Building Management Technologies

Zero Energy: From Buildings to Districts - The Way Forward

Neetha Jayanth — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:50:02 GMT

While on the one hand, the government and private enterprises are still coping with the economic effects of the recession, on the other, the march towards a greener society has not stopped. If anything, the recession has only highlighted the need for self-sufficiency and sustainability in every aspect of life from economy to environment.

In keeping with this, the EU announced the recast of the EPBD earlier this year. One of the highlights from this was the targets on near zero energy buildings (NZEB). It will become a mandate for all new constructions to be NZEBs by 2018 for public buildings and 2020 for other buildings. This concept has already kindled the brainstorming of commercially viable ideas on technology that would be pivotal for buildings to comply with such standards. Energy generation and energy conservation will have to go hand-in-hand as highlighted in the recast itself, which mention the requirement of renewable energy generation.

Much of the thought process across the continent is still dedicated to the requirements of technology, labour and other factors and there is still much deliberation on how the market uptake for NZEB is going to be. While these problems are still being discussed, one city in Germany has taken steps towards implementing the near-zero energy concept, not at the building level but at the district level.

The city of Heidelberg has launched its plan to build a large zero-emission city district. This plan encompasses a region of 116 hectares and will be centrally located. The implementation plans include biomass and geothermic power plants to take care of the district heating requirements, encouragement for solar thermal systems for heating water, fund allocation for the construction of passive housing, rainwater management and an overall nature-protecting, electricity saving concept. In order to ensure quality, the authorities have undertaken a consultancy approach for building owners and developers for passive house concepts. The development company to be given charge of the majority of constructions has entered into an urban structural contract based on an energy draft encompassing the above mentioned ideas.

When completed, this will be the world’s largest passive settlement with near zero emission and the progress beyond NZEBs would have begun, as also the progress towards greener societies.

What is important here is the example that this city district could set for a joint effort of the public authorities, private builders and manufacturers and the public in achieving environmental standards in societies. This could very well be the way forward in implementing projects for energy conservation in buildings and cities.

How to be as a society more energy efficient and whose role is it to lead the way?

Reka Szanto — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:32:36 GMT

We use and require more energy day on day, both at home and work. Moreover, we use it inefficiently. Energy use in buildings is 30-40% of our total energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in most countries. Residential buildings use more energy than commercial buildings with ever rising demand as a consequence of larger homes, higher expected levels of comfort and more household appliances. But commercial buildings are not much better either. Even though heating is more efficient these days, the energy demand for cooling remains high and plug loads are becoming the main offender.

The trouble is that most of the existing buildings will be still standing in 2050, and therefore we cannot just concentrate on the ones built in the future, but must make the ones already standing more energy efficient. Right here and right now! Our planet's resources are not infinite and if we want future generations to have an enjoyable life, too, our attitude towards the way we use or I shall I say waste energy must change.

But whose obligation is this? One would believe that energy efficiency starts at home and our good attitude, as employees, facility managers or senior managers responsible for the company, is then transferred to work. And it does seem that despite the recession, energy efficiency is high on the managements' agenda in the commercial sector with investment levels in energy efficiency remaining strong. Enterprises put a growing importance on their corporate social responsibility by having energy efficient buildings,which are also cost effective and sustainable. But then again, it is also reported that compliance levels with energy efficiency related legislation and regulations, which aim to reduce energy consumption in buildings such as the Energy Performance Certificates, is extremely low, even though there is a fine for non-compliance!

Obviously, above all, we individuals must know how to make our environment consume less energy as all little steps will add up resulting in a significant overall reduction. But where and who can we get this advice from? Even though the importance of energy efficiency and the urgent need to reduce our carbon footprints have been talked about for a long time, there is still a lot to be done to achieve the ambitious targets the EU as well as the national governments have set. To do so we need help! Not only in terms of incentive schemes and fines, but in basics, too. The public and businesses still require general education and it is the responsibility of the government together with the utilities to provide that. And I am not talking about the distribution of free CFL light bulbs, eco-kettles or low-flow shower heads, but rather effective marketing campaigns and leaflets giving tips and basic understanding of how our everyday activities contribute to unnecessary energy waste. Also, 'you cannot manage what you cannot measure' says it well. We need to be aware of how the energy is used in our homes and businesses and therefore, the increasing use of home energy monitoring devices and smart meters have a great potential to help us achieving that.

All in all, a piece of legislation or a new scheme will not solve the problem of energy efficiency on its own, especially if enforcement is weak. People and business first must be better educated on why it is important for all of us to achieve a more energy efficient world and how simple steps can make a huge difference! Until this is achieved, there might be some short-term results due to various incentive schemes, but will be no major change in behaviour!

