Net-zero buildings are critical to avoid further climate change

According to a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global warming is expected to reach 1.5 ° C (2.7 ° F) in the coming decades. The question now is whether the world can prevent further, more destructive 2 ° C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), or worse 3 ° C (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), which makes our current policies difficult for us to practice. . If we want a better chance of keeping the temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of 2 degrees Celsius, our economy can put another 420 gigabit of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. At present, the global carbon budget will be completed before 2030. We need to reduce fossil fuels, build thousands of new clean power stations, and move faster to move our homes, offices, schools and transportation systems faster. With pure power.

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Globally, buildings account for 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. To keep the temperature up to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need to renovate existing buildings in terms of energy efficiency before 2050 and build all new buildings to meet the new net zero standard by 2030.

In developed countries today, less than 1 percent of buildings are designed and built at a zero level. However, this is changing. The State of California and the European Commission have ordered hundreds of thousands of new and improved buildings to be built in the coming years.

In addition, By 2020, 28 major cities representing more than 28 million people in the United States, including New York City and Washington DC, Medellin in Colombia and Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, have pledged to achieve a net zero. Construction work in 2050.

There are still many more governments at all levels to join the effort and keep their promises. And architects, commercial and residential builders, home builders and building manufacturers have to do a lot to find us on the road to rapid growth of net zero buildings.

The key foundation for net zero transformation: photovoltaic (PV) panels – is expanding on roofs around the world. However, roofing (PVC) or any other type of residential renewable energy source — a multi-energy building — is only one component of a family home, apartment complex, or residential community to zero or power-positive. More than you use.

As I stated in my book, Good energy – renewable energy and the design of everyday life, Homes need complete electricity to avoid the use of coal, oil and gas heaters, stoves and ovens, which not only pollutes but also contributes to unhealthy indoor air. This allows for the transition of homes Only Reliance on electricity from renewable energy sources. To further reduce energy use, buildings should include low-cost, low-power appliances, protection and energy-saving windows.

In warmer climates, practical home techniques can be used to achieve greater energy savings from heating, cooling, and ventilation. The term “functional home” basically refers to a technical system that converts a house, apartment building, or commercial building into an air-conditioned vessel that does not heat up in the winter or does not need to cool down much in the summer. These buildings are designed to increase solar heating in winter and reduce heat in summer. They can be designed around the sun’s daily activities by occasionally inviting light and blocking the afternoon heat. Active homes of all sizes can reduce energy consumption by up to 90 percent more than usual and provide more indoor air. These projects also do not require additional costs.

Houses, apartments, and other buildings may be designed to cool down, but not to use energy for air conditioning, in developing countries with warmer and subtropical climates, which will be increasingly dangerous in the coming decades. Some proven strategies include deep verandas and overcrowded shelters that reduce the amount of sunlight in the interior; Heat-filled structures, and high airflow, which help to dissipate heat from internal spaces, increase reliance on wind. Multi-storey buildings can use conventional solar exhaust and ground duct systems to attract and cool air. Residential communities can direct road grids to catch winds. These architectural techniques improve airflow, which in turn improves air quality.

Innovation also has to come up with how to build net zero buildings. Architects, major builders and home builders, and manufacturers should encourage more standard building components and how these components integrate with PV panels and power management systems. Local pre-construction of net zero components can speed up the construction process, thereby reducing labor costs. At the same time, early production of building units in local factories will create better wage green jobs and revitalize production infrastructure. Manufacturing materials with local materials also reduces emissions from transporting materials.

When more refined zero and energy-positive buildings are used as a set of standard rooms, it will reduce the time and cost of constructing these buildings and make them smaller in developed and developing countries.

While net zero housing is needed to reduce emissions from the building sector, policymakers, planners, developers and architects need to consider a more sustainable construction environment. Houses and communities cannot generate energy for themselves.

Today, many homes and commercial buildings built with their own buildings generate more energy than they can use, sending energy to the central grid, and then tapping the grid when their PV panels do not generate as much energy in cloudy days or times. Winter. Net zero energy consumption will be achieved within a year. As these buildings become more energy efficient, we can move forward with the inclusion of indoor batteries and advanced energy management systems that allow owners to better manage their own energy use.

We can imagine high-energy, energy-efficient buildings based on new decentralized energy networks that will improve resilience to climate change. A few forward-thinking communities around the world, such as Nothang, UK, such as Trent Basin, have become virtual power generators that actively trade with neighboring communities, helping to reduce any interruptions. Renewable energy-based grid.

These communities can form the basis of future, locally sourced energy systems that can even install central power plants that are more vulnerable to severe climate change. With zero energy-powered homes, we can all become energy producers and even profit from a clean energy revolution.