Sustainable Design - Essay Example

Sustainable Design & Construction Shelter the one of the necessities of humans besides other necessities. Man had been striving for this necessity since evolution. We always wanted a shelter that can provide us safe from the harsh natural environment (solar radiations, rain, animals, etc). Now houses are build in a typically modern standards with all the necessities and luxuries. The concept of a residential unit is impossible without the electrical and electronic appliances. These appliances are used in our homes for the ease and entertainment purposes. Energy is used in the homes to makes it a better living place. The massive units of energy are consumed in lighting the house and to maintain temperature at home. Temperature is maintained by either cooling the homes with the help of air conditioning units or by heating the homes with the help of electric or gas heaters. However, increased energy consumption at home gives rise to individual carbon footprints. The energy we are utilizing at homes is mostly likely generated by burning fossil fuel resources that emit green house emissions when burnt to extract energy. In the past century, our energy consumption increased to a significant level. Particularly in some previous decades, there is a massive increase in the power generation due to the respective increase in the power demand. Power generation is dependent on the fossil fuel resources. The coal provides more than 50% of the world’s energy demand. Oil and natural gas are also utilized for the power generation. Coal is the dirtiest among all other fossil fuel resources, as it is least dense in the convertible energy content. Natural gas has the highest percentage of burnable hydrocarbons that are converted to carbon dioxide and water vapours. Due to the low cost and widely availability of coal, it is the most preferred material for the generation of power. The preference depends on several other factors including local resourcing, low transportation costs and installed setup. In a power generation plant, coal is directly or indirectly burnt and the energy through the exothermic reactions is used to convert water in steam through various thermal processes. The steam is further used to drive turbine that drives the generator to generate power. We use this power to light our homes and offices, for use entertainment and for the various other purposes. Burning the fossil fuels for our energy requirements also emits the green house emissions. Carbon emissions are the major part of the green house emissions. In this manner, every unit of power we use at our home contributes in emitting the carbon emissions into our environment. The more we use energy units, the more we will contribute in emitting carbon emissions. The temperature of the earth has risen to 1o C averagely due to the carbon emission. This rise in temperature seems nothing for temperate regions, but temperature sensitive regions have a harsh impact due to the rise in temperature. Global warming depicts the situation. The world is hotter than it was 50 years back. Regions like Atlantic glaciers (National Glaciers Park) faced a rapid melting down of the ice due to the global warming. There we 150 glaciers at National Glaciers Park in few decades ago but now only 25 left. Sea level rose due to the global warming due to the thermal volumetric expansion of water. Loss in biodiversity is another impact of the global warming. Thus, the power we use at home directly influences the global warming. I have selected “A wood-frame detached bungalow (single story) built in the 1960s”. The houses build before 1960 lack the idealistic behaviour of the sustainable design, as the design evolved after the concept of sustainable design unknown at that time. The house is built on a wooden frame and structure and it will be easier to amend it in least possible amount. The house needs the proper insulation and proper. The house was built in 1960s and thus lacks the proper day lightening systems. Due to the lack of thermal insulation, the house requires more energy to retain temperature. More than 50% of the energy is consumed in home to retain its healthy temperature. The house would have low usability of daylights. More than 10% of the energy is consumed to maintain good lights at home. In order to enhance the energy efficiency of the home, it is required to: Conserve energy. Generate energy through renewable energy resources. Conserve energy by applying green methods including passive solar design Enhancing thermal insulation Enhancing thermal efficiency Home profile: The home that is under green deal assessment was built in 1960s. Wood was used as the prime material for constructing the frame. The house has a conventional boiler that stores hot water in a tank. The tank is not very good insulated. On the other hand, none of the windows has a fixed sealing. Thus, hot air leaks out through it. The house has not properly used the day light features. No or ruptured insulation is there between the walls. Green deal assessment In order to gain an E- rating, the house would like to gain higher thermal and electrical efficiency. Boiler tank requires proper thermal foam insulation. All the pipe that carry hot water require insulation All windows and doors require airtight seals. Cavity wall insulation is requires throughout the structure. Cavity insulation in required on the roof and using foam insulation between remaining gaps. Proper air ventilation mechanism is required. Thermal efficiency is the basic priority of the green deal policy. About 15% of the thermal energy is wasted through doors, 10% through windows, 35% through walls, 25% through roof and 15% through ground in a conventional building without proper insulation. E rating can be achieved only by implementing energy conservation and enhancing energy efficiency. Electrical efficiency can be gained by: Improving use of day light Using higher energy star appliances and lights (CFL and LED lights) Energy management and conservation of energy Reducing energy use significantly On the other hand, electrical energy efficiency cal further enhanced by using Renewable energy resources. Solar energy is good