Optimal strategy for transition into nearly zero energy residential buildings: A case study

Abstract

This study suggests a customized design for turning an existing residential structure into a nearly zero energy building, along with a peak-power limiting strategy. The proposed work focuses on curtailing peak power demand of residential consumers through shifting the appliances connection time. The load scheduling is modeled as an optimization problem and solved using whale optimization algorithm and fuzzy logic. This is followed by reviewing the required size of the rooftop solar photovoltaic system for various types of residential consumers in a community using self-consumption and self-sufficiency-based indices. The proposed optimization algorithm effectively reduces the peak power drawn by 27 % and the peak-to-average ratio by 30.69 % on average in the residential community. Further, the rooftop PV size assessed substantiates that the energy drawn from the grid is nearly zero, attaining energy independence.