Re(De)fining Net Zero Energy: Renewable Emergy Balance in environmental building design

Srinivasan, Ravi S.; Braham, William W.; Campbell, Daniel E.; Curcija, Charlie

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.07.010

Cited by 105 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…These authors proposed a new label (ZEB x) allowing the distinction between the need for seasonal compensation (the lower the "x" value, the lower this need for compensation). In the same vein, Srinivasan et al [18] introduced a "renewable emergy balance" as a tool to ensure that buildings are optimised for the reduced consumption of resources and that the use of renewable resources and materials is optimised over the entire lifecycle of the building. Pless and Torcellini [11] ranked the renewable energy sources used in a building to propose a classification grading system for ZEB, based on renewable energy supply options.…”

Section: Zero-energy At the Building Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

A simplified framework to assess the feasibility of zero-energy at the neighbourhood/community scale

Marique

Reiter

2014

Energy and Buildings

130

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a b s t r a c t Zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) are attracting increasing interest internationally in policies aiming at a more sustainably built environment, the scientific literature and practical applications. Although "zero energy" can be considered at different scales (e.g., community, city), the most common approach adopts only the perspective of the individual building. Moreover, the feasibility of this objective is not really addressed, especially as far as the retrofitting of the existing building stock is concerned. Therefore, this paper aims first to investigate the opportunity to extend the "zero-energy building" concept to the neighbourhood scale by taking into account two main challenges: (1) the impact of urban form on energy needs and the on-site production of renewable energy and (2) the impact of location on transportation energy consumption. It proposes a simplified framework and a calculation method that is then applied to two representative case studies (one urban neighbourhood and one rural neighbourhood) to investigate the feasibility of zero-energy in existing neighbourhoods. The main parameters that act upon the energy balance are identified. The potential of "energy mutualisation" at the neighbourhood scale is highlighted. This paper thereby shows the potentialities of an integrated approach linking transportation and building energy consumptions.

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Section: Zero-energy At the Building Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

A simplified framework to assess the feasibility of zero-energy at the neighbourhood/community scale

Marique

Reiter

2014

Energy and Buildings

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In the study of landscape and urban planning, some researchers have demonstrated its far-reaching consequences as a new sustainability indicator [5]. For buildings, similar attempts also have been made through the emergy evaluation of building manufacturing [6,7], LCA-emergy integration for building sustainability assessment [8], defining a zero-energy building by maximized use of renewable emergy sources [3], and emergy-based building form optimization [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Nonetheless, prevailing environmental assessment methods such as exergy accounting, embodied energy, or life cycle assessment (LCA) may not give a full description of a building's "actual" environmental performance as they occasionally discount the plays of various substantial sources (e.g., human activity and renewable sources such as sunlight, rainwater, or wind) other than fossil fuel use [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty characterization of building emergy analysis (BEmA)

Braham

2015

Building and Environment

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“…Even if the environmental ranking between standard and passive houses is always in favour of the latter, the transition between economic and expensive use affects more on the passive building. Some researches are focused on the energy aspects (Wang et al 2009;Ferrante and Cascella 2011;Lund et al 2011) while other authors present studies on the environmental profile of low-and zero-energy buildings taking into account additional parameters, such as exergy (Yang et al 2008), emergy (Srinivasan et al 2012) and costs (Marszal et al 2012;Leckner and Zmeureanu 2011). All the studies point out that, although the overall consumed energy on a useful life scenario of 50 years or more is less in lowenergy buildings than in conventional ones, the balance between the operative consumptions and those concerning the other phases changes substantially and the materials production intensifies its relevance.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessment Of Zero-energy Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The assessment of the relevance of building components and life phases for the environmental profile of nearly zero-energy buildings: life cycle assessment of a multifamily building in Italy

Paleari

Lavagna

Campioli

2016

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose: Since the construction sector is a considerable energy consumer and greenhouse gas (GHG) producer, the EU rules strive to build nearly zero-energy buildings, by reducing the operative energy and yearning for on-site energy production. This article underlines the necessity to go beyond the energy evaluations and move towards the environmental assessment in a life cycle perspective, by comparing the impacts due to building materials and energy production devices. Methods: We compared the operational energy impacts and those of technologies and materials carrying out a life cycle assessment (LCA; ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15643–2, EN 15978) on a nearly zero-energy building (ZEB), a residential complex with 61 apartments in four buildings, situated near Milan (Italy). We consider all life cycle phases, including production, transport, building site activities, use and maintenance; the materials inventory was filled out collecting data from invoices paid, building site reports, construction drawings and product data sheets. To make the assessment results comparable, we set a functional unit of 1 m2 of net floor area in 1 year (1 m2y), upon a lifespan of 100 years. The environmental data were acquired from Ecoinvent 2.2. Results and discussion: The results highlight the important role of the pre-use and maintenance phases in building life so that in a nearly ZEB, the environmental impacts linked to the use are no longer the major proportion: the pre-use phase accounts for 56 %, while the operative energy is only 31 % of the total. For this reason, if the environmental assessment of the case study was shrunk to the operational consumption, only one third of the impacts would be considered. The consumption of non-renewable resources after 100 years are 193,950 GJ (133.5 kWh/m2y); the GHG emissions are 15,300 t (37.8 kg of CO2 eq/m2y). In the pre-use phase, structures have the major impacts (50 %) and the load of system components is unexpectedly high (12 %) due to the ambition of on-site energy production. Conclusions: Paying attention to the operative energy consumption seems to address to only one third of the environmental impacts of buildings: the adoption of LCA as a tool to guide the design choices could help to identify the solution which ensures the lowest overall impact on the whole life, balancing the options of reducing the energy requirements, the on-site production from renewable sources and the limitation of the impacts due to building components (simpler and more durable)

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Re(De)fining Net Zero Energy: Renewable Emergy Balance in environmental building design

Cited by 105 publications

References 11 publications

A simplified framework to assess the feasibility of zero-energy at the neighbourhood/community scale

A simplified framework to assess the feasibility of zero-energy at the neighbourhood/community scale

Uncertainty characterization of building emergy analysis (BEmA)

The assessment of the relevance of building components and life phases for the environmental profile of nearly zero-energy buildings: life cycle assessment of a multifamily building in Italy

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