The intent of this study was to design produce a comprehensible but user-friendly method that would provide a step-by-step process and guide in originating sustainable, affordable and energy efficient net-zero residential housing. The right-step procedure of the VERSAE Method was linked to the traditional vernacular architecture of the Hopi, a Native American people who still reside on part of their aboriginal lands in northeastern Arizona. The process combined traditional strategies identified in local vernacular Hopi architecture with modern strategies to successfully design sustainable, affordable and energy efficient (net-zero) housing specifically for contemporary Hopi housing. The process was documented in the capstone project, "Housing for the Hopi Community: Designing Sustainable, Affordable and Energy Efficient Housing in the Hopi Community, Linking to Cultural Patterns of Sustainability". For this thesis, the VERSAE method and process was replicate to create a sustainable, affordable and net-zero housing prototype for the Omaha Nation located in Nebraska with significantly different climate, environment, local materials and cultural patterns. Both case studies validated the VERSAE method as conductive to sustainable, affordable and energy efficient (net-zero) housing design.

No description available.

Individual and societal desires for fossiluel independence are an increasingly popular goal. This research investigates residential geothermal space heating and cooling as a viable technical and financial alternative. The road to net-zero energy is then assessed, weighing the benefits and detriments to the consumer. First, the template for location-specific geothermal space heating and cooling is developed through a pilot analysis of a home in Memphis, Tennessee. A methodical process of soil investigation, prototype home characteristics, and financial incentives is designed. Expanding upon existing studies, accurate soil data is extracted from beneath the foundation of a specific address, rather than region-wide soil averages. This high level of precision allows the owner of a specific address to preview realistic results and develop truthful expectations. Payback period and system lifetimes savings are calculated using two methods. Second, the framework developed through the Memphis, Tennessee pilot home is used to investigate 11 additional cities across the continental United States. The increase in breadth uses a representative city from its respective climate zone. While each city within a single climate zone will vary from the representative city, a general climate performance can be determined. With each location’s soil properties and heating and cooling demands, the borefield design and heat pump system capacity is customized and applied for analysis. Using human interest surveys from previous energy projects, a climate is ultimately classified as viable or nonviable for geothermal heating and cooling. Finally, the increasingly popular net-zero energy building concept is explored through a complementary solar photovoltaic (PV) array to the geothermal system. An array capacity is sized and priced to offset the total facility energy use in each climate’s representative city. Once determined, the payback and lifetime savings values are calculated and the GHP + PV system results are compared to a baseline + PV system. From this, a system type is identified as the more viable option for each of the 12 climate zones. The final touch on this research is the introduction of the human perceptions toward environmentally friendly renewable energy in general and how it affects a consumer’s ultimate decision.

No description available.

Making electricity grids smarter and facilitating them with integration of renewable energy sources (RES) and energy storage are fairly accepted as the necessary steps to achieve a sustainable and secure power industry. To enable Net-zero energy and optimize power management for future homes or buildings, DC electric distribution systems (DC Nano-grid) find feasibility and simplicity for integrating renewable energy sources and energy storage. However, integrating the sources and loads in a simple, robust and smart way is still challenging. High voltage lithium-ion battery should be seriously considered concerning the overcharge/over-discharge risk. Dissipative cell equalization and its performance are studied. Non-dissipative equalization methods are reviewed using an energy flow chart. Typical charging schemes and the related over-charge risk are illustrated. A Lithium-ion battery charging profile based on VCell_Max/Min monitoring is proposed and validated with experimental results in an 8.4kW bidirectional battery charger for DC future home. For the DC future home emulator testbed, a grid interface converter, i.e. energy control center (ECC) converter, is reviewed with functions identification. A PV system with different configurations is compared to further expand the common MPPT region, and a DC-DC converter is designed as the interface between PV panels and DC bus, facilitating maximum power point tracking (MPPT) as well as fulfill the system energy management requirement. An 8.4kW multi-phase bidirectional battery charger with Si IGBT in DCM operation is designed to achieve high efficiency and to be the interface converter between lithium-ion battery and DC bus, enhancing the battery system management as well as increasing the system reliability. To integrate all the sources and loads in a simple, reliable and smart way, this thesis proposes a distributed droop control method and smart energy management strategy to enhance the Net-zero electric energy cost. All of the control strategies are applied to the DC future home with interactions among the energy control center (ECC), renewable energy sources, energy storage and load within a day/24 hours. System level energy management control strategies for Net-zero electric energy cost are examined and illustrated. A 10kW future home emulator testbed is built and introduced for concepts validation. / Master of Science

