African Energy-Plus Construction—A Case Study of House Rhino

Abstract

Due to the energy crisis that South Africa has experienced over the past seven years, challenging preconceived ideas by creating attractive, affordable, energy-efficient buildings has become critical to offsetting massive cost increases for electricity, whilst providing a proof of concept project that professionals can reference. This paper reports on a case study of an energy-plus residential building in South Africa, one of the first of this project type on the African continent. House Rhino, located on the outskirts of the south-eastern coastal city of Port Elizabeth, provided an unprecedented opportunity to research the potential for a residential energy-plus building as a proof of concept for a future where energy and water are rare commodities. House Rhino combines active and passive features in a modern residential design that has been created as a living lab. By means of an illustrative case study including site observation, interviews with the project team and analysis of on-site project data, this research has provided a benchmark against which future projects can be measured. Findings include that an energy-plus building can be constructed in a warm climate environment at a competitive price and that residential biogas generation has challenges in production and usage to make it viable. The results of the research suggest that although the benefits of sustainable construction are well known, the ability to create viable energy-plus buildings using alternative construction techniques can now be proven in a warm climate environment . This study reports on a single case study, which was justified due to its uniqueness (Yin in Case study research: design and methods. SAGE, Los Angeles, 2014). The project is located in South Africa and its design and choice of construction method challenge standard South African construction techniques whilst incorporating energy and water efficient technologies for an African climate environment—although not without unique (South African) challenges. Its findings are limited to the warm climate as well as to the African construction standards, methods, economy, workforce and workmanship. Although several studies about Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) were conducted in South Africa, the authors were not able to find any academic study about Net-Energy-Plus Buildings let alone about residential NZEBs. Research in energy efficiency construction concentrates on commercial and office buildings in Africa.