Abstract
Sustainable buildings are often considered expensive alternatives to conventional designs. However, a decline in costs associated with materials, technology, labor and whole building approaches make green homes realistic to construct even within low-income neighborhoods. This can address the critical shortage of affordable housing in cities, and the emerging recognition of their impact on healthy communities. This study proposes an affordable and energy-efficient design for a low-income rowhouse in Philadelphia as a city having the highest poverty rate in the U.S. The design can be replicated as an investment in the future where people live with net zero energy and zero emissions. Furthermore, residents have the opportunity to create a more vibrant and healthy neighborhood economy by investing their savings locally. The results showed that the proposed prototype has a payback of approximately just over 16 years. Although this seems long, the building is affordable since the ongoing operating expenses are significantly less than a typical house. This is achieved by the combination of an efficient building design, onsite power generation, water conservation and rainwater harvesting. The payback period may suggest that larger-scale projects than just a single urban residence (two residences and larger) are needed to improve investment paybacks. This is discussed. Considering the added benefits (energy and water) that will continue after the payback period, the design can be a pioneer for low-income neighborhoods.
Highlights
Residences in the U.S are responsible for $160 billion worth of energy consumption for heating, cooling and lighting each year, totaling 20% of total U.S energy consumption [1]
The baseline and high-performance life-cycle assessment (LCA) models are generated by using Athena EcoCalculator for Residential Assemblies, Version 1.21 in the closest nearby city to Philadelphia (New York City), and within the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
In an attempt to reduce the payback period, the number of PV panels was reduced from the number of panels that fit within the available roof area to the number of panels needed to provide net zero energy, that is, enough to meet the 35 kBTU/sf/yr needed per the previous set of calculations
Summary
Residences in the U.S are responsible for $160 billion worth of energy consumption for heating, cooling and lighting each year, totaling 20% of total U.S energy consumption [1]. Agency (EPA) encouraging local governments to promote energy efficiency in their jurisdictions through improvements in residential units [4], it may be possible to bring new energy-efficient residences closer to the 30% affordability mark using strategies like considering energy efficiency at the beginning of the design process rather than as an “alternate add” to be value-engineered later This can be done to generate triple-bottom-line (TBL) benefits for the local community. To actualize environmental and social benefits, major cities need amajor new holistic prototypical integralprototypical sustainable these economic, environmental and social benefits, cities need a new holistic home design to promote affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods. This study integral sustainable home design energy-efficient to promote affordable energy‐efficient housing in low‐income proposes and tests the new approach to affordable and energy-efficient design for a low-income neighborhoods.
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