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / The years since the Paris Agreement have seen intensifying efforts to decarbonize the financial system. Disclosure frameworks, notably the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), and Net-Zero targets, are fast becoming institutionalized globally to incentivize financial institutions to divert capital into low-carbon activities and away from carbon-heavy ones. I examine the implementation of these frameworks among financial corporations (FCs) in Singapore. 15 semi-structured interviews with professionals in the industry at the forefront of TCFD and Net-Zero suggest that FCs’ “talk” often does not match with their “actions”. Organizations ceremonially comply with new global standards as well as local regulations on TCFD and Net-Zero while they continue to finance carbon-intensive economic activities. Yet this apparent “hypocrisy” may not be so much a result of coordinated efforts for organizational buffering, as it is a consequence of disorganization and discoordination. Informants suggest that different parts within FCs independently perceived and responded differently, at a different pace, to the novel challenges that climate change has brought. I contribute to the environmental sociology literature on “organized hypocrisy” by examining how commonly perceived “hypocrisy” is or is not, in fact, “organized”. In doing so, I suggest that we should not assume “hypocrisy” to be an intentional organizational project. Furthermore, rather than seeing “hypocrisy” as effort to keep an organization “stable”, I argue that hypocrisy may be indicative of slow and potentially discordant organizational change, with ongoing internal efforts by insiders to match “actions” with “talk”. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / Gary J. Coates / This thesis was undertaken to investigate and seek possible architectural solutions to two issues. Firstly, fragmentation of the American family structure into a variety of new household types presents new design challenges to architects today. The single family house, once an 'ideal family' home, now needs to be redesigned to accommodate these changing lifestyles. Secondly, global warming and threats of an impending energy crisis loom large over humankind today. Environmentally-responsive architectural design can and should address both of these burgeoning problems. A program was developed as the basis for designing new infill housing in the city of Manhattan, Kansas, a small Midwestern college town. The aim was to provide dwelling units that would accommodate a wide range of family types and use patterns of the entire life cycle while fitting in to the existing architectural fabric of the neighborhood. After a literature review, it was concluded that 'front and back house' design was the most suitable option. In this context, three types of front and back house designs are presented. These options are further divided into thirteen subtypes. It is shown that these designs fulfill the spatial needs of a variety of differing households such as houses with an office, a multigenerational home and units that permit aging in place. An independent study was undertaken to achieve a 'zero energy threshold' for one of the designs within the design matrix presented in the thesis. A 60%-65% decrease in energy usage was attained in the front house and 50% in the back house by increasing the overall efficiency of the building envelope and by utilizing energy efficient appliances. Utilization of a 2 X 6.4 kW grid-connected solar photovoltaic system provided enough energy to power the house (inclusive of front & back houses). A Geothermal heating/cooling system was employed to further decrease the use of fossil fuel. With reduced energy needs and use of a gird connected solar system it was possible to achieve a 'net-zero energy house', which is defined as a house that generates as much as or more than the total energy it uses over the course of a year. An economic analysis of the front and back house and proposed energy systems was also performed. Calculations suggest that rent from the back house could provide substantial financial benefits to the owner of the front house. Although use of non-conventional energy systems demanded a larger initial investment, studies showed that savings made on the utility bills would eventually help recover this investment within the lifetime of the systems.

