Zero Energy Home Report

Transcription

1 Zero Energy Home Report EDGSN 100 Section 014 Team Number: #7 IDK Submitted to: Wallace Catanach, April 17 Amanda Schimmoller Nick Suffern Mengying Li 1

2 Index a) Executive Summary.3 b) Introduction..3 c) Customer Analysis.4 d) External Research. i) Library/online/patent research 5-7 ii) Benchmarking..8 iii) Production Dissection 8 iv) Global marketplace.9 e) Concept Generation f) Concept Selection and Embodiment Design.10 g) Energy Calculator.. 11 h) Final Design Description.12 i) Conclusions..13 j) References 13 2

3 Executive Summary: The need for Zero Energy Homes (ZEHs) has risen and continues to rise as the availability of our planet s resources decreases. If every person on our planet used the same amount of resources as the average American, we would need 4.1 planets to keep our population sustained. The IDK Construction Company has thusly been given the task of designing a ZEH in the state of Pennsylvania. The objective of this project is to design a zero net energy house that can accommodate a four-person family. The house will have two bedrooms and cost a maximum of $140,000 to build. Energy saving methods, including using energy that has been produced on site, were researched and utilized to reduce the energy consumption. The house is designed in such a way that it produces enough energy in the summer to net the energy that it consumes during the winter. There are no risks associated with the design. The final design is scheduled for presentation on March 4, Introduction The Zero-Energy-Home Project was a design project with the intent of allowing the groups to creatively make a house with zero net annual energy consumption based on the limitations of price and those that are outlined in the customer needs. 3

4 Customer Needs Analysis Table 1: Customer Needs Analysis Customer statements Project 1: Design of a Zero Energy Home in Pennsylvania The goal is to design a Zero Energy home that meets the needs of a typical family of four Made as sustainable as possible using green building principles Aesthetically pleasing, i.e. attractive appearance The home not only produces all the energy it needs over a year, but also enough to charge an electric car and still put some excess energy into the grid The home demonstrates that solar-powered Zero Energy Homes can be made to work well in the Commonwealth. Customer needs The home is in Pennsylvania. The home meets the needs of a typical family of four. The home is made as sustainable as possible using green building principles. The home is aesthetically pleasing and has an attractive appearance. The home produces all the energy it needs over a year and enough to charge electric car and grid. The home works well in the Commonwealth. This is the table of the customer statements and customer needs. According to the customer needs, we decided the location, size, appearance, sustainability and other characteristics of our Zero-energy home. 4

5 External Research i) Library/online/patent research In the beginning of our project, our group members did some research on the existing Zero-energy homes that were built in the last several years and are located in the northeast US. Below are two examples. One of them is called Greenhill Contract located in New Paltz, New York (1) and the other one is called The Charlotte Vermont House in Charlotte, Vermont. Table 2: Research on the existing Zero-energy home Green Contract (1) The Charlotte Vermont House (2) Location New Paltz, New York Charlotte, Vermont House size (square feet) Number of the floors 2 2 Number of occupants 4 4 Number of bedrooms 4 4 Type of heating system Heat pump Heat pump Main heating fuel Electricity Electricity Size of photovoltaic 10 7 system(kw) Solar water heater Yes Yes R-value of wall insulation R-20 Basement wall: R-21 Above grade wall: R-40 R-value of ceiling R-20 R-58 insulation Ventilation air heat Yes Yes recovery Predicted or measured 1733kWh 5999kWh annual energy use Other pertinent info Built in summer Built in

6 Over-produced 1490 kwh of electricity. Annual on-site renewable generation by wind is 6622kWh A passive solar design captures the sun s energy first, secondly the earth s stabilized temperatures are tapped for the heating of the home and hot water. And finally, a 10kW wind turbine produces the additional energy required. (3) Green House Contract The Charlotte Vermont House As we can see in table 2, both of the houses use heat pump as their heating system and electricity as their main heating fuel. They also apply photovoltaic system, high R-value of wall insulation and ventilation air heat recovery system in the houses to generate and store heat effectively. 6

7 From these existing Zero- energy homes, we can conclude that Solar (photovoltaic) panels, geothermal heating and cooling, super insulation& highefficiency windows and heat recovery ventilation are the four major reasons to achieve net zero energy use.(1) Geo-Thermal Heating and cooling Solar (photo-voltaic) Panels (4) Super insulation and high-efficiency windows Heat recovery ventilation 7

