Reflections on the Lecture Materials - Assignment Example

PORTFOLIO By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Portfolio Reflections on the Lecture Materials These lecture materials enabled me to learn a lot; for instance, in the first chapter, I managed to understand why the overall energy savings rely heavily on energy-smart house design, energy smart services and appliances’ selection and correct installation, as well as responsible and responsive user behaviour. Without a doubt, this was useful since it made me understand the value of transitioning the existing houses to smarter homes since the control over all aspects of how the house operates is improved; thus, leading to enhancement of accessibility and safety. In the society, people can benefit from efficient home, resulting in energy savings and reduction of costs. The majority of the Australian homes, by and large, are not efficient in terms of energy consumption. I believe that poor energy use in the households directly affects the energy bills. Luckily, making some smart upgrades can help people in the society make their homes more cost effective and energy efficient. This can be achieved by doing home automation upgrades, which will not only help cut the energy bills but also reduce or eliminate the ‘human error’ mistakes which normally inflate energy bills, such as running the A/C when the house is not occupied or leaving the lights on. As indicated by Greene (2013), having thermostats in homes can help the users to program as well as control their home temperature remotely through Smartphone in order to ensure proper energy consumption. I learned a lot in the second chapter; for instance, I discerned that the energy smart design has numerous key principles such as daytime living areas should have big north-facing windows in order to gain unobstructed sun during the winter season. If a person is planning to perform an extensive remodel on an old house or build a new home, I learned that he/she should optimise the home energy efficiency by means of the whole-house systems approachin order to make sure that together with the building professionals they take into account all the interactions, details, and variables that would influence the energy consumption in the house. Besides the behaviour of the occupant, climate, and site conditions, the home owner must also take into consideration other factors such as water heating, lighting, home electronics and appliances, windows, insulation, and so forth. I noted that home owners can make the most out of site conditions and local climate by incorporating energy-efficient landscaping strategies and passive solar systems. The objective is reducing energy used and meeting the reduced load using the renewable energy systems available on the site. The third chapter enabled me to understand that the residential design for energy efficiency as well as comfort is influenced by climatic factors. I learned that there are considerable differences between temperatures (minimum and maximum) during the winter and summer season, the day/night differences as well as the duration of heating and cooling seasons. For people to realise desirable outcomes, the construction materials and the design of the house must be suitable to the region’s climate. This chapter sparked my interest in understanding more how the sun’s path varies all through the year. During the summer, the sun is normally high into the sky and during the winter it is low in the sky. Therefore, to determine the average positions, one must take a look at the path of the sun on the autumn as well as spring equinoxes, when the sun is rising and setting due east-west. In the fourth chapter, I learned a lot about how to sit my future home so as to gain adequate solar access. I learned that I should select a house block which would allow me to design as well as construct an energy smart and north-facing home. This information is beneficial to the society since inappropriate blocks could make it challenging to construct an energy efficient house. Clearly, the orientation and siting of a building is important in realising improved solar access and enhanced energy efficiency. More importantly, I learned that the house should be designed based on the site-specific conditions in order to facilitate maximisation of free solar energy. The fifth chapter was interesting because I never knew that windows play an important role in making our homes energy efficient. I learned that energy smart window design has three main principles; minimising heat loss during winter by suitable window sizing; maximising the heat gain during winter by making sure that the windows are oriented towards the north and sizing windows to be compatible with the house thermal mass; and minimising heat gain during the summer by ensuring that the windows are protected with external shading devices. I now know that advanced window technologies could enormously affect the house comfort energy performance. Thanks to chapter six, I now understand how thermal mass is important in facilitating the building materials to take in, amass, and later release considerable amounts of heat. The people who have constructed their homes using masonry and concrete have an exceptional energy-saving advantage due to their inherent thermal mass. In chapter seven, I observed that insulating out homes allows for considerable resistance to the flow of heat. When insulation materials are installed in our houses, the flow of heat into and out of the house is enormously reduced; thus, minimising the need for heating and cooling. I personally live in a well-insulated home, and I can attest that the level of conformability is high since the house warmer in winter and cooler during the summer. As a result, the amount of energy I need for heating and cooling is enormously reduced. Air movement, as we observed in chapter eight, is very important since it helps in cooling our houses by carrying heat out as warmed air and substituting it with cooler air from outside. On the other hand, chapter nine enabled me to understand why purchasing energy-efficient appliances and electronics can help maximise energy savings. As a young person, I have many electronics for entertainment purposes, which normally lead to high energy costs. Therefore, I will start choosing energy-efficient electronics and appliances so as to reduce energy costs. I have always been interested in landscaping; therefore, chapter ten deepened my appreciation for landscape design and how designing deciduous trees and vines can help improve energy efficiency. Basically, landscaping of a building site could be designed in order to change the home’s temperatures. The shades of trees could help lessen indoor temperatures during the summer season while the windows can facilitate sun penetration during the winter; thus, leading to substantial energy savings. Therefore, a well-designed landscape would help home owners cut their heating and cooling costs and also improve the beauty of their homes. Designing Energy-efficient buildings through Air movement, Landscape design, and Thermal Mass Air movement This is my personal suggestion on how people can design energy efficient through controlling air movement. It is