Relationship Between Buildings Shape And Energy Conservation - Essay Example

Running Head: Research Proposal Research Proposal [Institute’s TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 3 CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 4 Background 4 Research Statement 4 Research Questions 4 Aims and Objectives 5 Significance 5 Delimitations 6 CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW 7 CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY 10 Introduction 10 Research Design 11 Data Analysis 11 Time Table 12 CHAPTER IV - CONCLUSION 14 REFERENCES 15 ABSTRACT Since few decades, a huge number of countries have shown their concern regarding the issue of energy conservation that now poses threats and risks to human lives adversely. In this regard, the proposed research will focus on the purpose statement, “To analyze the relationship between Buildings’ Shapes/Designs and Energy Conservation.” One of the major objectives of this research is to identify and recognize the potential of buildings’ shapes and designs in contributing for the energy conservation. In specific, it is expectation that outcomes of the proposed research will enable an understanding of the role of stakeholders in the construction and building industry towards energy consumption and conservation. One of the basic limitations of the proposed research is financial incompetency that will limit the level and perspective of research to focus primarily on secondary research. In the United Kingdom and other developed countries, such as Canada, the United States, etc, buildings consume more than seventy percent of total energy of the country for different operations. A major aspect of the relationship of buildings’ shapes and energy conservation is that energy-efficient buildings will result in energy savings, and subsequently, less need of power and generation plants that will directly or indirectly ensure energy conservation fundamentally. For this relationship of buildings and energy conservation, governments are now putting efforts to offer tax and monetary incentives to architects and builders against their reduced bills. In particular, secondary research methodology (Ereaut, pp. 95-97, 2002) will be the major tool of the proposed study that will involve scrutiny of previously carried out studies related to buildings’ shapes and designs and their relationship with energy consumption and conservation. For the proposed study, researcher will consider both ‘what’ and ‘why’ designs. It is anticipation that the proposed study will be a major contribution in the academic world, and will be very valuable for future researches in the same field. CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION Background Since centuries, humans continued to benefit from unlimited resources of the planet earth while remaining unaware of adverse effects of human intervention on different aspects of human lives. However, since few decades, a huge number of countries have shown their concern regarding the issue of energy conservation that now poses threats and risks to human lives adversely. In order to save the planet, experts (Williams, pp. 23-25, 2002) now believe that besides creating advanced technologies for zero emissions, it has now become very imperative that construction industry should incline towards sustainable designs and shapes of buildings that play a crucial role in conserving energy largely. For this reason, energy conservation has now become one of the foremost priorities of architects, builders, and other stakeholders in the building industry that are now putting efforts to acquire sustainable shapes of buildings for highest conservation of the energy. From this perspective, the proposed research will be a minute contribution in the series of such efforts. Research Statement In this regard, the proposed research will focus on the following purpose statement: “To analyze the relationship between Buildings’ Shapes/Designs and Energy Conservation” Research Questions In particular, the proposed study will focus on the following research questions: What is Energy Conservation? What falls under the category of buildings’ shapes? What are the effects of buildings’ shapes and designs on their energy consumption? Do specific shapes or designs allow energy conservation? Do sustainable buildings provide financial advantage or only environmental benefits? What are the effects of maintaining the relationship of buildings’ shapes and energy conservation on both short-term, as well as long-term? Aims and Objectives Besides identification of research statement and questions, it is very imperative for a researcher to recognize specific aims and objectives of the research that play a crucial role in ensuring constructive results, as it is an observation that absence of objectives often causes misuse of resources and waste of efforts. For this reason, one of the major objectives of this research is to identify and recognize the potential of buildings’ shapes and designs in contributing for the energy conservation. In specific, it is expectation that outcomes of the proposed research will enable an understanding of the role of stakeholders in the construction and building industry towards energy consumption and conservation. Moreover, the proposed research will attempt to identify different factors of buildings’ shapes and designs that contribute in reduction or increment of energy consumption that will allow a more critical perspective of the relationship in consideration. Last but the most important objective of the proposed study is to identify potential role of buildings’ shapes that can play an efficient role in the promotion of energy conservation. Significance Although aims and objectives of the research indicate significance of the proposed research, however, in specific, it is anticipation that findings of the proposed research will be very valuable in understanding the relationship of energy conservation and shapes/designs of buildings that has now become a major concern of environmentalists and architects during recent years. In addition, outcomes of the research will equip architects with a broad perspective that will facilitate them in implementing different aspects of buildings’ shapes for efficient conservation of energy in their buildings. Although various experts have carried out research on this topic in the past, however, the proposed research will be scrutinizing updated material related to the research statement that will allow a more rationalized and modernized aspect of understanding regarding the issue. Delimitations One of the basic limitations of the proposed research is financial incompetency that will limit the level and perspective of research to focus primarily on secondary research, as primary research is an expensive methodology that requires funding, as well as time that is another delimitation of the proposed research. However, researcher during the proposed study will put efforts to identify critical material while involving primary research as an alternative during the research, in order to reduce the limitations largely and ensure efficient results. CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW Analysis of the literature (Stefanovic, pp. 11-16, 2000) has indicated that since few years, issues such as energy conservation, global warming, environmental effects, etc have become the major focus of experts and leaders from almost every field of the modern world due to effects of such issues on almost every human living in the world. For such purpose, a huge number of experts (Tsui, pp. 75-76, 1999) are now carrying researches and studies to identify risk factors that are increasing the consumption of energy that indirectly results in adverse effects on the global environment. In this regards, studies (Riegner, pp. 181-215, 1993) have indicated that buildings play a crucial role in reducing or increasing the level of energy consumption around the globe as majority of people spend their most of the time inside buildings such as homes, offices, etc. In the United Kingdom and other developed countries, such as Canada, the United States, etc, buildings consume more than seventy percent of total energy of the country for different operations. From this perspective, experts (Valsson, pp. 67-74, 2006) now believe that buildings have now become one of the biggest threats to the environment. It is now imperative to put efforts to save huge amount of energy by investing intellectually on the buildings’ shapes and designs rather than focusing on equipments that save energy in the buildings while consuming a huge number of energy for their own purposes. A major aspect of the relationship of buildings’ shapes and energy conservation is that energy-efficient buildings will result in energy savings, and subsequently, less need of power and generation plants that will directly or indirectly ensure energy conservation fundamentally (Tsui, pp. 79-82, 1999). Moreover, studies (Williams, pp. 39-47, 2002) have indicated that power plants run due to different operating requirements of various buildings. However, efficient buildings’ shapes will result in the reduction of emissions from the power stations that will contribute effectively in the efforts of global climate concern, which will be indirectly keeping the climate cooler, and less need of utilizing equipments to cool the buildings. For this direct and indirect relationship of buildings and energy conservation, governments are now putting efforts to offer tax and monetary incentives to architects and builders against their reduced bills, and for such reason, various architects (Riegner, pp. 181-215, 1993) are endeavoring to create sustainable shapes and designs that may allow natural ventilation and heating process. However, many studies (McLennan & Berkebile, pp. 40-44, 2004) have indicated that until now, many architects are unaware of the effects of buildings’ shapes and designs on energy consumption and conservation. Thus, it is very important to educate stakeholders of the construction and building industry regarding the relationship of shapes and designs of buildings with energy conservation (Jabbra & Dwivedi, pp. 22-28, 1998). Orientation is a significant aspect of shapes and designs of buildings that play a crucial role in the area of energy consumption. Experts (Hay, pp. 88-90, 2002) believe that keeping long axis in the direction of east west enables the builders to manage the heaters and coolers of builders in an efficient manner. In addition, increment of heat gain from the sun is possible with the help of glazing on eastern sides of the buildings during early phases of the day and western sides during the