Residential Building Sector Research Articles

The Need for Assessing Technology Deployment in Energy Systems Models to Decarbonise the Residential Sector: A Systematic Literature Review

Scientists across the world are working on understanding the potential impact of buildings’ energy consumption on climate change and vice versa. Buildings comprise between 20% and 40% of overall energy consumption depending on the economic development, cultural, and geographical features of a country or region; heating and cooling can represent up to 80% of the total energy consumed in buildings. Energy systems models (ESMs) have emerged to help the research community to build logical scenarios and simulate the complexity of energy sectors of the global economy. However, current challenges must still be included in ESMs, especially challenges from the end-use energy sectors (i.e. transport, industry, and buildings). This research review assesses two of these current challenges in modelling the energy transition of the residential building sector (RBS): 1. the consideration of the residential sector in energy systems models, and 2. the available technologies to decarbonise the sector.

A multi-sectoral approach to modelling community energy demand of the built environment

This paper examines the major challenges associated with evaluating energy demand in the residential building sector in an integrated energy system modelling environment. Three established modelling fields are examined to generate a framework for assessing the impact of energy policy: energy system models, building stock models and dynamic building simulation. A set of profound challenges emerge when attempting to integrate such models, due to distinct differences in their intended applications, operational scales, formulations and computational implementations.Detailed discussions are provided on the integration of temporally refined energy demand, based on thermodynamic processes and socio-technical effects which may stem from new policy. A detailed framework is discussed for generating aggregate residential demands, in terms of space heating demand, domestic hot water demand, and lighting, appliance and consumer electronics demand. The framework incorporates a pathway for interpreting the effects of changes in household behaviour resulting from prospective policy measures. When long-term planning exercises are carried out using this framework, the cyclic effects between behavioural change and policy implementation are also considered. This work focused specifically on the United Kingdom energy system, however parallels can be drawn with other countries, in particular those with a mature privatised system, dominated by space heating concerns.

Comparative Analysis of Energy Demand and CO2 Emissions on Different Typologies of Residential Buildings in Europe

The building sector accounts for one third of the global energy consumption and it is expected to grow in the next decades. This evidence leads researchers, engineers and architects to develop innovative technologies based on renewable energies and to enhance the thermal performance of building envelopes. In this context, the potential applicability and further energy performance analysis of these technologies when implemented into different building typologies and climate conditions are not easily comparable. Although massive information is available in data sources, the lack of standardized methods for data gathering and the non-public availability makes the comparative analyses more difficult. These facts limit the benchmarking of different building energy demand parameters such as space heating, cooling, air conditioning, domestic hot water, lighting and electric appliances. Therefore, the first objective of this study consists in providing a review about the common typologies of residential buildings in Europe from the main data sources. This study contains specific details on their architecture, building envelope, floor space and insulation properties. The second objective consists in performing a cross-country comparison in terms of energy demand for the applications with higher energy requirements in the residential building sector (heating and domestic hot water), as well as their related CO2 emissions. The approach of this comparative analysis is based on the residential building typology developed in TABULA/EPISCOPE projects. This comparative study provides a reference scenario in terms of energy demand and CO2 emissions for residential buildings and allows to evaluate the potential implementation of new supply energy technologies in hot, temperate and cold climate regions. From this study it was also concluded that there is a necessity of a free access database which could gather and classify reliable energy data in buildings.

Thermal performance evaluation of traditional walls and roof used in tropical climate using guarded hot box

Buildings provide appropriate thermal comfort for the people residing in it. Buildings provide this thermal comfort via interaction with the external ambient through walls, roof and glazing. As a result, a prior knowledge of the thermal performance of walls, roof and glazing can help estimate the heating or cooling loads on proposed HVAC systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the thermal performance of walls and roofs commonly used in residential building sector in India. This is done by determination of overall heat transfer coefficient or U-value using guarded hot box test facility. Detailed description into the calibration procedure of the test setup prior to the actual testing has been discussed at first. The overall testing procedure is in accordance with BS EN ISO 8990:1996. Thereafter effect of varying differential air temperature on overall heat transfer coefficient of reinforced cement concrete roof and three types of burnt clay brick wall configurations are studied. From the regression analysis, one can easily evaluate the U-value of the walls and roof for any differential temperature as experienced by buildings in various climatic zones in India.

