In Situ Evaluation of Vanguard Technologies for High Performance Residential Buildings

Author(s):  
David J. Sailor ◽  
Santiago Rodriguez ◽  
Jeff Lauck

High performance buildings demand innovative and often untested strategies for improving thermal performance and reducing energy consumption while maintaining indoor environmental quality. The Passive House design standard is increasingly being implemented in residential and small commercial construction. This standard results in buildings with airtight envelopes, high levels of insulation, very high performance windows, and energy efficient appliances. The intent of this paper is to evaluate the performance of several cutting-edge high performance building technologies as implemented in a Passive House duplex constructed in Portland, Oregon, USA. We provide an overview of the performance of the entire structure from multiple viewpoints, but focus largely on the performance of the heat recovery ventilator and heat pump water heater. Interactions of these systems with occupant behavior and indoor environmental quality are also discussed.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Lubyk

Achieving Passive House certification requires super insulation which can significantly raise the embodied energy and carbon footprint of a project, effectively front-end loading the climate impact, especially where petrochemical foam-based products are used. This research sought to evaluate the use of straw bales - a low embodied energy, carbon sequestering agricultural by-product - to achieve PHIUS+2015 certification. A straw bale wall system was adapted to a single-family detached reference house designed to meet the Passive House standard. The wall system was evaluated for applicability across three Western Canadian cities using WUFI Passive energy simulation software to evaluate compliance; thermal bridging and hygrothermal performance were also evaluated. It was found that the proposed straw bale wall assembly satisfied the PHIUS+ 2015 requirements in all three locations - Saskatoon, Calgary, and Kelowna - with only minor changes required to the reference house design. The annual heating demand and peak heating load, the two targets most sensitive to design changes, were, respectively, 4% and 8.6% below the target in Saskatoon, 63.1% and 21.3% below in Calgary, and 63.1% and 32.6% below in Kelowna. The research also revealed that maintaining a high degree of air tightness is essential for satisfying the requirements. Overall, this research demonstrates that straw bales can be a beneficial component in creating high performance enclosures without exacting a large embodied carbon footprint.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Dan ◽  
C. Tanasa ◽  
V. Stoian ◽  
S. Brata ◽  
D. Stoian ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwok Wai Mui ◽  
Tsz Wun Tsang ◽  
Ling Tim Wong ◽  
Yuen Ping William Yu

This study investigates the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) responses from occupants living in very small residential units that are unique to Hong Kong. Through the changes in environmental parameters, including thermal, indoor air quality, visual and aural, the study demonstrates that the overall IEQ acceptance in these units is different from the one in general residential building environments. Results show that occupants of these units are more sensitive to warmth and operative temperature change as compared to occupants of general residential buildings. A small variation of thermal acceptance suggests that the small unit occupants have already developed certain degree of tolerance to hot conditions. The adaptation to the reality of a hot environment is also reflected in the overall IEQ acceptance. It is believed that very small space residents have developed tolerance and adaptation to an unchangeable reality, changing environmental conditions does not necessarily alter their acceptance of individual IEQ aspects and overall IEQ.


2014 ◽  
Vol 521 ◽  
pp. 748-751
Author(s):  
Zhao Xia Zhou

A survey for water heater in urban residential buildings is carried in Wuhan. The results show that more than 40% subjects use solar energy water heat. More than 20% subjects point out the energy consumption of water heater should be decreased. There are about 24.8% subjects take initial cost as the first place when they chose water heater. 44.2% subjects know about heat pump water heater, but they could not buy it if the initial cost is too high. There are 84% subjects could select heat pump water heater when the cost is no more 20% high than the average price of the common water heaters. Moreover, the energy consumptions of residential water heaters are also investigated. The energy consumption characteristics of water heater in Wuhan are analyzed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afarin Amirirad

Considering the large energy consumption of conventional water heaters in residential buildings, the performance of a new type of water heater has been characterized through conducting experiments and numerical modelling. The specific water heater investigated in this work benefits from heat absorption from the indoor air, denoted as the air source heat pump water heater (ASHPWH), and is located in the Archetype Sustainable Twin House B in Toronto. The experiments have been conducted under three different indoor conditions associated with temperature and humidity. The coefficient of performance (COP), which quantifies the ratio of heating capacity to the consumed power of ASHPWH, ranges between 1.5 and 5, depending on the indoor dry bulb and water inlet temperatures. A TRNSYS model of ASHPWH has been constructed based on the obtained experimental results and has subsequently been integrated with a TRNSYS model of the Archetype Sustainable House (ASH). The numerical results were verified with the experimental data. The model results suggests that after employing ASHPWH, the domestic hot water energy consumption reduces by 60.3% and 53.2% compared to the electric water heater in summer and winter respectively. Due to the energy absorption of ASHPWH from the indoor environment, the heating load of the ASH house increases while its cooling load decreases. Furthermore, the annual electricity consumption of the ASH house due to the required heating and cooling as well as the domestic hot water demand is reduced by 21.3%. Finally, as a consequence of employing ASHPWH, the energy cost and GHG emission were reduced respectively by 22% and 21.7%. By investigating the system in four other Canadian cities, it appears that Vancouver and Edmonton would have the maximum and minimum energy savings respectively.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afarin Amirirad

Considering the large energy consumption of conventional water heaters in residential buildings, the performance of a new type of water heater has been characterized through conducting experiments and numerical modelling. The specific water heater investigated in this work benefits from heat absorption from the indoor air, denoted as the air source heat pump water heater (ASHPWH), and is located in the Archetype Sustainable Twin House B in Toronto. The experiments have been conducted under three different indoor conditions associated with temperature and humidity. The coefficient of performance (COP), which quantifies the ratio of heating capacity to the consumed power of ASHPWH, ranges between 1.5 and 5, depending on the indoor dry bulb and water inlet temperatures. A TRNSYS model of ASHPWH has been constructed based on the obtained experimental results and has subsequently been integrated with a TRNSYS model of the Archetype Sustainable House (ASH). The numerical results were verified with the experimental data. The model results suggests that after employing ASHPWH, the domestic hot water energy consumption reduces by 60.3% and 53.2% compared to the electric water heater in summer and winter respectively. Due to the energy absorption of ASHPWH from the indoor environment, the heating load of the ASH house increases while its cooling load decreases. Furthermore, the annual electricity consumption of the ASH house due to the required heating and cooling as well as the domestic hot water demand is reduced by 21.3%. Finally, as a consequence of employing ASHPWH, the energy cost and GHG emission were reduced respectively by 22% and 21.7%. By investigating the system in four other Canadian cities, it appears that Vancouver and Edmonton would have the maximum and minimum energy savings respectively.


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