Building energy performance optimization towards net zero energy building using passive solution technologies and building information modeling at design phase

Abstract

Excessive amount of energy consumption confronts the world to great dangers such as global warming and climate change. About 40% of total energy consumption from conventional sources can be reduced to zero by taking appropriate decision at design phase for developing Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB). Two most important elements of NZEB are passive solution technologies for building energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy production for essential services. Passive solution technologies have much potentiality for reducing energy consumption and are made of unique architectural design considerations and special types of materials which have some unique characteristics. This study evaluated some passive solution technologies through rigorous energy simulation perspective using Autodesk Green Building Studio (GBS) and Autodesk Insight 360. About 61 scenarios were made by using passive solution technologies and were assessed by Building Information Modeling (BIM) tool such as GBS through whole building energy simulation. Among them lightweight concrete as building envelope and foil faced glass fiber as building thermal insulation exhibited the best energy efficiency. Estimated renewable energy production potentiality of BIPV (Building Integrated Photo Voltaic) system of the prototype residential building was 122800 kWh annually.