for individual use in comparison to other renewable technologies. On the other hand, solar energy is widely available and it can be harnessed easily over the rooftops of the houses. Other factors are usually accessed may be: Use of non toxic paints Use of no toxic insecticides and pesticides Other factors that are accessed include: Water management Water conservation and reducing water use Rain water collection system The rating depends on the energy management, energy conservation, water management and water conservation adopted methods. The E- upgrade of the house In order to perform the E-upgrade, the old needs some maintenance. With proper maintenance and insulation, it can attain a maximum efficiency of about 60%. The old boiler may have the maximum efficiency of about 20%. In this manner, 40% energy can be saved. A 40% saving in the energy bill and 40% less carbon emission into the environment means a bigger contribution to the environment. However, proper insulation. On the other hand, the corroded radiators should be replaced with new or well maintained radiators to easily radiate the hot air indoor. On the other hand, the boiler would have no electronic thermostat that makes it less credible. An electronic temperature controller should be installed to gain the efficiency. The setting of the thermostat should remain below 20o C to avoid over expenditure of gas. In this manner, the boiler can achieve a maximum efficiency of 60% and help in gaining an “E” rating. On the other hand, a newer regular boiler with all new fittings can gain a maximum efficiency of about 70%. However, it may cost a lot to change all the existing mechanism. In order to enhance the thermal efficiency, it is appropriate to properly insulate the walls, and seal the windows and door to avoid air leakage. As discussed above, insulating walls can help is enhancing thermal efficiency by 35% and insulating roof can further enhance the thermal efficiency by 25%. In total, the efficiency can be increased to 60%. In order to enhance the electrical performance of the house, the house needs the major renovations. Energy conversation can save as much as 20% on the total bill. In this manner, there is a need to install the energy saving LED lights instead of incandescent lights. Fluorescent energy saving lights are 80% more efficient as compared to that of the incandescent lights and LED lights consume 1/3 of the power consumed by CFL lights. In UK, home lights contribute 25% in the total electricity bill. In this manner, using highly efficient lights reduce the bill to least by only contribute in the electricity bill to about 8.3% at least or may further reduce the contribution down. On the other hand, the energy bill depends on the living standards of the households. If household do care much about the environment, they will try to reduce the bill down. Water efficiency counts while enhancing the rating of the house. In this manner, all the pipes for water intake and outtake should be carefully checked for any leakages or water loss. All the taps should be checked for leakage and performance. It is better to change the taps and shower with special faucet head that allows the air to enhance the pressure of water while reducing the quantity of water. The faucet head is noting more than an extension with a metal grid filter on the top. It enhances the pressure of water by introducing air with the flow of water. In this manner, high pressure and lower volume limits of wastage of water. In the similar manner, smaller toilet flush tanks are installed to reduce the water usage. The previously installed water toilet flush tanks can be made to store less water by inserting stones filled bottles in the flush tank. In this manner, the water quantity can be minimized. By adding the mentioned alterations, about 30% less water is used. With proper use of the energy management plans, about 40% of the energy bill can be saved. Forty percent seems little but it is a massive saving in terms of carbon emissions. The major concern of saving the energy is to restrict the emissions of carbon dioxides and other green house emissions into the environment. Moreover, saving the energy reduces the energy bill. The amount can be used to implement more green features to the home. Costs and savings In order to attain the E-rating, four major tasks have done: Maintaining the boiler and the pipes linking the hot water system Insulation the boiler tank and all the pipes to enhance the thermal efficiency Insulation walls and roofs and sealing the doors and windows to avoid leakage of hot air. Replacing the old lights with LED lights. In this manner, the major areas that consume higher costs include, insulation of walls and roof, insulation of boiler and pipelines linking the system, sealing the doors and windows and installing LED lights respectively. S/no Task Price 1 Cavity wall insulation and roof insulation  £700 2 Insulation of boiler and pipelines £400 3 Boiler maintenance £100 4 Installation of LED lights £216 Total £1416 Considering the size of the house, 20 lights need to be replaced with LED lights. The type of LED lights is “6 X 4W Ultra Bright GU10 LED Light Bulb Day White 6000k”. It has an equal light intensity output as that of the 42 Watts CFL lights bulb. In the given house, 20 LED lights need to be installed. Each has a price of about £10.80 on “Amazon”. In this manner, 20 LED light bulbs have a bulk cost of about £216. If the maintenance of old boiler is not required, a new boiler can be bought at £2,300. On the other hand, the cavity wall insulation has a price range of about £700 for a full sized single unit bungalow. Insulation of boiler and linking pipelines is a difficult job and cost about £300- £500 depending on the size of boiler and size of linking pipelines and the area of the home. Respective savings In an average house, the energy bill is around £1300 annually. If the system is capable of saving 30% of the energy bill, the bill will reduce to £910 annually. If the scheme allows the household to save around 40%, the bill will reduce to £780 annually. That is remarkable saving to make the home easily fit in the E-rating of the Green deal assessment. Read More