What A Net Zero Energy Building?

With the support of my peers and mentors, I have decided to pursue my dream of doing research in energy efficiency of utilities. I believe that with my passion and curiosity about the field, I would indeed take up much

The indefinite growth of the human population, has monumental impacts on the natural environment, not only in the UK, but around the globe. Architecturally, the entire process of designing and constructing a building, both domestic and not, can lead to the rapid exhaustion of natural resources across the planet. Building with environmental design strategies in mind not only combats the impact we as humans have on the natural environment, but also has considerable economic benefits, due to lower running costs of buildings and advanced occupant productivity. There are also many social benefits, such as improved air quality which resultantly leads too enhanced health of a buildings occupants.

According to the authors of ‘2014 AIA COTE Top Ten Winner: Arizona State University Student Health Services Building’ Kim A. O’Connell, Katie Weeks, and Annie Milewski, “this project offsets 39 percent of its total energy costs through an onsite, 69-kilowatt photovoltaic array, and renewable energy certificates offset 35 percent of the building’s remaining consumption”. These all help with the sustainability factor and

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

Description of Request: Develop and implement an Alternative Energy Plan for City of Seattle. The potential stakeholders include small business owners, Fortune 500 companies including Apple, Boeing, Amazon, and numerous other large scale industries. The bases around the Seattle-Tacoma area host vital capabilities toward the nation's defense from all branches of service. Service members and their families will benefit

One World Trade Center is an ideal representation of what green building is. It is not to say that the design and construction of this structure was not without its challenges. In this paper, I will discuss the factors that qualified the building for LEED certification. I will also discuss the challenges the building faced while pursuing this certification and what was done to overcome these challenges.

There have been numerous trials of LCHR technologies within the UK, with varying degrees of success. One of the larger projects was undertaken in Sunderland, where the Gentoo Group trialled a ‘Retrofit Reality’ project which aimed to reduce energy demand in social housing using LCHR strategies. Managing over 30,000 homes with 70,000 tenants (Lowery et al. (2012)), it would be mutually beneficial for both tenants and landlords that these homes become more carbon neutral, as this would reduce wastage and thus reduce bills for tenants whilst the Gentoo Group can offer homes with cheaper bills to potential future clients.

Wind energy is, “a renewable resource and has no fuel cost”, which helps the wind energy industry rise to prominence (American). With the low prices of wind energy, it is becoming an affordable form of electricity, although it still isn’t a main component in regards to energy production. Hydropower is the United States, “largest source of renewable electricity”; the most common type is conventional, which is typically associated with dams (Valley). Although hydropower is the most prominent green energy source in the United States, it doesn’t take away from the outrageous prices that go along with having this type of energy. Solar energy is the last main source of green energy. There isn’t as much research regarding this industry, because it isn’t as developed as the others. However, millions of dollars have been granted to try and better its development (Howell). Green buildings are structures that, “aim to reduce the negative impacts on the environment through using less natural resources to build and operate” (Dwaikat). These eco-boosting buildings incorporate each of the common types of green energy, however in some cases, they “don’t perform as predicted” (Dwaikat). In a case study over green buildings, it was found that they, “used around 160% more energy than expected”, which became a trend for the majority of the buildings (Dwaikat).

You are a board member of your Home Owner’s Association. At your next meeting, your goal is to educate other homeowners about energy conservation.

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

The inefficient homes in the UK have catastrophic effects on global warming. The UK needs to become more energy efficient as at the moment it emits a large amount of greenhouse gases which risk dangerous climate change. The retrofitting of the brick three storey terraced town house is necessary in order to comply with the legislations set out by parliament in the UK Climate Change Act (2008) or if the house falls under the private rented sector it must comply with the Energy Act 2011.

Changing the way energy in buildings is monitored, controlled and consumed can bring down CO2 emissions and reduce costs (Faucheux & Nicolaï, 2011) .

Green building encompasses everything from the choice of building materials to where a building is located. At the moment Gallagher’s are finding that converting roofs so that solar energy panels can be installed requires operatives with skill and experience levels that are above the average, they are dealing with this by advertising for people with those particular skill sets.

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,

By taking the position as Raj Bhatt, Business Development manager of GE Canada, I am comfortable and confident that energy efficiency is an attractive industry and business opportunity. What makes Raj Bhatt believe that the Energy Efficiency projects will be successful in Canada is that the project helps not only the ESCo, which conducts the performance-based contracting, but also the customers, who are more aware of the benefits of Energy Efficiency project. The Energy Efficiency project will optimize the energy usage, including conservation, use of efficient equipment and off peak usage. Even though the project has required intensive initial capital investment and long payback period, it will