8 ii) Benchmarking iii) Product dissection The product for this project is the house that we were tasked with designing. The final product that our group agreed on meets all of the specifications that were required by the project and the customer needs. These specifications include a livable four person layout and a zero net annual energy consumption. This is achieved by having two bedrooms that can comfortably fit two people in each even if one of them has to have two beds. There is a single bathroom in the house which, while it may be considered an inconvenience, makes it easier for the family to be more conscientious about the amount of time that they spend in the bathroom and how much water they use which contributes to the house being a more environmentally sustainable system. Other features of 8

9 the house that aid in its net zero energy usage is the insulation, heating system, and method of doing laundry. The house successfully fulfills all of the requirements of the assignment. iv) Global marketplace The Zero energy home has a remarkable global market. According to the research carried out by Navigant Research, Zero energy building revenues worldwide is expected to grow from $629 million annually in 2014 to more than $1.4 trillion in (5) Zero energy home gains great support from the governments, corporations and individuals and its growth is being driven by a global green building boom, ongoing governmental regulations and regional environmental concerns. (6) What s more, with the development of the new supporting technology, the total cost of the zero energy home can also be reduced greatly and will become more affordable to the public. Conception Generation The concept generation process was driven by the customer needs spreadsheet along with the group s own creativity and the limitations dictated by the budget of 140,000. Our original plan was to have a two story house as they are often considered to be more comfortable and have a more visually appealing lay out. We found that this was not likely to work out well due to the cost of the siding and the windows. With the idea of a single story house in mind we set to work thinking of the proper exterior dimensions. We decided on a simple rectangular base so that we could utilize the floor space without having an excess of expensive materials. After determining the dimensions for the flooring and the appropriate square footage of windows, we began designing the layout. For this we went back to the customer needs and decided that a family of four could comfortably live in a two bedroom one bath house and that became the base 9

10 from which we would work. In the first few designs we attempted to have a more open layout toward the front of the house but we eventually agreed that this would be too awkward a layout. In our final design we used a layout which includes two bedrooms to the west side of the house and a bathroom next to them, on the north east side of the house are two multipurpose rooms which could be used as a family room or office and a dining room, and finally on the south side of the house is the kitchen and living room which are connected and very open making this space ideal for the majority of the window area to be located. We wanted this open area with its large windows to be the on the south side of the house as it would get more light throughout the year than other parts of the house so that it could be the location of the heating stone. Conception Selection and embodiment of design We worked through the entire process all while continually looking back to the customer needs and making sure that we were still complying with what we originally set out to do which was to design an affordable zero energy home for a four person family. This allowed us to be very certain that our design would work for all of its requirements and made it easy for us to decide of the best and most recent design that we had come up with. 10

11 Energy Calculator Calculator for the price of the house. This chart became a determinant of what was possible for us to use in our design as it outlines the expenses of the project. 11

12 Final Design Description The below pictures are two views of the front (north) side of the house and the back (south) side of the house respectively. As you can see from these pictures the south facing side of the house, the side that gets the most sunlight throughout the year, is the side with the largest number of windows to allow for the radiant heat the a from the sun to warm the house and reduce the heating costs. Below this window is also where we positioned the heating stone so that even more heat could be collected and used to heat the house during darker hours of the day. Within the house there are two bedrooms, one bathroom, two rooms that could be used as a living room, dining room or office depending on the needs of the family. The large open space at the back of the house which can be accessed through the hallway which runs from the front door is where the kitchen and the family room are located. This final design is simple yet covers all of the requirements that were asked of us as a design team. 12

13 Conclusion The house designed by our team has achieved zero energy consumption and it meets all the requirements of the typical family of four. The total cost of our house is $140,083, which is affordable for the costumers. Reference (1) Greenhill Contracting, Builder of Zero Energy Homes. How we achieve Net Zero Energy use. (Accessed April 6) (2) U.S. Department of Energy. Zero Energy Buildings: Net zero house- Charlotte, VT. (Accessed April 6) (3) Whole Building Design Guide. Charlotte Vermont House (Accessed April 6) (4) U.S. Department of Energy. Photovoltaic Solar Cells. (Accessed April 6) (5) "Navigant Research Brings Out 'Zero Energy Buildings' Report." Entertainment Close - Up (2014) (6) Hower, M. Global Market for Zero Net Energy Buildings to Reach $240 Million by Retrieved from bal_market_zero_net_energy_buildings_reach_2397_million_2018/ (accessed: April 8, 2015) 13