Target Setting Outlook for New Residential Building Energy Efficiency Promotion in China: A Frontline Perspective Using Delphi

Promoting energy efficiency (EE) requirements for new residential buildings has been proven to be an effective way to slow down the rapid increase of energy consumption. Its successful implementation relies significantly on the attitudes and participation of various stakeholders within the industry, yet they are normally taken for granted. This paper explores and reports both the consensus among and the diversity of the attitudes of frontline stakeholders toward future EE requirements in the new residential building sector via a nationwide Delphi questionnaire distributed to 29 institutes and 25 experts. Results indicate that promotion of approximately 30% EE every five years until 2030 is suggested and that 20% EE promotion every five years is the most likely to be achieved. In addition, China should progressively adopt the energy intensity index into the current building EE evaluation system. This paper also gives a detailed description of opinions from frontline stakeholders. The findings are expected to help researchers and policymakers better understand the true attitudes of stakeholders, thereby enabling the formation of a proper outlook for new residential building EE promotion.

Carbon dioxide intensity and income level in the Chinese megacities' residential building sector: Decomposition and decoupling analyses

Carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by residential building sector is essential for China to achieve its 2030 carbon emission peak. As the indicator to control the total CO2 emissions, CO2 intensity feature should be preferentially analyzed. Through the decomposition and decoupling approaches, this paper is the first to investigate whether CO2 intensity decouples from the income level in residential building sector of China and its four megacities [Beijing (BJ), Tianjin (TJ), Shanghai (SH), and Chongqing (CQ)] from 2000 to 2016. Major findings indicate that: (1) The nationwide status was the weak decoupling during 2001–2016 excluding 2003 (the expansive coupling) and 2014 (the strong decoupling). (2) At the megacity scale, only four decoupling levels appeared and the decoupling effect rank of four megacities is as follows: CQ > TJ > BJ > SH (2001–2004), BJ > TJ > CQ > SH (2005–2008), SH > BJ > TJ > CQ (2009–2012), and SH > BJ > TJ > CQ (2013–2016). (3) Carbon Kuznets curves explained the different decoupling modes of four megacities and the increasing decoupling effects in 2001–2016 are attributable to the implementation of energy conservation strategy. Overall, this paper fills the gap of decoupling CO2 intensity from the income level in residential building sector. Furthermore, a significant contribution is made by this paper to the carbon emission peak analysis in residential building sector of China, and our efforts will also be a case for other countries and cities to evaluate the decoupling effect in their residential building sectors.

Estimating city-level energy consumption of residential buildings: A life-cycle dynamic simulation model

The residential building sector consumes a large amount of energy and is recognized as a high potential area where urban energy consumption and carbon emission can be reduced. To reduce the residential energy consumption, relevant policies and measures have been formulated in different places. However, due to the lack of adequate information in the process of policy formulation, the effectiveness of most energy-saving policies for residential buildings seems to be unsatisfactory. Although previous studies have analyzed the energy consumption for a single building or for the whole construction industry at the national level, few of them investigated the life-cycle energy consumption of residential buildings at the city level. Since municipal governments are the key implementers for the reduction of urban energy consumption, a city-level analysis on the energy consumption of residential buildings is highly needed for the policy making. To fill the research gap, this paper develops a life-cycle dynamic simulation model to fully reveal the characteristics of energy consumption of residential buildings at the city level. This easy-to-use model is validated by a case study of Beijing, which demonstrates its applicability and capability to help analyze multiple indicators of residential energy consumption and the dynamic trends of these indicators for municipal governments. Furthermore, the model can be used under the condition of limited input data, and can provide the situation analysis and simulation results of energy consumption of urban residential buildings for facilitating the policy making by municipal governments.

Measured and modeled performance of internal mass as a thermal energy battery for energy flexible residential buildings

To increase the penetration of photovoltaic renewable energy (PV RE) in the residential building sector energy mix, the mismatch between mid-day production and evening electrical energy demand must be bridged. The use of heat pumps for space heating of residential buildings creates an opportunity for energy flexible residential buildings that rely on low-cost thermal energy storage systems. This paper explores the ‘building as battery’ concept (BaB), i.e. the use of the structural thermal capacity as a heat storage medium in winter. In these systems the building internal mass is preheated during solar daytime hours (using a PV RE powered heat pump) and cooled by discharge into the room air after sunset, for space heating. This study presents measured and simulated performance of BaB systems used for thermal energy storage in living rooms of three different apartment buildings with variable thermal insulation levels, ranging from typical southern Europe 1980s construction to a insulated apartment (Passive House certified). To assist in interpreting the results and facilitate their integration in simplified simulation of BaB systems in smart grids the model parameters of a simplified Resistance-Capacitance model were found by fitting the experimental results. The results show that, for apartments with high thermal mass, thermal insulation is the key driver of BaB system thermal efficiency, with the highly insulated apartment reaching BaB efficiencies of 60–80%. For existing apartments with a low thermal insulation, the BaB approach is only effective when space heating is required right after sunset (just when PV RE powered heat pump charging finishes).

