Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB)

The aim of this paper is to describe the importance of The Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) and to re-design the house the use of low carbon construction materials. The innovation process along with the management of energy consumption process will be elaborated. Various forms of renewable energy sources will be mentioned under this assignment.   

The Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) is the concept that generates an effective energy uses over the course of a year, in recent times has been developing from investigating to realism (AlAjmi, Abou-Ziyan and Ghoneim, 2016). Presently, there is only a little figure of extremely well-organized buildings that convene the criterion to be entitled “Net Zero”.  The definition of Zero energy building can be elaborated in a number of techniques relying on the political policies and targets of a specific country. There are major four ways which can be helpful in describing the Zero Energy such as Net Zero Site Energy, Net Zero Source Energy, Net Zero Energy Costs and Net Zero Energy Emissions (Ferreira, Almeida, Rodrigues and Silva, 2016).

The construction process needs some energy which can be referred as the carbon emissions and all this kind of carbon emission come under the various processes in the relation of embodied carbon of that structure. That is why it is required for the builder of Net Zero Building to choose the materials with less personified emissions (Mwasilu, Justo, Kim,  Do and Jung, 2014). There are number of aspects which should be considered by the builder before taking action towards selection of the material.

• The process of the production of the chosen material should be easy.
• The wastage of the material should be lesser.
• The selected material can be recycled because it will decrease the energy consumptions.

There are some examples that have been taken into consideration in order to redesign the house. These are Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, Recycled Metals and Insulating concrete forms.

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete: The concrete has less feature of personified energy and it performs as sound insulation and that is why it is developed by amalgamation foaming agent in the common concrete and after that heating it with stem (Weitemeyer, Kleinhans, Vogt and Agert, 2015).

Recycled Metals: The personified energy can be decreased due to recycle of material. The roles of the low carbon materials are very important for the company for the purpose of remaining the company in the construction industry.

Insulating Concrete Forms: It is the system of formwork for unbreakable concrete generally made with a inflexible thermal insulation that remains in the place in the form of the permanent interior for floors, roofs and walls.

Source: (GreenMontgomery, 2018).

It has been found that many lives of the world are affected due to climate changes and amplified awareness of sustainable development. The process of new constructions is bringing out as per the government policies related to the energy ratings. There is a method of precast construction which facilitates to reduce the construction waste from in-site construction. There is another material of thermal insulation which is used under the house for reducing the heating and cooling load of the house (Asdrubali, Baldinelli, Bianchi and Sambuco, 2015). The diversion of sun rays can be done by entailing the technique of Passive solar and radiant heating. This technique is assisted in amplifying the internal temperature in the winter season, along with that this technique is useful for the summer season as well as it diverted the cool breeze into the inner building in order to reduce the internal temperature.

Low Carbon Construction Materials

The energy utilization prototypes are evidenced and sophisticated policies are put into practice in order to meet the power competence and sustainable growth in the construction sector. The role of the policies and procedures keep huge importance in the construction company that facilitates in moving towards an effective energy usage patterns. It has been analyzed that the governing body of the company has the ability to increase the usage of the energy resources by evaluating the rate of the consumption. There are some equipment which has been used in the constriction process to operate the energy such as Lighting systems, HVAC. It is necessary for the organization to select these systems after analyzing the design phase of any kind of projects.

Renewable energy is the source of energy which can be reinstated by the natural procedure like wind, ocean, solar and biofuels. There are some types of renewable energy which are explained below:

The use of wind energy has been taken into consideration in the world from centuries. It has been analyzed that the wind energy is an adaptation of the end energy through breeze turbines into constructive ways, like mechanical or electrical energy (Ahmad and Tahar, 2014). It has been found that the basic application of wind power is the production of electricity. It is required for the builder to investigate the weather data in a rough manner before installing the wind turbine. This data would be helpful to get know more about the right decision about installing the wind turbine in a particular location or not.

Solar Energy

There is an ideal energy source which is being offered by the sun in an unlimited way. The installations of the solar have enlarged into residential areas with taking advantages of the government offering incentives (Khatib, 2016). There are various technologies such as Solar hot water, Solar electricity, passive solar heating, and daylight.