In this dissertation, we leverage predictive and prescriptive analytics to develop decision support systems to promote the use of renewable energy in society. Since electricity from renewable energy sources is still relatively expensive, there are variety of financial incentive programs available in different regions. Our research focuses on financial incentive programs and tackles two main problem: 1) how to optimally design and control hybrid renewable energy systems for residential and commercial buildings given the capacity based and performance based incentives, and 2) how to develop a model-based system for policy makers for designing optimal financial incentive programs to promote investment in net zero energy (NZE) buildings. In order to customize optimal investment and operational plans for buildings, we developed a mixed integer program (MIP). The optimization model considers the load profile and specifications of the buildings, local weather data, technology specifications and pricing, electricity tariff, and most importantly, the available financial incentives to assess the financial viability of investment in renewable energy. It is shown how the MIP model can be used in developing customized incentive policy designs and controls for renewable energy system.

This thesis puts forth the means of a strategic approach to address a persistent problem in the energy system and in this way, to transition the built environment to a future state that is more exergy-aware to curb CO2 emissions. Such a vision is made possible by the six-fold contributions of the research work: I) An analytical model is developed, which for the first time, formulates the CO2 emissions that are compounded in the energy system as a function of the systematic failures to match the supply and demand of exergy. This model is namely the Rational Exergy Management Model or REMM. II) REMM is then applied to analyze the pathways in which it is possible to lead the built environment into addressing structural overshoots in its exergy supply to curb CO2 emissions. The cases that embody these pathways are also analyzed over a base case, including cases for sustainable heating and cooling. III) New tools are designed to augment decision-making and exemplify a paradigm shift in the more rational usage of exergy to curb CO2 emissions. These include a scenario-based analysis tool, new options for CO2 wedges, and a multi-fold solution space for CO2 mitigation strategies based on REMM. IV) The concept of a net-zero exergy building (NZEXB) is developed and related to REMM strategies as the building block of an exergy-aware energy system. The target of a NZEXB is further supported by key design principles, which address shortcomings in state-of-the-art net-zero design. V) A premier building that deployed the key design principles to integrate building technology in an innovative, exergy-aware design and received LEED Platinum is analyzed on the basis of the NZEXB target. The results validate that this building boosts net self-sufficiency and curbs compound CO2 emissions, which are then presented in a proposed scheme to benchmark and/or label future NZEXBs. VI) Based on the scalability of the best-practices of the NZEXB ready building, the means to realize a smarter energy system that has exergy-aware relations in each aspect of the value chain to curb CO2 emissions are discussed. This includes a target for such a network at the community level, namely a net-zero exergy community (NZEXC). As a whole, the results of the thesis indicate that the strategic approach as provided by REMM and the NZEXB target of the research work has the potential to steer the speed and direction of societal action to curb CO2 emissions. The thesis concludes with a roadmap that represents a cyclical series of actions that may be scaled-up at various levels of the built environment in a transition to be in better balance with the Planet. / QC 20111014

The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed Team Solar Cal Poly from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as a competitor in the 2015 Solar Decathlon in February 2014. The Solar Decathlon is a biennial collegiate competition to construct a net-zero home and operate it for a week of “normal use”. Solar Cal Poly needed assistance with passive and active HVAC systems for the design, and thermal load models. The competition will take place in Irvine, CA [33.67⁰, 117.82⁰ W] from September 27 – October 3, 2015. After the completion, a potential final location for the house will be Santa Ynez, CA [34.61⁰ N, 120.09⁰ W]. Ms. Willis assisted with a climate study for both locations and research passive and active HVAC systems and design elements for Team Solar Cal Poly. She modeled the final summer design in DesignBuilder to calculate the heating and cooling loads. The heating load was calculated to be 26.7 kBTU/h. The cooling load was calculated to be 2-tons. A mini-split HVAC system was selected for the final summer design based off the calculated heating and cooling loads. For this design, the Fujitsu Hybrid Halcyon Flex met the minimum requirements, and was a multi-zone system that could condition all three major spaces of the design. This report provides a summary of information and the basic design process for future Solar Decathlon designs considerations.