Energy efficient buildings can be defined as buildings that are designed to provide a significant reduction of the energy need for heating and cooling, independently of the energy and of the equipments that will be chosen to heat or cool the building.
Let's discuss how to build energy efficient buildings.
That definition is very bias towards the climate conditions in Europe and North America. Energy efficiency needs to be first contextualized to identify the actual demands and which energy sources are used to supply it. Moreover, you need to understand the energy demands from the materials you used to achieve your desired performance. A building is energy efficient when the energy you invest in materials is compensated by the actual energy saving in the building's operation (this is again context and climate specific). E
Yes, I agree on the context. In addition, energy efficiency is not only a question of the period of "use", but also the phase of building materials, building construction, utilization after a period of use. In addition, efficiency will change; the built-in energy is constant, but the energy used in the state of use (and the energy produced at that time - wind turbines, PV) will change all the time. Looking at this (holistically), energy efficiency is, in my opinion, the function of individual cumulative energy in particular states (construction, use, utilization) but also the function of time.
Huge literature on this subject. You hint at being more interested in cooling than heating. Certainly sustainable design for the tropics is quite a different issue to that in Northern Europe. One of the most important practitioners of this is Ken Yeang in Kuala Lumpur. If you haven’t seenhis work both his buildings and written work should help.
The best Energy-efficient architectural design could be learned from vernacular and historical buildings of each region, which have been achieved through the living experiences of many years. The main challenge would be the adaptation of those knowledge with contemporary conditions.
In addition to the above mentioned, on the other hand, there are still aspects of natural processes that can (or should) be taken into account. Personally, I am investigating the problems of thermal capacity of concrete elements that are interesting for me. I use them to store heat in the foundation of the building creating a kind of thermal battery at the southern facades.
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