Energy Efficiency Methods 2

[Raquel Esteban]

Hello everyone, I am doing a college paper and I would like to ask you what are the most effective methods to improve energy efficiency in a building and reduce its environmental impact?

 

[Gr8blu]

Raquel That's a pretty open-ended question. Where do you want to start? Once the building is constructed (or at least designed) - in which case you want to limit energy input for "processes" such as heating, cooling, air movement, water movement, material (including people) movement, etc. and limit energy loss (through surfaces and medium exchanges (chillers, evaporators, air handling, etc.). Or before you get to that point - in which case you also need to consider the materials and how they are manufactured, how they are handled getting to the jobsite, how they are handled on the jobsite, etc.

Environmental impact is related to sustainability of materials used, energy used in material production and handling, and energy used/lost in processes. It also includes consideration of what happens when the structure is no longer needed (i.e., demolition or deconstruction). For some structures - how does its placement affect nearby areas? For example - if the building is tall and/or wide enough to shade the neighboring farmer's field, what does that do to crop production? Is it tall/wide enough to disrupt weather patterns? Does constructing the building affect the local ecology (changing where water runoff happens, thereby changing the amount of water available to local flora and fauna?

Converting energy to motion for more than half a century

 

[SWComposites]

Do a search for “net zero buildings”.