imperative to know that air normally tries to equalise between lower as well as higher air pressure areas. When there is a pressure difference and a gap, the air will move through the pathway. The material used as air flow retarder or air barrier have to block the flow of air and must be installed in a manner that eliminates all the existing gaps in order for the aim movement to be durable and continuous across the conditional space. It should be noted that, when the amount of air removed for the enclosed space is not the same as that supplied to that space, then it would lead to the creation of pressure imbalance. Air-infiltration can happen when the air removed is more as compared to the air added. A balanced air pressure is desirable in all climates, but this is challenging to maintain. In warm climates, it is important to maintain a slight negative pressure in order to facilitate the prevention of problems associated with hidden moisture in the building cavities. In cold climates, on the other hand, a slight negative pressure should be maintained to avert the building cavities’ hidden moisture problems. Having a large negative pressure can result in dangerous chimneys’ backdrafting as well as the combustion appliances’ flues. The figure below demonstrates a negative pressure attributed to leaky ducts as adopted from eXtension (2013) article.   Figure one: Effect of Negative Pressure Because of the Leaky Ducts (eXtension, 2013) The indoor air in nearly all houses is virtually exchanged with the outdoors. This is normally attributed to numerous leaks (air passages), connecting the inside with the outside. Such could include larger gaps around chimneys, vents, and pipes as well as smaller cracks at in areas where the window frame and the wall are joined. Air exchange also happens because of the pressure and temperature differences between the buildings outside and inside considering that air normally moves from regions of high pressure towards areas with lower pressure. Homeowners should understand that their homes can become healthy and energy-efficient if they control the air going out of and coming into the house at the right rate. This can be achieved by installing ceiling fans that have ‘Energy Star” labels, which offer more control options. Landscape Design The majority of the homeowners do not understand the value of solar orientation, which is crucial for every design decisions. Basically, the specific plants’ placement has a direct effect on the building’s temperature control. To improve the homes’ energy efficiency, planting tress is the most suitable practice since when their limbs, when they mature will shade the building’s walls as well as windows. The home owners should make sure that they allow sufficient space for the mature tree size. The trees play a crucial role in cooling our homes by shading and also cool the air around them through evapotranspiration. Imperatively, homeowners should understand that placing the trees improperly could lead to increased energy costs. For instance, the coniferous trees located in the south of the building could become a liability during the winter by not obstructing the sun to warm the building. Therefore, when placing the tress on the south side, the designers should permit the winter sun to gain access to the house by making sure the trees are planted twice as far from the building. That is to say, a tree whose mature size is 60 feet tall must be planted at least 120 feet south of the building. Deciduous trees should be used on the west and east sides of the building since they drop their leaves in the winter; thus, allowing the sun’s rays to filter using the branches (see figure two). Figure two: Deciduous trees drop leaves that filter the sun’s rays (adopted from Haque et al. (2004) study) The homeowners can use plants to control the wind. The speed of the wind could have an effect on the perceived air temperature in both winter and summer. The wind could accelerate the air exchange rate between indoors and outdoors; thus, leading to high demand for heating in the building. Therefore, placing the landscape plants properly could influence air infiltration by increasing, slowing or redirecting the wind’s velocity close to the house. Furthermore, the coniferous or evergreen trees could reduce the impact of the cold winter winds as well as lessen the heating bills by planting trees on the house’s windward side. More importantly, the homeowners should make sure that the winter sunlight is not blocked by the evergreen trees. Thermal Mass Without a doubt, mass is an important factor of energy efficient design. But still, mass cannot singlehandedly create a building that is thermally comfortable. Therefore, including thermal mass should create a part of an integrated approach towards the buildings’ thermal design, including appropriate windows areas, correct orientation, insulation, site integration, and suitable utilisation of ventilation. The home owners should understand that when they use thermal mass in tandem with the natural ventilation and passive solar design methods, they can successfully eliminate the need for air conditioning. Since the buildings’ temperatures would be able to run free and the need for artificially modifying them is eliminated. This can be achieved mainly in medium density residential buildings, single houses, as well as low-rise commercial buildings. For the thermal mass to effectively work at decreasing loads of air conditioning, the air mass should be able to access the thermal mass in the building. In this case, the accessible spaces consist of exposed partitions and walls, tiled concreted slab floors and ceilings. The material used to construct the house should allow the thermal mass to absorb heat from winter sun during the day and radiate the heat all through the night as evidenced in the figure below. Figure Three: Thermal Mass process in winter (adopted from Reardon et al. (2013) article) During the summer the thermal materials should allow the cool night breezes to pass through, by discharging the stored energy. The thermal mass protects the building from excess summer sun through insulation or shading. Figure Four: Thermal Mass process in summer (adopted from Reardon et al. (2013) article) References eXtension, 2013. Understanding Air Flow in Homes for Energy Efficiency. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://articles.extension.org/pages/26407/understanding-air-flow-in-homes-for-energy-efficiency" http://articles.extension.org/pages/26407/understanding-air-flow-in-homes-for-energy-efficiency [Accessed 31 May 2017]. Greene, I., 2013. Smart Houses Help Reduce Energy Use and Save Money. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-greene/smart-houses-help-reduce-_b_4472919.html" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-greene/smart-houses-help-reduce-_b_4472919.html [Accessed 31 May 2017]. Haque, M.T., Tai, L. & Ham, D., 2004. Landscape Design for Energy Efficiency. Clemson, South Carolina: Clemson University Digital Press. Reardon, C., McGee, C. & Milne, G., 2013. Thermal mass. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/thermal-mass" http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/thermal-mass [Accessed 31 May 2017]. Read More