How smart technologies can help us save energy - Part 1 - The use of intelligent lighting technologies

Reka Szanto — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:59:42 GMT

It is well known how much electricity is consumed purely for lighting purposes, bringing high CO₂ emissions along. In order to slow down the increasing energy demand for lighting and improve our planet’s carbon footprint, waste prevention is needed. If today’s efficient lighting technologies and techniques are used, the frequently occurring over-lighting can be easily avoided.

There are ways to address this global problem, and a great example comes from Germany.

Three German towns have been reducing their energy costs, and more importantly also their carbon emissions with streetlights on demand.

The Dial4Light project was first launched a few years back in one town covering only certain roads, but since then it has been proved successful in terms of public acceptance, carbon reduction and of cost savings and has been extended.

The concept in a nutshell is that streetlights are not switched on permanently in the towns and streets participating in the project, but can be easily activated by the residents by simply making a phone call. The lights then remain on for 10-15 minutes, after which they are automatically switched off. Apart from streets, public walkways, sports grounds and even sites of interest can be lit up on demand.

Since adopting the system, one of the participant towns has reduced its street-lighting related energy cost by 35%, and after the initial pilot phase, the scheme has been rolled out throughout the whole town.

For obvious reasons, the system could not be used it larger cities where permanent lighting is required, but it is well suited to villages, towns and suburbs which have no demand for all-night lighting.

It is a great way to make happy many, the local authorities can save money, residents can feel safe when they are out in the night and the environmentally conscious can rest assured that all possible has been done to save the planet.

As the company behind the idea has already received requests from other towns in Germany as well as from other countries around the world, hopefully, the concept will soon appear in the streets near by you.

In the meantime, we shall look for other ways smart technologies can help us save energy!

To be continued…

Waste heat delivered in a container

Michael Meyer — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:19:29 GMT

A recent project led me to the task of quantifying amounts of waste heat emitted by US industries and the assessment of opportunities for its recovery. As one would expect, excess heat in the form of hot gases, steam or liquids produced by energy intensive industries such as oil refineries, chemicals and steel is plenty. Trillions of Btu’s are (British Thermal Unit with 1 Btu = app. 1kJ) are released to the environment each year, enough to cover for Denmark’s and Croatia’s combined annual energy demand. Considering such the large amount of wasted energy it is easy to understand why its recovery also stands for a significant economic opportunity. This opportunity however, is strongly linked to conditions of economic feasibility, with two key requirements being the low costs of equipment as well as the readily available use for the recovered heat. Interesting, while heat recovery equipment fulfilling the requirement of relatively low initial costs, is available and already widely in use, finding readily available use for the recovered heat can be a challenge difficult to tackle. This is particular the case for industries such as cement where plants are banned to remote areas due to high noise and pollution levels and where in addition is little use for recovered heat on site due to a lack of processes and sub-processes. Thus, the questions of how to get the heat recovered from a plant to the end-user, in an economic viable fashion is a key aspect to waste heat recovery. As recently announced, in the German industrial city of Dortmund a physicist, an information scientist and an investor demonstrated what could be a solution to the problem – a container, a container which enables to carry heat from various industrial processes to sites where it can be used. Moreover, a fist project has already been realised for a local swimming pool. The container with the heat, which was recaptured from a plant outside town, is connected to the heating system of the swimming pool and now provides it with heat. The storage technology, which was developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), is based on a so-called latent heat and surprisingly simple: With the recovered heat, a sodium acetate, which is also used for the curing of meat is brought to melt and the resulting stored energy is later during crystallization released again. It is the same effect that is already being used on a small scale: for example, hand-sized heating pads that can be put into a jacket pocket. With the pilot project seemingly being a success, its inventors are joined by officials at the German Environmental Protection Agency in predicting a great potential for this technology. Critics referring to the container as an eye-sore with little chance of being installed without objections of the public have been silenced as the use of the container is planned for public buildings, including swimming pools, schools and hospitals rather than residential buildings. Objection that the environmental benefits of heat recovery are undermined by the carbon miles used for the transport of the container have also been refuted by the fact that the fuel used for the transport is fractional to the energy in the container. Besides, the use of bio-diesel could be considered. The real challenge, so experts, is in the logistics of delivering heat ‘just in time’ as this is crucial to the projects commercial viability. To find further ways of optimizing the ‘loading and un-loading’ of energy, the project owners have teamed up with the local municipality’s utility provider. While the developers admit that significant improvements in this field may take up to two years time, they point to the fact that an anticipated rise of energy prices may help their cause in the meanwhile. So, what to make of this ‘energy on wheels’? A brilliant solution of delivering trillions Btu’s that are wasted in industrial process to places where it is needed? A great investment opportunity? Well, its technical feasibility seems proven, if the prove of its economic feasibility follows, it may become considered as a serious option of reducing waste heat in the industrial sector. Admittedly, it would be one option of many, however considering the scale of industrial waste heat losses, enough for its inventors to get very excited about.