scholarly journals Design and Evaluation of a Net Zero Energy Low-Income Residential Housing Development in Lafayette, Colorado

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Dean ◽  
Otto Van Geet ◽  
Scott Simkus ◽  
Mark Eastment
Author(s):  
Roque T Sanchez ◽  
Allison A Elliott ◽  
Rebecca Sibley ◽  
Nonya S Grenader ◽  
Brent C Houchens ◽  
...  

An affordable, solar powered row house is designed and constructed for implementation in a historically low-income area of Houston, Texas. This ZeRow House is tied to the electrical grid for purchase of electricity at night, but completely compensates by generating more power than needed during the day when electric grid demands peak, particularly in the hot, humid summer months. The result is a home with net-zero energy purchased from the grid and the simultaneous elimination of battery storage. This home was one of twenty entries in the 2009 D.o.E. Solar Decathlon. Throughout the project decisions were always mindful of the final purpose: the demonstration of an affordable, easily reproducible solar powered home that honors the row house tradition of Houston’s Third Ward, while taking advantage of modern durable materials and energy conversion technology, and bringing a focus on sustainability and education to the greater community.


Designs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Gulbin Ozcan-Deniz ◽  
Robert Fryer ◽  
Ana de Castro Amorim Ferreira

Sustainable buildings are often considered expensive alternatives to conventional designs. However, a decline in costs associated with materials, technology, labor and whole building approaches make green homes realistic to construct even within low-income neighborhoods. This can address the critical shortage of affordable housing in cities, and the emerging recognition of their impact on healthy communities. This study proposes an affordable and energy-efficient design for a low-income rowhouse in Philadelphia as a city having the highest poverty rate in the U.S. The design can be replicated as an investment in the future where people live with net zero energy and zero emissions. Furthermore, residents have the opportunity to create a more vibrant and healthy neighborhood economy by investing their savings locally. The results showed that the proposed prototype has a payback of approximately just over 16 years. Although this seems long, the building is affordable since the ongoing operating expenses are significantly less than a typical house. This is achieved by the combination of an efficient building design, onsite power generation, water conservation and rainwater harvesting. The payback period may suggest that larger-scale projects than just a single urban residence (two residences and larger) are needed to improve investment paybacks. This is discussed. Considering the added benefits (energy and water) that will continue after the payback period, the design can be a pioneer for low-income neighborhoods.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cs. Szász

The paper presents an intelligent building (IB) development strategy emphasizing the locally available non-polluting renewable energy resources utilization. Considering the immense complexity of the topic, the implementation strategy of the main energy-flow processes is unfolded, using the net zero-energy building concept (NZEB). Noticeably, in the first research steps the mathematical background of the considered NZEB strategy has been developed and presented. Then careful LabView software-based simulations prove that the adopted strategy is feasible for implementation. The result of the above mentioned research efforts is a set of powerful and versatile software toolkits well suitable to model and simulate complex heating, ventilation and air-conditioning processes and to perform energy balance performance evaluations. Besides the elaborated mathematical models, concrete software implementation examples and measurement data also is provided in the paper. Finally, the proposed original models offer a feasible solution for future developments and research in NZEB applications modelling and simulation purposes.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl A. Feickert ◽  
Thomas J. Hartranft ◽  
Franklin H. Holcomb ◽  
John L. Vavrin ◽  
Alexander M. Zhivov ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 1070 (1) ◽  
pp. 012093
Author(s):  
Sangamesh ◽  
Mohammed Faraz ◽  
Gagan ◽  
Mallinath ◽  
Mohhamed Aqib ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

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