A hybrid building thermal modeling approach for predicting temperatures in typical, detached, two-story houses

Within the residential building sector, the air-conditioning (AC) load is the main target for peak load shifting and reduction since it is the largest contributor to peak demand. By leveraging its power flexibility, residential AC is a good candidate to provide building demand response and peak load shifting. For realization of accurate and reliable control of AC loads, a building thermal model, which characterizes the properties of a building’s envelope and its thermal mass, is an essential component for accurate indoor temperature or cooling/heating demand prediction. Building thermal models include two types: “Forward” and “Data-Driven”. Due to time-saving and cost-effective characteristics, different data-driven models have been developed in a number of research studies. However, few developed models can predict temperatures in respective zones of a multiple-zone building with an open air path between zones e.g., an open stairwell connecting two floors of a home. In this research, a novel hybrid modeling approach is proposed to predict the average indoor air temperatures of both the upstairs and downstairs. This “hybrid” solution integrates both gray-box, i.e. RC model and black-box models. A developed RC model is used to predict the building mean temperature, and black-box model, in which the supervised machine learning algorithms are leveraged, is used to predict the temperature difference between the downstairs and upstairs. Compared with the measured data from a real house, the results obtained have acceptable/satisfactory accuracy. The method proposed in this study integrates the advantages of black-box and gray-box modeling. It can be used as a reliable alternative to predict the average temperatures in respective floors of typical detached two-story houses.

Assessment of Green Practices in Residential Buildings: A Survey-Based Empirical Study of Residents in Kazakhstan

In the lead-up to the Paris climate change conference, the majority of the UN Member States submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on carbon emissions reduction to be met by 2030. Kazakhstan is no exception. The government made pledges and, therefore, has to adapt its national policies and regulations to meet the set ambitious goals. In this regard, the role of residential building sector is of the utmost importance due to its significant share in the country’s energy consumption and carbon emissions profile. Thus, this study presents the types of residential buildings available and assesses how far they are from meeting the green building (GB) indicators set in various certification schemes and standards. This would help in suggesting practical steps to improve the sustainability levels of the residential building stock of Kazakhstan. This study collected a robust set of data on existing residential buildings in Astana, chosen as a case study location, classified them and, based on a developed checklist, evaluated their performance compared to GB standards. The study has found that old buildings tend to have a rather poor level of sustainability, whereas the sustainability of new buildings depends on the class of the building—steadily increasing from economy to premium class in all categories of the checklist. A detailed analysis of the results has led to the development of recommendations on how each type of building should be improved to meet the GB standards.

Optimization of window type and vent parameters on single-sided natural ventilation buildings

The residential building sector is one of the major areas to reduce energy demand. In this study, the single-sided top vent-based natural ventilation parameters are optimized using Taguchi technique. The computational fluid dynamics tool is used to simulate the room model. The grid sensitivity analysis is executed to predict more precise results. The operating parameters for top vent and window-based ventilation investigated are top vent width, top vent height, the location of the top vent, the number of top vents and window type with different levels. The orthogonal array, L8, is selected for the conduct of experiments. The signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance technique are used to optimize the results. The optimized results showed that the maximum top vent width, top vent height and more number of vents with higher window opening area reduce the maximum indoor air temperature and increase the mass flow rate of a single-sided residential room. Of all, around 60.64% numbers of top vents contributed to indoor temperature reduction. In addition, thermal exergy is also investigated on various vent sectional planes.