Bio-energy can be called as the biomass as it is the energy that comes from organic matter from many years. Wood is the source that is the huge biomass energy source of today’s world. There are other sources as well such as plants, forestry, organic components and the residues from agriculture. It has been found that this is the energy which can be developed into the fossil fuel in case of not touching on the surface of Earth (Sim and Putuhena, 2015).

Hydropower is the energy which is used in the form of renewable energy as it generates the hydro energy through the flow of water. It is the method in which water is kept in the large dam which released through a turbine (Atomberg, 2016).

It has been analyzed that the utilization of the resources can be done in an efficient manner by recycling the natural resources of the world. The elimination of transportation, removal and the conveyance of new products can be done by reducing the unnecessary use of electricity and water and decrease the global temperature. There are some materials such as timber, metals, and plasterboard which can be recycled and reused. It has been found in the context of the metal that business demolition places generate the most of the metals which amasses for almost 90% of the entire metals (Iyer-Raniga, 2017). There is only 5% non-fours metal is entailed in the metal rest 95% is steel. This steel has the tendency of reusing and reprocessing as well. It has been analyzed that at the time of the destruction of any kind of building, the huge range of timber is used in the process. However, the range of the timber is generally improved from the deconstruction waste and the quantity of timber can be recycled. It has been found in the context of the plastic board recovery from the construction site that is generally brought out by ample negotiations between the material manufacturer and the stakeholders. Plasterboard manufactures provide sites frequently persuade the revitalization of a hygienic item from sites and promote organizations which purchase their materials.

Examples of Low Carbon Materials

There are various strategies and techniques which can be used by developing and traditional home into a “Net Zero Energy” home. There are various advantages such as it is easy to adopt due to lower carbon emission and the home will be full of energy. However, it is an efficient technique but there are some challenges which have to be faced while re-designing the home. It is a high investment and lack of awareness in making a home with net-zero energy process. It is required for the builder to overcome these risks by situating the campaigns in order to increase awareness so that people can get to know about the actual advantages of the process of net zero. There is also governing bodies which can initiate in creating the policies and the rules regarding sustainability.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discussion that the energy consumption of the home was in the upper level that is why the use of some selected materials are being undertaken. The discussion has been made on the renewable energy system and to accomplish the demand of Re-design, solar energy system is installed in it. It is necessary for the houses to move ahead to net zero process system instead of conventional construction.

References

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AlAjmi, A., Abou-Ziyan, H. and Ghoneim, A., 2016. Achieving annual and monthly net-zero energy of existing building in hot climate. Applied Energy, 165, pp.511-521.

Asdrubali, F., Baldinelli, G., Bianchi, F. and Sambuco, S., 2015. A comparison between environmental sustainability rating systems LEED and ITACA for residential buildings. Building and Environment, 86, pp.98-108.

Atomberg, 2016. Top 10 Renewable Energy Sources. Available [online] https://atomberg.com/top-10-renewable-energy-sources/. Accessed from: 26 Oct 2018.

Dumont, O., Quoilin, S. and Lemort, V., 2015. Experimental investigation of a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle unit designed to be coupled with a passive house to get a Net Zero Energy Building. international journal of refrigeration, 54, pp.190-203.

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GreenMontgomery, 2018. Net-zero energy homes: Yesterday’s dream, today’s reality. Available [online] https://mygreenmontgomery.org/2015/net-zero-energy-homes/. Accessed on 27 Oct 2018.

Iyer-Raniga, U., 2017. Net zero energy building policy: benchmarking Australian practices against some Asia Pacific countries. In WSBE 2017: Transforming our Built Environment through Innovation and Integration: Putting Ideas into Action(pp. 1844-1849). Hong Kong Green Building Council.

Khatib, J. ed., 2016. Sustainability of construction materials. Woodhead Publishing.

Mwasilu, F., Justo, J.J., Kim, E.K., Do, T.D. and Jung, J.W., 2014. Electric vehicles and smart grid interaction: A review on vehicle to grid and renewable energy sources integration. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 34, pp.501-516.

Sim, Y.L. and Putuhena, F.J., 2015. Green building technology initiatives to achieve construction quality and environmental sustainability in the construction industry in Malaysia. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 26(2), pp.233-249.

Weitemeyer, S., Kleinhans, D., Vogt, T. and Agert, C., 2015. Integration of Renewable Energy Sources in future power systems: The role of storage. Renewable Energy, 75, pp.14-20.