2016 ASHRAE Winter Conference

The currently developing concept of net zero energy building should be adaptive for different climate situations. Buildings in the severe cold area of China have higher energy consumption and release gas emission due to large heating energy demand in wintertime. It is challenging to design and operate a net zero energy building in severe cold climate. This paper will discuss the feasibility of a net zero energy office building design targeting for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability from the initial planning, final construction, until the operation. An on-campus office building is studied as an experimental objective in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China.

The global demand for electrical energy is increasing as a result of population growth and a higher standard of living that is enjoyed by many people.  However, the availability of electricity is often limited by fuel supplies and/or infrastructure for generating and distributing power.  In addition, the looming threat of green house gas emissions and the collateral damage to the environment has encouraged efforts to diversify methods of electricity production.  These factors have led to the increased use of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, to help meet the demand for energy. In particular, the shift towards solar energy has been accelerating due to the decreasing cost of materials and installation. Universities are one possible location where solar electricity makes good sense.

As zero net energy (ZNE) buildings and other low-energy buildings become increasingly common it is important to consider how different ZNE strategies can interact with their local electricity grids. Demand response technologies and grid-sensitive design features in ZNE buildings will be critical to enabling the integration of these facilities into the grid at a large scale. The paper describes three tiers of DR and renewable energy technology integration in commercial buildings: Conventional buildings with one-way energy flows or conventional net metering. Moderately responsive buildings with interactive demand response capacity. Fully grid-integrated buildings with active and passive efficiency and demand response features, often with on-site renewable energy. This paper presents a framework for employing design strategies and measures that ensure buildings of the future can benefit from, and support, the grid modernization efforts that will occur throughout the life of the buildings.

The path towards zero energy buildings is fraught with many challenges, the onsite renewable energy production to drive consumer appliances that are not low or zero energy is an important challenge. Therefore, developing the energy production such that the production mode is matched to the usage is the simplest manner to improve efficiency.  As such, energy consumption for lighting could be significantly reduced by optimizing the building`s design to maximize direct daylight usage, similarly cooking using solar stoves, or water heating using solar geysers, reduce the need for PV cells electricity. The most important energy consumption in most buildings is HVAC (which accounts for approximately 40% of a building`s energy consumption) which can be addressed with the use of a solar power absorption chiller. This article introduces a design of a novel solar concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) system that produces electricity and thermal energy simultaneously from the same surface area.