Carbon footprint and embodied energy assessment of roof-covering materials

The residential building sector regularly satisfies a diverse range of housing needs whilst addressing respective capital-cost considerations. Designers and builders must also be aware of the environmental implications of their design specifications; the work here adds to a body of knowledge concerned with carbon footprint and embodied energy demand, specifically through an examination of alternative roof-covering materials. A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out, within a West Australian context, to compare impacts for the roof specification options of: clay tile; concrete tile; and sheet metal. In locations where recycling facilities are unavailable and thus disregarded, it is found that clay tiles have the lowest carbon footprint of 4.4 t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e-) and embodied energy demand of 52.7 Mega Joule (MJ) per 100 m2, while sheet-metal roofing has the highest carbon footprint (9.85 t of CO2e-), with concrete roof tiles having the highest embodied energy demand (83 MJ). Findings confirm that a sheet-metal roof can obtain significant carbon and embodied energy saving benefits (i.e. 71–73%) compared to clay tile or concrete roof covers through ongoing encouragement of recycling strategies and increased local recycling facilities able to embrace residual cradle-to-cradle material reuse.

Methodology to Identify and Prioritise the Social Aspects to Be Considered in the Design of More Sustainable Residential Buildings—Application to a Developing Country

The priorities in the design of more sustainable buildings are quite dependent on the specific social context. In developing countries, the sustainability concept and priorities in the residential buildings sector are quite different from the ones of the developed countries, since there are still basic needs to answer. Therefore, this research is aimed at contributing to a better understanding of the concept of social sustainability in the residential building sector of the developing countries. A methodology to define and prioritise the social sustainability indicators is proposed and applied in the context of Palestine. The presented methodology is based on the sustainability indicators of international standards, on the most well know building sustainability assessment methods and in the analysis of their application to a specific context. It includes a methodology to prioritise the list of social indicators, by considering the expectations of two groups of building stakeholders: designers and building users. At the end, this research proposes a framework of social aspects to consider in the design of more sustainable residential buildings in West Bank, Palestine that is composed of twenty-one indicators, distributed among six sustainability categories and ranked according to their weight in the overall of sustainability level.

Initiatives to achieve energy efficiency for residential buildings in India: A review

In view of the climate change threat, India has recently committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 35% by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. Energy efficiency in buildings offers the greatest potential for saving energy at the lowest cost. This paper reviews current energy consumption trends in the residential building sector of India and traces various initiatives by the government to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in terms of regulatory framework, green building rating systems, fiscal incentives and institutional mechanisms affecting energy demand management. Further, the paper provides an overview of various barriers and challenges in implementing energy efficiency programmes in housing along with suggestions to strengthen the institutional framework and create awareness to accelerate energy efficiency programmes for reducing CO2 emissions.

Optimal decarbonization pathways for urban residential building energy services

Strategies for decarbonizing residential building energy services can be divided into three categories: (1) shifting to less carbon-intensive fuels in the building energy supply mix, (2) adopting more energy-efficient end-use appliances, and (3) improving the thermal properties of buildings. We develop an optimization model that incorporates all three strategies, and determines the least-cost decarbonization pathway by balancing these levers and leveraging their synergistic relationships. Hourly service demand profiles are established using appliance-level empirical data and the CitySim building energy simulation software. We apply this framework to the residential buildings sector of Austin, Texas, which is a valuable test case due to its ambitious climate policy, rapid population growth, and strong space cooling demand in line with the shift of building energy demand toward warmer regions in the U.S. and globally. Results show that optimal decarbonization relies primarily on the electrification of end-uses and concomitant decarbonization of electricity supply. End-use appliance efficiency plays a comparatively minor role, limited to specific end-uses like lighting, space heating, and water heating. Upgrading building thermal efficiency significantly reduces the cost of climate policy, revealing an important policy complementarity between carbon reduction measures and building energy codes.

Necessary changes in the residential building sector to achieve the climate protection aims for 2030/2050

AbstractThe aims of German energy and climate policy are ambitious: by 2050, emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced by at least 80 %, ideally by 95 % compared to 1990. In addition, there are the decisions of the Paris Climate Accord, which intends to limit global warming to considerably less than 2°, better to 1.5°. The building sector as is known plays an important role in the energy transition. The transformation of the building industry and its thermal consumption is of decisive importance for the energy transition as a whole. A study recently commissioned by the alliance for building energy efficiency (geea), the German energy agency (dena) and further industry associations with the title ”Scenarios for a market‐based climate and resources policy 2050 in the building sector“ [1] shows clearly that the ”business as usual“ strategy will not suffice in order to even near the climate protection aims in the building sector. The scientific processing was undertaken by the ewi Energy Research & Scenarios, the institute for building services Dresden (ITG Dresden) and the research institute for thermal insulation (FIW Munich). The scope of this article only deals with the share of residential buildings.

