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Modelling Efficient Building Design: Efficiency for Low Energy or No Energy?

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Book cover House Rating Schemes

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

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Abstract

As described in the previous chapters, HRS have been developed to promote energy efficient design and to consequently reduce energy requirements in the buildings sector. However, zero energy buildings and passive design buildings, whose thermal performance should be evaluated in their free running operation mode, are not a target in current HRS. The main purpose of this book is to recommend the evaluation of the free running performance of buildings on the basis of thermal comfort instead of energy consumption. A major question is whether an energy efficient building is one that demonstrates efficient performance in the free running operation mode.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See: http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory/

  2. 2.

    Small houses compared to large houses usually are penalized in the star rating scheme because of the basis of rating (MJ/m2), which was discussed in Sect. 2.4.3. AccuRate has addressed this concern by developing an area correction factor (Isaacs, 2005).

  3. 3.

    For more accuracy in calculating thermal neutrality and the thermostat setting, the mean monthly temperature should be computed for hourly temperatures rather than max/min temperatures.

  4. 4.

    This information is based on the AccuRate manual and the help option in the software (2005).

  5. 5.

    (ABS) http://www.abs.gov.au/

  6. 6.

    Australia Bureau Statistic (ABS) “Time Use Survey” Cat. No. 4153.

  7. 7.

    Note: The three conditioned zones are the minimum zones in a house in which the occupied time and occupants’ activities differ. This is the condition considered in some HERS such as NatHERS.

  8. 8.

    A comparison was made between the hourly temperature of the living zone and the suspended floor for one of the LW typical houses in the free running operation mode when R2 insulation was added under the suspended floor. The following figure shows the hourly zone temperature for a warm and cold day respectively, on the 15th of January and of July. Both figures illustrate that the temperature of the suspended floor zone is closer to thermal comfort temperature than the temperature of the living zone for more hours of the day. Floor insulation restricts heat transfer between these two zones and therefore in effect reduces the benefits of a suspended floor for a free running building in such ambient conditions.

    Comparison between temperature of living zone and sub floor zone of a lightweight house for 15th July and January in the Sydney climate.

    Comparison between temperature of living zone and sub floor zone of a lightweight house for 15th July and January in the Sydney climate.

  9. 9.

    Standard mass refers to a house with brick veneer RFL in external walls, R2.5 in the ceiling and no floor insulation.

  10. 10.

    AccuRate software counts the effect of air ventilation for prediction of cooling energy requirements (see se Sect. 4.1.2.2 for more clarification).

  11. 11.

    There are several selection methods for specifying how independent variables are entered into an analysis. These methods are: enter, stepwise, remove, backward and forward. Enter is a procedure for variable selection in which all variables in a block are entered in a single step.

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  1. Faculty of Engineering, Ilam University, Pajoohesh, 69315-516, Ilam, Iran

    Maria Kordjamshidi

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Kordjamshidi, M. (2011). Modelling Efficient Building Design: Efficiency for Low Energy or No Energy?. In: House Rating Schemes. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15790-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15790-5_4

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