[Bldg-sim] energy autarky buildings

[Nick Caton]

Hi Leen!

 

I had to look this up on Wikipedia, so it's my word of the day:
"Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient."

 

There are many loose terms thrown around here in the states for
"self-sufficient" buildings - these terms may help your search depending
on what exactly you're looking for:

-          "net-zero" buildings - this may imply one of a few things add
up to zero over time:

o   Energy Consumption (sometimes isolated services - i.e. electricity
but not gas)

o   Carbon Emissions - see also "Carbon Neutral" in the context of the
2030 Challenge

o   Cost - the cost of purchased energy is balanced by the sale of
site-generated energy

-          "zero-energy" buildings theoretically produce/harvest all
energy on-site without needing to tie to a utility grid.  I'm not
intimately familiar, but a number of zero-energy building design
challenges exist in the academic world - you may find a lot of
information from competition entries if that's what you're looking for
and such information is archived somewhere.  Zero-energy may also refer
to "source" energy (meaning the energy harvested/generated on site meets
a higher bar of energy to include losses of transmission/generation),
but I've yet to see that applied to a real project.

-          "off-the-grid" buildings - similar to "zero-energy" but
literally off the utility service grid.

 

Because these are largely unregulated marketing/PR labels, any of the
above interpretations may be "bent" to meet the needs of the moment.
For example, you may find a building may be claimed "zero-energy," but
in reality it only functions in that state for limited periods during
the year when the wind blows.

 

Sorry for not providing any specific examples, but cautioning that you
carefully define what you mean by autarky buildings - lest you get
swamped with information that isn't what you're looking for!

 

~Nick

 

 

 

NICK CATON, E.I.T.

PROJECT ENGINEER

25501 west valley parkway

olathe ks 66061

direct 913 344.0036

fax 913 345.0617

Check out our new web-site @ www.smithboucher.com 

 

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of leen
peeters
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:33 PM
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Bldg-sim] energy autarky buildings

 

Dear,

 

I'm looking for examples and analyses (including LCA) of energy autarky
buildings. As I want to see the differences in design as a function of
the climate, the examples may be fom anywhere. There seems not to be
that much of literature on the subject, so any nice reference is welcome
too!

 

Thanks already,

 

Leen Peeters, Belgium

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