Reaching energy autonomy in a medium‐sized city – three scenarios to model possible future energy developments in the residential building sector

AbstractA city energy model was developed to demonstrate possible future trajectories for the residential building sector up until 2050 for the city of Innsbruck in Austria, a medium‐sized city in the Austrian Alps. It examines final and delivered energy, respectively, from a demand side perspective. Three different scenarios are defined to illustrate the range of future developments in the residential building sector (scenario analysis). The base scenario 1 represents a continuation of recent trends (business‐as‐usual). The middle course scenario 2 is characterized by stricter thermal standards for the building envelope and a beginning of withdrawal from fossil fuels from 2031. The target scenario 3 objective is specified as a 50% reduction in delivered energy and a complete transition to renewable energies by 2050. Scenario 3 differs from scenario 2 primarily in the aspect of an earlier implementation date for certain measures, for example, the beginning of the withdrawal from fossil fuels is scheduled for 2021.

Carbon dynamics and GHG implications of increasing wood construction: long-term scenarios for residential buildings in Austria

ABSTRACTWooden construction elements often exhibit lower life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than conventional counterparts (‘material substitution effect’). Moreover, the building stock represents a carbon (C) sink if timber inflows (construction) surpass outflows (demolition) (‘C-stock effect’). A dynamic stock model incorporating these effects is applied to quantify potential climate benefits of wood construction in Austria's residential building sector. If present trends are maintained, culminating in a wood construction share (WCS) of 50% during 2050-2100, building shells could contain three times as much C in 2100 as today. Annual timber demand for residential construction could double, but would remain well below Austria's current net exports. Compared to a baseline scenario with constant WCS (22%), cumulated GHG savings from material substitution until 2050 are estimated 2 to 4.2 Tg CO2-equivalent – clearly less than savings from C-stock expansion (9.2 Tg). Savings from both effects would double in a highly ambitious scenario (WCS=80% during 2050-2100). The applied ’Stock Change Approach’ is consistent with IPCC Guidelines, but the above-mentioned savings from C-stock changes would not materialize under the current default GHG inventory accounting approach. Moreover, savings from C-stock effects must eventually be weighed against forest C-stock changes, as growing domestic demand might stimulate wood harvesting.

German Energiewende—different visions for a (nearly) climate neutral building sector in 2050

In order to contribute to the German Energiewende (energy transition) adequately, the building sector has to be almost completely decarbonised in the long term. Our analysis investigates how the German building stock can be transformed into a nearly climate-neutral state by 2050. Using a stock modelling approach based on a typology of the German residential and non-residential building sector, we develop different visions (target states) of what a nearly climate-neutral building stock could look like. All developed target states achieve the overall goal of reducing the non-renewable primary energy demand in 2050 by at least 80%. In order to span a broad target corridor, the target states differ in the two central target dimensions: efficiency (reduction in final energy demand) and energy/technology supply mix (especially the herein contained share of renewable energies). Additionally, using the energy system model REMod-D, the interactions of the building stock with the energy system as a whole are investigated. We explore the differences between a target state focussing on efficiency measures and a target state where efficiency is partly compensated for by an increased use of renewable energies. We learn that from a private cost perspective no clear recommendation can be derived as to which target state should be given priority. This means that other criteria become more relevant, such as social acceptance regarding the different measures, or the challenges that arise from rolling out additional renewable energy capacity on top of what is necessary to achieve the climate goals in other sectors.

Identifying business opportunities for green innovations: A quantitative foundation for accelerated micro-fuel cell diffusion in residential buildings

Combined heat and power (CHP) production in buildings is one of the mitigation options available for achieving a considerable decrease in GHG emissions. Micro-CHP (mCHP) fuel cells are capable of cogenerating electricity and heat very efficiently on a decentralised basis. Although they offer clear environmental benefits and have the potential to create a systemic change in energy provision, the diffusion of mCHP fuel cells is rather slow. There are numerous potential drivers for the successful diffusion of fuel cell cogeneration units, but key economic actors are often unaware of them. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of barriers, drivers and business opportunities surrounding micro-CHP fuel-cell units (up to 5 kWel) in the German building market. Business opportunities have been identified based not only on quantitative data for drivers and barriers, but also on discussions with relevant stakeholders such as housing associations, which are key institutional demand-side actors. These business opportunities include fuel cell contracting as well as the development of a large lighthouse project to demonstrate the climate-neutral, efficient use of fuel cells in the residential building sector. The next step could involve the examination and development of more detailed options and business models. The approach and methods used in the survey may be applied on a larger scale and in other sectors.