 17% of energy used in Canada, resulting in 70 megatons (Mt) of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) 2008). According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan 2010a), 65% of residential energy consumption is attributed to space heating by means of the primary fuel types, natural gas and electricity (Statistics Canada 2007).

Upon visiting the Domain College Park apartment complexes, I have noticed some significant problems regarding the building’s energy use:

When the new Southeast Polk High School opened they added many new energy saving products. This included installing geothermal heating under the high school cutting back on the cost of heating such a large building. Many new windows help save on energy used to light the building along with automatic lights that turn off after several minutes without movement. The new high school shows how easy it is to save money and help the environment. Renewable energy is good for all aspects of the U.S, providing jobs, economical growth, environmental cleanliness, and new research for improving energy efficiency. Therefore the United States should use renewable energy to benefit the economy and environment.

As time moves forward, the design for better and more sophisticated envelope buildings will continue to be important at all the levels of construction. Basically a building envelope is the separation between the interior and the exterior environment with the inclusion of air, light, heat, water and noise transfer resistances. The building envelope acts as a thermal barrier, because it regulates the temperature of the inside, while the outside temperature can be different. Having a great envelope design can provide more effective results on any type of climate. This is one of the reasons on why building managers are focusing more in having a great envelope design, especially now that every company wants to reduce energy costs and be more energy friendly.

Reduction in emissions and energy efficiency is the backbone of CN’s sustainability policy. In order to achieve that CN has focused on three key areas; reducing

This report is an analysis of the energy inefficiency of a brick three storey terraced town house built around 1880 circa, and how the dwellings can be made efficient to meet required targets of 114MtCO2 by 2020 and also to comply with the Energy Act 2011 for the private rented sector

The most of global energy production produces from fossil fuel such as coal, oil and natural gas. The vast fossil fuels generate energy which use for many purposes for instant residential, transportation and industrial sectors. While the rate consumption of fossil fuel higher than their formation leads to oil price crisis. Another concern of fossil fuel combustion is the impact on the environment. Global warming is a significant problem which results in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. These problems drive researchers and societies to search alternative energy such as switching to renewable energy or carbon-free energy to replace fossil fuels. For example Nakata et al., (2011:465) show ‘low-carbon society’

The energy analysis for the Architecture Annex was run with the settings of a 24/7 school or university building. The location was set to Urbana, IL, and the HVAC system was set to the default type. The analysis showed that most energy would be used on fuel,