Assessment of the Potential of High-Performance Buildings to Achieve Zero Energy: A Case Study
Source abstract
Abstract
Buildings that are designed with aggressive energy performance targets are defined broadly in this study as high-performance buildings. As the technology advances, some of these buildings have the potential to become zero-energy ready through the adoption of cost-effective measures, such as retro-commissioning and occupant behavior techniques. This study demonstrated the viability of an office building to achieve the zero-energy goal and intended to engage the owners of similar facilities. The case building was designed as a very low-energy building with an energy use intensity (EUI) goal of 42 kWh/(m2 a), and the actual EUI was 23.9 kWh/(m2 a). The calibrated simulation approach was employed in the study, and the results indicated that the case building can achieve the zero-energy goal by optimizing the controls of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system, changing the occupant behavior and improving the performance of the photovoltaic system.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Building Energy and Comfort Optimization · Sustainable Building Design and Assessment · Urban Heat Island Mitigation
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Building Environment and Facility Engineering, College of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Built Environment and Energy Efficient Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Zhuhai Singyes Green Building Technology Co., Ltd., Zhuhai 519085, Guangdong, China
Funding
National Key Research and Development Program of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China
References (38)
Show source-provided references
1. Building energy-consumption status worldwide and the state-of-the-art technologies for zero-energy buildings during the past decade10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.06.089 ↗
2. What is a nearly zero energy building? Overview, implementation and comparison of definitions10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.019 ↗
3. Firlag, S., and Piasecki, M. (2018). NZEB Renovation Definition in a Heating Dominated Climate: Case Study of Poland. Appl. Sci., 8.10.3390/app8091605 ↗
4. Recast, E. (2010). Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (recast). Off. J. Eur. Union, 13–35. Available online: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32010L0031.
5. US DOE (2008). Building Technologies Program: Planned Program Activities for 2008–2012, EERE Publication and Product Library.
6. Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) (2014, November 10). Building Research Department [EB/OL]. Available online: http://www.kict.re.kr/eng/rsch/build.asp.
7. Achieving annual and monthly net-zero energy of existing building in hot climate10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.11.073 ↗
8. AbuGrain, M.Y., and Alibaba, H.Z. (2017). Optimizing existing multistory building designs towards net-zero energy. Sustainability, 9.10.3390/su9030399 ↗
9. Renewable Energy Design and Performance of LEED EB Platinum Building for Zero Energy Performance
10. Retrofit strategies towards net zero energy educational buildings: A case study at the University of the Basque Country10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.03.030 ↗
11. Torcellini, P., Pless, S., Deru, M., Griffith, B., Long, N., and Judkoff, R. (2006). Lessons Learned from Case Studies of Six High-Performance Buildings, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.10.2172/884978 ↗
12. Griffith, B., Long, N., Torcellini, P., and Judkoff, R. (2007). Assessment of the Technical Potential for Achieving Net Zero-Energy Buildings in the Commercial Sector, National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Technical Report NREL/TP-550-41957.10.2172/922145 ↗
13. From low-energy to Net Zero-Energy Buildings: Status and perspectives10.3992/jgb.6.1.46 ↗
14. A systems simulation framework to realize net-zero building energy retrofits10.1016/j.scs.2018.05.045 ↗
15. Cellura, M., Ciulla, G., Guarino, F., and Longo, S. (2017). Redesign of a Rural Building in a Heritage Site in Italy: Towards the Net Zero Energy Target. Buildings, 7.10.3390/buildings7030068 ↗
16. Selecting HVAC systems to achieve comfortable and cost-effective residential net-zero energy buildings10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.12.046 ↗
17. Building integration of solar renewable energy systems towards zero or nearly zero energy buildings10.1093/ijlct/ctt071 ↗
18. So, A., Katz, D., and Wacks, K. (2018, December 10). Toward Zero Net Energy (zne) Super High-Rise Commercial Buildings. Continental Automated Buildings Association White Paper. Available online: http://www.caba.org/caba-white-papers.
19. Regenerative design of existing buildings for net-zero energy use10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.405 ↗
20. Regenerative design and adaptive reuse of existing commercial buildings for net-zero energy use10.1016/j.scs.2016.06.026 ↗
21. MOHURD (2016). Code for Thermal Design of Civil Building.
22. MOHURD (2016). Standard for Energy Consumption of Buildings.
23. MOHURD (2015). Design Standard for Energy Efficiency of Public Buildings.
24. Measured energy use and indoor environment quality in green office buildings in China10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.07.057 ↗
25. Model calibration for building energy efficiency simulation10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.05.019 ↗
26. ASHRAE (2014). Guideline 14—Measurement of Energy, Demand, and Water Savings, ASHRAE Standards Committee.
27. EnergyPlus: Creating a new-generation building energy simulation program10.1016/S0378-7788(00)00114-6 ↗
28. U.S. Department of Energy (2018, March 23). EnergyPlus8.9:EngineeringReference, Available online: https://www.energyplus.net/documentation.
29. National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (2018, December 10). NOAA Hourly Observational Climate Data, Available online: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/.
30. Development of typical year weather data for Chinese locations
31. Separation of horizontal solar radiation into direct and diffuse components with gompertz function10.3130/aije.69.31_2 ↗
32. Development of the typical meteorological database for Chinese locations10.1016/j.enbuild.2006.04.003 ↗
33. Zhang, Q., Lou, C., and Yang, H. (, January October). A New Method to Separate Horizontal Solar Radiation into Direct and Diffuse components. Proceedings of the ISES Asia-Pacific, Gwangju, Korea.
34. MOHURD (2012). Design Code for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning of Civil Buildings.
35. All-variable speed centrifugal chiller plants
36. Wetter Michael (2001, January 13–15). GenOpt—generic optimisation program. Proceedings of the IBPSA’s Building Simulation 2001 Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
37. Xin, P. (2015). Research on Solar Power Technology Economic Evaluation and Application Prospect, North China Electric Power University.
38. The operational performance of “net zero energy building”: A study in China10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.05.093 ↗