ENERGY EFFICIENCY

& REDUCTION
CAPE Green Engineering – Green Solutions
 Content

1) Reducing Energy Use in Buildings

2) Passive Design Strategies
3) Using Energy Efficiently
 Succesful Energy Strategy
A successful energy strategy involves the following
four steps:
1. Reduce energy demand through design.
2. Use energy efficiently.
3. Select sustainable power supplies.
4. Address climate change and reduce carbon
footprint.
 Reducing Demand Through Design
Electrical power is wasted through poor or outdated design
Products and buildings were not designed with efficiency in
mind
Reducing demand is easy and provides a quick financial
return
Energy Conservation Vs. Energy Efficiency
Energy conservation Energy efficiency
The decision and practice of The reduction of energy
using less energy wastage to do a task through
e.g. turning off lights in a the use of technology that
vacant room, unplugging requires less energy
appliances not in use e.g. switch from incandescent
lighting to LED lighting
Reducing Energy Use
in Buildings
Reducing Energy Use in Buildings
Buildings can be designed to allow in as much light as
possible, by incorporating glass walls instead of solid walls.
The building is then heated by utilizing the greenhouse effect,
which reduces additional energy needs and costs.
This low energy house not
only has a photovoltaic roof
but also has been designed
so that it requires only a
minimum amount of energy
for heating and lighting.
The house is orientated in an
east-west direction and the
rear is south-facing to
maximize access to the Sun.
 Reducing Energy Use in Buildings
Buildings are the largest category of energy consumer in the
world.
Design and use directly affects building energy consumption.

Energy needed for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting

are affected by :
geographic and topographic location,
orientation and location within microclimates caused by hills,
streams, or vegetation.
Energy needed for pumping requirements for water and
wastewater
Surface choices affect energy use: smooth stone or metal
surface will make room cooler due to energy exchange with
persons
Energy Use Reduction
Project uses onsite
water recycling and an
onsite cogeneration
 Reducing Energy Use in Buildings - Example
For the headquarters of a major foundation in California, Sherwood
Design Engineers worked on a 50,000-square-foot office building
designed to be 100 % net-zero energy.
After extensive energy modeling, the design team recommended
1.5-inch triple-element windows with a heat mirror film in the middle.
The increased insulation value of the windows meant the building
would require less perimeter heating.
Even though the windows cost $75,000 more than high-performance
dualglazed windows, they were efficient enough to allow the
mechanical engineer to reduce the size of the building’s perimeter
heating system, saving $150,000 from the outset.
Because the heating system was smaller, it meant less photovoltaics
were required to power it, which saved an additional $300,000.
But even if a project is not net-zero, significant savings can be had
over the life of the building by investing in good design and efficient
installations from the start.
Passive Design
Strategies
 Passive Design Strategies
Passive solar heating involves any system that can capture
the Sun’s energy directly. This can be done using a simple
solar collector or by the design of a building.

Designing windows to capture prevailing breezes for cooling

instead of using air conditioners
 Passive Design Strategies
Lighting and heating a
home with sunlight
instead of artificial light.

Gensler’s headquarters in
San Francisco, California,
incorporates extensive daylighting
to improve the performance and
quality of the interior spaces.
Gensler/Sherman Takata
Photography.
 Passive Design Strategies
In any climate, rooms that are expected to create larger
internal gains, can be positioned in areas with lower solar
exposure or high ventilation to balance the temperature
in the building without using air-conditioning such as
kitchens,
computer server rooms,
and laundry facilities,.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Grid orientation:
In hot climates, where cooling needs dominate, orienting
corridors parallel to prevailing breezes can provide
natural cooling for developed areas.

In temperate and cold climates, best practice ideally

orients main corridors perpendicular to winter winds and
parallel to cool summer breezes if possible in order to
reduce heating and cooling loads.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Microclimates:
A neighborhood that is located downwind of a vegetated
or wet landscape can experience cooler breezes due to
the effects of evapotranspiration.
A dense landscape can also provide protection from wind
and shield a site from particulate matter from nearby
roads or businesses.
Strategies such as using parks to break up dense areas,
positioning larger buildings to provide shade for smaller
ones, and daylighting creeks and streams that have been
forced into underground pipes all provide temperature
balancing that can reduce building loads
 Passive Design Strategies –
Tightly sealed building envelope:
Use of efficient insulation, sealing, and building materials
can reduce the amount of energy needed to heat or cool
a space.

