Giving a ‘greener edge’ to your home!
Global warming has become one of the core environmental issues of the day. Engineers and architects the world over are recommending an effective way to combat climatic change; the solution being energy efficient houses. High energy costs and the concerns over global warming have inspired home builders to construct energy efficient homes.
According to the most recent reports, the building sector around the world is capable of achieving emission reductions of 1.8 billion tonnes of C02. A well-planned energy efficiency policy can deliver approximately 2 billion tonnes or nearly three times the amount of C02 reductions to be achieved under the Kyoto Protocol. Proper government regulations, greater utilization of energy saving technologies and behavioural changes can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the building sector.
As per the report, ‘Buildings and Climate Change: Status, Challenges and Opportunities’, produced by the Sustainable Construction and Building Initiative (SBCI) of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), certain energy efficient technologies such as thermal insulation and solar shading should be given prime importance as a means to reduce global warming. The report says that in Europe, more than one fifth of energy consumption and up to 45 million tonnes of CO2 per year could be saved by 2010 by applying more energy efficient building regulations to new and existing buildings.
There are various kinds of energy efficient buildings such as Zero Energy Houses, Super-insulated Houses, Passive Houses and Passive Solar Houses. A Zero Energy House refers to a building, which has a net energy consumption of zero, over a year. Zero energy buildings effectively utilize renewable energies to achieve energy gains in day-to-day activities such as washing and lighting.
Such buildings make use of passive solar energy, temperature variations, thermal gains in walls and roofs, and have super-insulating capabilities. Super-insulated buildings are heated mainly by the intrinsic sources, such as the waste heat emitted by appliances and the body heat of the inhabitants of the house. Super-insulated buildings integrate an extremely thick insulation of walls, roofs and foundations.
Passive Houses incorporate low-volume heat recovery ventilation in order to retain high air quality. They have the capacity to dispense extra energy which is derived from the wall insulation and the materials used in them. A Passive Solar Home exploits the existing climatic conditions, especially the sun, for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. It is an oriented building, which perfectly utilizes shading strategies, advanced windows, right insulation et al.
In short, an energy efficient house should necessarily integrate certain principle factors such as building orientation principles, right interior room layout, shading and landscaping concepts, strategically positioned advanced windows, appropriate insulation for walls, roof and ceilings, air leaking, double glazing, ventilation and draught proofing principles, energy efficient boilers, adequate building materials and utilizing electric appliances with an A-E energy efficient rating.
The International Energy Agency has come up with a rather astonishing statistics; by 2010, a complete global switchover to compact fluorescent bulbs would deliver C02 savings worth 470 million tonnes! So, let’s contribute to our combat against global warming with energy efficient ‘home improvement’. After all, it’s our planet and we need to make it a safe and beautiful place to live in!
Photo shows the Hanson Ecohouse at Offsite 2007
More information: www.iea.org
