Smart ABC Smart Energy Efficient Active Buildings and Building Clusters
Short Description
Status
completed
Abstract
Starting point/Motivation
The EPBD targets a building standard "nearly zero energy", this low amount of energy is to be covered by energy from renewable energy sources. "Smart ABC" analyses a variety of relevant solution sets regarding the building performance and the renewable based energy supply options due to energetic and ecological impacts, in order to optimize the integration of renewable energy technologies in building standards and to find answers how to depict a building cluster regarding standards and tools.
Contents and Objectives
The Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings 2010/31/EU (EPBD) requires the standard "nearly zero energy" and the coverage of this very low amount by "energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby". The implementation of this standard in Austria (within legislative and strategic instruments) sorely needs:
- Clarification and a more precise and scientific-based position of renewables and the related supply technologies
- A further development of parts of building certification tools (like "klima:aktiv")
- A definition of the terms "on-site" or "nearby"
- A solution how to integrate building clusters within existing standards and certification systems in order to meet the challenge of realization of nearly zero energy buildings in dense areas (cities) beyond the background of the "Smart Cities" initiative.
Based on energetic and ecological assessment of relevant building and technology solution sets the project "Smart ABC" aims to provide recommendations and support for an optimized implementation of the EPBD in Austria. The analysis focuses on optimization of the building performance and renewable based energy supply of a single building (Smart Active Building) and building clusters (Smart Active Building Cluster).
Methods
The methods applied will be thermal and energetic simulations in Polysun and TRNSYS calculations with the GEMIS-Software-tool (to provide LCA) and further component and sensitivity analysis.
Results
The assessment of the ecological impact was based on own developed primary energy factors and GHG-emission-factors via GEMIS-tool. They described the primary energy demand of the different energy supply and heating systems including collectors, modules, boilers, storage tanks, etc. The analyzed energy systems and supply technologies could yield neither "plus-energy" nor equalized CO2-emission balances over their life span. The primary energy demand showed higher values for the biomass-heating systems than the heat pump systems, vice versa showed the CO2-emission balance.
When the primary energy demand referred to residents, not to the gross floor area of the residential building, most of the multi-family houses (MFH) are getting closer to "nearly zero energy" or "plus-energy" than the single-family houses (SFH), although the MFH have less area for energy generation on-site related to the SFH. The decentralized energy supply systems perform better within primary energy and CO2-assessment in comparison to little building clusters with 9 buildings each, no matter if EFH- or MFH-clusters. This disadvantage could be equalized by using additional renewable energy sources and storage possibilities to support the grid performance.
Prospects / Suggestions for future research
As expected the big challenges of the future for reaching "plus-energy" or even "zero-energy" building standards are the minimization of the domestic electricity demand, the synchronized match of energy generation and demand, the provision of sufficient area for renewable energy generation on-site or nearby, and the energy and resource efficient production of the renewable technologies as well. The heating but also electricity grids play an important role to overcome these challenges. The relations of energy production and demand on-site and their interaction with the grids are and will be future research areas where more input by investigations and studies is still needed.
Project Partners
Project management
AEE Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC)
Project or cooperation partners
Contact Address
DI Armin Knotzer
AEE Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien (AEE INTEC)
Feldgasse 19, 8200 Gleisdorf
Tel.: +43 (3112) 5886 - 0
E-Mail: a.knotzer@aee.at
Web: www.aee-intec.at