If used in all construction, properly sealed building

envelopes can reduce heating system size and cost by
20 to 30 percent.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Natural ventilation design:
Natural ventilation is a whole-building design concept,
utilizing wind pressures to supply outdoor air to building
interiors for ventilation and space cooling.
The goal is to have an airtight building envelope while
controlling outdoor air supply through windows that are
placed to capture cooling breezes.
Many older buildings have windows that face each other
on opposite sides of the room. When both windows are
open, air currents are naturally drawn between them,
providing a current of fresh air.
Natural ventilation is also closely tied to improved indoor
air quality.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Building design and orientation:
In warmer climates, buildings can be shaded using deep
overhangs and awnings or by screening and tinting
windows to reduce solar gain.
In passive solar design, deciding whether to face a
building toward the sun depends on the climate.
Using thick walls will increase insulation, while the
strategic placement and sizing of windows can provide
light and warmth without incurring extra heat loss.
Skylights, solar tubing, and light shelves that reflect light
deep into a room are all energy-free ways to let more
light into a building without using energy
 Passive Design Strategies –
Building design and orientation:

Skylights at Union Station in Washington, DC.

Older buildings were designed in the days before
centralized heating, air-conditioning, and electric lights.
These buildings often employ passive techniques for
lighting, warmth, and ventilation. Peter Griffin.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Thermal mass:
Heavy stone walls have been used throughout history in
both hot and cold climates to maintain a moderate
temperature inside while outside temperatures fluctuate.
Heat takes longer to travel through stone and other
dense materials like concrete, which essentially acts as
thick insulation.
In the warm months, this element keeps a building cool
by absorbing excess heat during the hottest parts of the
day and radiating it during the cooler night.
In cooler months it can help warm a building by
absorbing and releasing solar thermal energy.
Allow a floor slab to pick up solar heat during the day and
radiate that heat back at night
 Passive Design Strategies –
Low‐emittance windows:
Low-emittance (low-e), high-
performance windows utilize a
microscopically thin coating to
either block or retain most of the
radiant heat gain that results from
exposure to the sun.
In a tropical climate, low-e windows
allow for large windows and views
that would otherwise cause too
much heat gain in a building.
In colder climates, low-e windows
let in light without losing heat.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Radiant barriers:
Radiant barriers are installed in the attics of buildings primarily
to reduce summer heat gain by reflecting, rather than absorbing,
radiant heat.
They use thin sheets made of aluminum or another metal, sometimes
along with an insulating material.
One side reflects heat back to the roof, and the other side stays cool
so heat doesn’t pass into the attic and heat the building.
According to manufacturers, an effective radiant barrier can reflect as
much as 97 percent of radiant heat back toward its source, providing
substantial energy savings in warm climates
Passive Design Strategies –
Radiant barriers:
 Passive Design Strategies –
Reflective surfaces:
Light colors reflect heat while darker colors absorb it.
Buildings in warm climates like Greece’s have been painted white for
centuries to keep surfaces cool. Painting roofs white can make an
immediate difference in a building’s heat gain.
And white is not the only possibility: choosing lighter-colored tiles for
roofs, courtyards, and sidewalks can reduce the urban heat island
effect, which causes cities to be 6 to 8 degrees warmer than the
surrounding countryside because of all the black asphalt roads and
roofs heating the air.
Passive Design Strategies –
Reflective surfaces:

White roofs
create an
distinctive
aesthetic while
reducing the heat
gain of the
buildings in
Bermuda. ©
Sherwood Design
Engineers.
 Passive Design Strategies –
Vegetation strategies:
Using plants and trees to increase shading from the sun is a time-
honored technique for keeping buildings cool.
Vine-covered terraces and patios have been used for thousands of
years in the Mediterranean to shade outdoor areas next to buildings,
acting as a deep overhang to prevent sunlight from heating interior
spaces.
In addition, trees and shrubs act as climate regulators through
transpiration, making cool days warmer and warm days cooler.
Deciduous trees provide shade from the summer sun, losing their
leaves in the fall to allow winter sunlight to warm the building.
Nondeciduous vegetation can be planted near buildings in warm
climates where cooling is the priority year-round.
Plants can also be used to shield mechanical equipment from
overheating by the sun, thereby increasing efficiency.
Placing landscaping around a building instead of concrete and asphalt
 Passive Design Strategies –
Vegetation strategies:
Placing landscaping
around a building instead
of concrete and asphalt
can lower the ambient
temperatures on-site.
Green roofs also reduce
heat gain in a building by
providing shade,
insulating the roof with
their soil media and
removing heat through
evapotranspiration.
 Passive Design Strategies