afternoon. In particular, environmentalists (McLennan & Berkebile, pp. 69-72, 2004) have identified two major aspects of the shapes of building that contribute in the energy conservation. Firstly, shapes of any building are the determining factors for the skin area of building that decides the gain and loss of heat during summer and winter respectively. Secondly, daylighting is another significant component of buildings’ shape that allows the architects to determine the amount of flooring that can benefit from natural sunlight for their lighting. Analysis (Jabbra & Dwivedi, pp. 22-28, 1998) has shown that ‘E’ and ‘H’ shaped buildings are the efficient examples of such aspect of the shapes of the buildings, as such kind of buildings are optimal in the provision of efficient daylighting, thus, facilitating in conservation of the energy. Few other architects and environmentalists (Clarkson & Malta, pp. 1-4, 2009) have identified specific geometrical designs and shapes that can facilitate effectively in utilizing solar energy rather than depending on using energy from the power plants. A major benefit of geometrical consideration is that it works in all conditions unlike orientation aspect of the buildings’ shapes. Findings of such studies (Chamberlin, pp. 9-13, 2009) have shown that circular shape of buildings is the most favorable shape in terms of energy conservation followed by square and rectangular shapes of the buildings. However, experts (Clarkson & Malta, pp. 1-4, 2009) have argued that focusing only on geometrical shapes of the buildings will be an ineffective step, and thus, architects should focus on orientation, as well as W/L ratio while putting efforts on geometry of the buildings, as combination of these focuses will be very efficient in conserving energy largely. In the end, literature review (Chamberlin, pp. 9-13, 2009) identified few characteristics of buildings’ shapes and designs that are important, and will be a part of final literature review. For instance, glazing is an important aspect of a building that determines the amount of heating and cooling, and subsequently, energy consumption of the building. Analysis (Alexander, pp. 11-19, 2007) has shown that a number of architects are now focusing on glazers with low emissions for the buildings that offer considerable effects on the level of energy conservation. Walls are another important aspect of any building, and experts have indicated that color of the walls also affect the energy conservation, and thus, a number of companies are now investing heavily to research and identify colors that allow huge amount of energy conservation in the building. CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY Introduction Now the paper will specifically discuss the methodological aspect of the proposed research that will be playing an important role in acquiring significant information related to the research statement. In particular, secondary research methodology (Ereaut, pp. 95-97, 2002) will be the major tool of the proposed study that will involve scrutiny of previously carried out studies related to buildings’ shapes and designs and their relationship with energy consumption and conservation. Some of the basic instruments of secondary methodology are books, journals, magazines, websites, etc that are offering huge amount of information available regarding the topic, and thus, researcher will put efforts to identify and evaluate data that will be illuminating the relationship of buildings’ shapes and energy conservation. One of the basic reasons of focusing on secondary research methodology is its adaptability quality, as it will enable the researcher to carry out the study from a library or from the internet that will be offering various journal articles and books related to the topic. In other words, this method will require fewer efforts in terms of funding and time, whereas, focus on primary research would have inclined researcher to invest financially that is a limitation of the research. However, in order to acquire specific results and ensure critical discussion, the researcher will be identifying and evaluating materials related to the shape, energy consumption, and other factors of specific buildings through the instruments of questionnaires that will include research questions described earlier in the paper that will be contributing in crucial understanding of the topic. Moreover, the researcher will put efforts to locate architects, builders, and environmentalists to acquire their understanding about the role of buildings’ shapes and designs in energy consumption and conservation. Research Design In methodology, research design is an imperative component. It enables the researcher to acquire information in a descriptive or explanatory manner. For the proposed study, researcher will consider both ‘what’ and ‘why’ designs. As earlier mentioned, case study will be an important part of research design that will allow both what and why questions and discussions during the research. In particular, qualitative research design (Eldredge, pp. 19-27, 2004) will include explanatory discussions of the data, whereas, quantitative design (Creswell, pp. 70-72, 2003) will involve descriptive discussion. Analysis has indicated that various experts refute the conception of descriptive design; however, it is observation that