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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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Fundamentals: Window size conundrum

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    • CommentAuthorbarney
    • CommentTimeApr 24th 2013
     
    For sure guys - clients like it though - we did a demonstration project for a client on a zero carbon school

    Once we got the client past the concepts of regulated and unregulated energy use we took a building with mediocre (well actually pretty crap) architecture, no real passive strategy and deployed heat pumps, solar thermal and absolutely loads of PV.

    Once you factor in FITS and potential for RHI and just report the EPC details then it's like your some kind of wunderkind - zero carbon school - just like that.

    Until we get metrics that actually challenge the consumption or demand in the terms Chris highlighted then high carbon emisions from poorly performing buildings compensated for by "renewable" offsetting is far to easy a solution for the industry

    Regards

    Barney
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Posted By: barneyusing the ... gas grid as the storage mechanism
    How can that be?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Gas is used to generate electricity. So just an alternative offset source.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    so you upload surplus PV output and download it later as gas? Might as well say you download it as firewood!
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Yes, some people would. That is the problem with offsetting.
    The idea is to reduce rather than eliminate imported energy.
    • CommentAuthorbarney
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Basically yes Tom - if i export surplus electrons basicaly someone somewhere burns les gas - so making that gas available to me to import when my ST isn't adequate.

    we are just counting and offsetting carbon - I could achieve much the same outcome by planting trees in a ratio equivalent to my carbon demand - in 30 years someone else burns the trees and i claim my installation has been carbon zero - despite it being a poorly performing building.

    regards

    Barney
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Solar spaceheating may be a special case.

    Say I find that technically,
    the key to solar spaceheating that can do the job right thro Dec/Jan,
    therefore really truly eliminates need for backup heating apparatus,
    is to collect at ultra-low flow temp;
    and that heat collected in such low grade form is not transportable to any other site but can only be used on the spot;
    and that such a source of 'free' heat is sufficiently copious to allow relaxation of some of the difficult, expensive, resource-intensive stringencies of ultra-low-energy building ...

    What about that?
    • CommentAuthorbarney
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Well you would have a zero carbon building (at least in terms of heating energy) - but if you analyse it against a building that requires fuel for heat and performs badly and you also produce a fuel (any fuel) then the balance between the two would show the second building to vastly out perform the first.

    That's on paper of course - you building "suffers" because the low grade heat "over collected" is worthless (in the sense you can sell it or transport it.

    Not the correct approach of course - but one which is routinely adopted by Part L within the UK. I've lost count of the number of biomass boilers, oversized PV arrays and ST systems coupled with heat pumps I've seen or designed into buildings in favour of going back to basics and first reducing the demands and then using the passive approach to meet them - using fuels just as the "top up".

    Basically, it's the regulatory compliance metrics that are wrong

    Regards

    barney
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2013
     
    Posted By: barneyBasically, it's the regulatory compliance metrics that are wrong
    Yes, ain't it almost always :sad:

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