Improved building designs include enhanced thermal insulation, higher levels of airtightness, optimized orientation/shape, solar shading, etc. Minimizing the building energy demand includes improving building design, using efficient appliances, integrating more efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, using smart control technologies, and encouraging energy-efficient occupant behaviors.
Īdvances in NZEBs are mainly accomplished by minimizing the building energy demand and increasing on-site renewable energy generation. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) assigned a target of market-viable NZEBs by 2030. The US Department of Energy aims to achieve “marketable zero energy homes in 2020 and commercial zero energy buildings in 2025”. It is toward this end that interest in net-zero energy buildings (NZEB) is increasing, where NZEB are defined here as buildings that produce at least as much energy as they use in a year when accounted for at the building site. Therefore, advancements in the energy efficiency of residences could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emission. This large amount of energy consumption resulted in the residential sector accounting for approximately 20 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. Residential buildings accounted for approximately 38 % of the retail sales of electricity in 2016. in 2016, with residential buildings accounting for 21 % of the energy consumption. The ASHP with dedicated dehumidification and the ERV (or HRV) provided reasonable payback periods.īuildings accounted for 40 % of the total energy consumption in the U.S. The GSHPs with the ERV and dedicated dehumidification provided the highest energy savings and good comfort, but were the most expensive. The economics of each HVAC configuration was analyzed using installation cost data and two electricity price structures. Finally, ground-source heat pump (GSHP) alternatives were compared to the ASHP the GSHP with two and three boreholes reduced the HVAC energy by 26.0 % and 29.2 % and the building energy by 13.1 % and 14.7 %. The ASHP-only option (without dedicated dehumidification) reduced the initial investment but provided the worst comfort due to high humidity levels. Dehumidification options were compared to an air-source heat pump (ASHP) with a separate dehumidifier the ASHP with dedicated dehumidification reduced the HVAC energy by 7.3 % and the building energy by 3.9 %. There was no significant difference in thermal comfort between the ventilation options. Ventilation options were compared to mechanical ventilation without recovery a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) and energy recovery ventilator (ERV) respectively reduced the HVAC energy by 13.5 % and 17.4 % and reduced the building energy by 7.5 % and 9.7 %.
An experimentally-validated model was used to evaluate ventilation, dehumidification, and heat pump options for the NZEB in the mixed-humid climate zone. This study investigated the energy, comfort and economic performance of commercially-available HVAC technologies for a residential NZEB. It does not store any personal data.HVAC is responsible for the largest share of energy use in residential buildings and plays an important role in broader implementation of net-zero energy building (NZEB). The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
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