descriptive information will provide an important and significant basis to the research. Data Analysis Along with research instruments and research design, data analysis is another imperative and crucial phase of any research that involves transforming data into understandable information. For this reason, the researcher has identified two ways of data analysis that are quantitative analysis and qualitative research. The former one will include statistical tools of measurement that will provide arithmetic representation of the data, and the later will involve hypothetical interpretations that will provide a social scientific outlook to the data. In this regard, amalgamation of both analyses will highlight the importance of the relationship of buildings’ shapes and energy conservation in an effective manner. In specific to quantitative analysis, it is very important to calculate sample size, and thus, the proposed study will consider the following formula for its sample size calculation: Formula: SS = Z 2 * (p) * (1-p) c 2 Where: SS= Sample Size Z = Z score (1.96 is taken for 95% confidence level according to normal distribution table) p = percentage (50%), expressed as decimal (0.5 used for required sample size) c = confidence interval, taken in decimal form (for ±5, = 0.05) (1.96)2 * (0.5) * (1-0.5) = 0.9604 = 384.16 (0.05)2 0.0025 Confidence Level: 95% Confidence Interval: 5 Sample Size 384 Time Table In every study, it is very important that researcher plans everything with care, as lack of planning often creates mess and provides inefficient outcomes. In this regard, the researcher has divided the proposed research into various phases that will allow efficient management of each phase. Firstly, planning is the first phase of the propose study that involves brief literature review and consideration of research methods for the completion of research proposal that took roughly one week. Upon endorsement from the instructor, the researcher will begin to put efforts to identify and acquire quality material from different methodologies discussed earlier in the paper. In specific, distribution and collection of questionnaires will take approximately three weeks that will then enable the researcher to enter into third phase of the study involving data analysis of the findings from both primary, as well as secondary research methodology. It is expectation that data analysis will take around two weeks, and its completion will bring the proposed research to its final phase of reporting and presentation of findings in the form of complete thesis. Timeline: Planning – 1 Week Primary & Secondary Research – 3 Weeks Data Analysis – 2 Weeks Reporting/Presentation - 2 Weeks Total Time - 8 Weeks / 2 Months CHAPTER IV - CONCLUSION In conclusion, the research proposal indicated that global warming, and specifically, energy conservation has become a major concern of this century that has resulted in a number of studies related to the topic on the global level. Particularly, environmentalists are now focusing on buildings that are the major place for human activities and that has now become a consumer of more than seventy percent of energy consumption globally, especially in developed countries. Thus, it is now important that experts should take considerable steps to identify and evaluate the relationship of buildings’ shapes and designs with energy conservation that will allow us to save the planet for our future generations. For this reason, the proposed study will acquire and provide wide-ranging outcomes that will contribute effectively in critical understanding of the identified research statement. It is anticipation that the proposed study will be a major contribution in the academic world, and will be very valuable for future researches in the same field. REFERENCES Alexander, C. (2007). Empirical findings from the nature of order. Environmental and architectural phenomenology newsletter. Volume 18, Issue 1, pp. 11-19. Chamberlin, C. (2009). Thinking and building in a more originary way. Environmental and architectural phenomenology newsletter. Volume 20, Issue 2, pp. 9-13. Clarkson, P & Malta, N. (2009). We must enable, not disable international collaboration, Public Service Review: Science and Technology. Issue no. 4. Creswell, John W. (2003). Research Design. Sage Publications. Eldredge, Jonathan D. (2004). “Inventory of Research Methods for Librarianship and Informatics.” Journal of the Medical Library Association. Volume 92, Issue 1, pp. 83-90. Ereaut, Gill & Callingham, Martin. (2002). Qualitative Market Research. Sage Publications. Hay, P. (2002). Main currents in western environmental thought. Indiana University Press. Jabbra, JG & Dwivedi, OP. (1998). Governmental response to environmental challenges in global perspective, IOS Press. McLennan, J. F., & Berkebile, B. (2004). The philosophy of sustainable design. Ecotone. Riegner, M. (1993). “Toward a holistic understanding of place.” Toward a phenomenological ecology. University of New York Press, pp. 181-215. Stefanovic, I. (2000). Safeguarding our common future. University of New York Press. Tsui, E. (1999). Evolutionary architecture. John Wiley. Valsson, T. (2006). “How the world will change with global warming.” How the World will Change. Springer. Williams, LO. (2002). An end to global warming, Gulf Professional Publishing. Read More