What do you think are the advantages and

disadvantages of passive design strategies?
 Activity :
Collaborate
Using Energy Efficiently –
Active Design Strategies
 Active Design Strategies –
Energy‐efficient lighting:
Lighting accounts for 40 percent of the electricity used in commercial
buildings
New compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) offer a warmer,
softer light than older models, which flickered, hummed, and emitted a
harsh light.
The price of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, which is longer lasting
and more efficient than even CFLs, is dropping rapidly as new models
come on the market and more consumers become aware of the
money and energy savings available in high-quality lighting.
 Active Design Strategies –
Energy‐efficient appliances:
Purchase more efficient appliances, such as those certified by the
Energy Star program which perform as well as or better than traditional
models while using significantly less energy:
e.g. refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and computers
 Active Design Strategies –
Energy‐efficient appliances:
Use less water reducing power demand through decreased pumping
and treatment.
Electrical infrastructure serving the home is sized to peak demand.
Reduce the home’s required power rating.
Replacing a traditional washing machine and dryer, for example, with
an efficient ventless washer/dryer combo—can reduce the feeder from
the electric transmission grid by as mush as 25%
Energy-efficient alternatives can complement or replace the same
function.
Installing ceiling fans, can reduce reliance on air-conditioning units.
 Active Design Strategies –
Heat recovery systems:
Heat recovery systems introduce an added level of efficiency to
existing mechanical systems by capturing heat that is normally lost
from these systems as a byproduct.
One of the more common heat recovery systems is a coiled pipe that
wraps around an effluent water pipe carrying hot water, such as a
shower drain.
Normally, the heat carried by the hot water would be lost as the hot
water travels down the drain, but the recovery process transfers that
heat to cool water that runs through the coiled pipe instead.
“preheated” water can then be used in other processes to take
advantage of the recycled heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2tM7KA5rQ
 Video – Heat Recovery
& Ventilation Systems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2tM7KA5rQ
 Active Design Strategies –
Geothermal insulation:
Can be used to help a building stay warm in winter and cool in
summer.
Can be highly efficient compared to traditional duct or HVAC systems.
They rely on a network of pipes to carry a heat exchange fluid buried
underground.
The only energy demand comes from pumping the heat exchange
fluid, which is much more efficient than circulating air through ducts.
These systems are most efficient in regions with wide ranges in annual
temperatures.
 Video –
Geothermal Insulation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY3oGlgZRgI
 Active Design Strategies –
Interior air exchange:
In a tightly sealed building, mechanical air exchange is necessary to
bring in fresh oxygen and filter the air.
Ohlone College in Newark, California, has installed two “enthalpy
machines” that take advantage of the temperature difference between
inside and outside air.
When the air-conditioning system is running, large fans mix the
outgoing cool air exhaust with the warmer incoming air.
This precools the hot air before it enters the air conditioner, thus
reducing the energy required to chill the air to a comfortable
temperature.
In the winter, these same machines preheat incoming cold air with
outgoing warmer air, thus reducing heating loads.
The same concept can be used to regulate humidity as well
 Active Design Strategies –
Chilled ceiling/chilled beams systems:
Chilled ceilings and beams cool through the process of radiant
exchange (heat transfer between surfaces of differing temperatures)
and local convection, respectively. In a room served by a chilled
ceiling, the surface temperature is normally between 15°C and 18°C,
providing a very pleasant radiant cooling effect (with minimal air
movement).
Chilled beams achieve their cooling effect by using finned elements
through which water is passed at around 15°C to 18°C.
Chilled ceilings and beams combine radiant cooling systems with
conventional overhead ventilation to reduce energy usage, improve
comfort levels, and reduce the architectural impact of ductwork and
other mechanical systems.
 Active Design Strategies

What do you think are the advantages and

disadvantages of active design strategies?
 Activity :
Collaborate