The North House is a proof-of-concept prefabricated solar-powered home designed for northern climates, and intended for the research and promotion of high-performance sustainable architecture. Led by faculty at the University of Waterloo, the project was undertaken by Team North a broad collaboration between faculty and students at the Universities of Waterloo, Ryerson and Simon Fraser. In October 2009, the North House prototype competed in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, where it placed fourth overall. The North House addresses the urgent environmental imperative to dramatically reduce energy consumed by the built environment. It does so, in part by employing two primary technological systems which make use of feedback and response mechanisms; the Distributed Responsive System of Skins (DReSS) reconfigures the envelope in response to changing weather conditions, while the Adaptive Living Interface System (ALIS) provides detailed performance feedback to the inhabitant, equipping them with informed control of their home. This thesis recognizes energy consumption as a socio-technical problem that implicates building inhabitants as much as buildings themselves. It also recognizes the particular potency of the ‘house’ as a building type that touches a broad population in a profoundly personal way; and is thus an apt testing ground for technologies that conserve energy, and those that teach occupants to do the same. With these ideas in mind, the thesis looks to Interactive Architecture - a practice that considers buildings and their inhabitants as an integrated system - as a promising conceptual framework for synthesizing the social and technical aspects of energy conservation in the home.

The North House is a proof-of-concept prefabricated solar-powered home designed for northern climates, and intended for the research and promotion of high-performance sustainable architecture. Led by faculty at the University of Waterloo, the project was undertaken by Team North a broad collaboration between faculty and students at the Universities of Waterloo, Ryerson and Simon Fraser. In October 2009, the North House prototype competed in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, where it placed fourth overall. The North House addresses the urgent environmental imperative to dramatically reduce energy consumed by the built environment. It does so, in part by employing two primary technological systems which make use of feedback and response mechanisms; the Distributed Responsive System of Skins (DReSS) reconfigures the envelope in response to changing weather conditions, while the Adaptive Living Interface System (ALIS) provides detailed performance feedback to the inhabitant, equipping them with informed control of their home. This thesis recognizes energy consumption as a socio-technical problem that implicates building inhabitants as much as buildings themselves. It also recognizes the particular potency of the ‘house’ as a building type that touches a broad population in a profoundly personal way; and is thus an apt testing ground for technologies that conserve energy, and those that teach occupants to do the same. With these ideas in mind, the thesis looks to Interactive Architecture - a practice that considers buildings and their inhabitants as an integrated system - as a promising conceptual framework for synthesizing the social and technical aspects of energy conservation in the home.

Uppsala kommun has acquired the land at Ulleråkerand the plan is that it should be the starting point forthe new southeast district. The area is supposed toinclude 8000 new homes. The idea is also that the areashould be a new modern energy-efficient district. Thisreport examines how much energy that could be savedby using a passive house integrated design instead oftodays standard. Simulations in Matlab regarding localenergy utilization has also been done. Calculationsshow that the passive house integrated designgenerates in a total energy saving of 49 per centcompared to the standard house. The local electricalproduction comes from solar cell panels placed on theroofs and facades and the installed power is 19.8 MW.The production covers 80.3 per cent of the totalenergy demand or 91.4 per cent of the electricaldemand per year. But the systems production ismismatched to the local demand for electricity.

Sustainability has been at the centre of global attention for decades. One of the most challenging areas toward sustainability is the agricultural sector. Here, the commercial greenhouse is one of the most effective cultivation methods with a yield per cultivated area up to 10 times higher than for open land farming. However, this improvement comes with a higher energy demand. Therefore, the significance of energy conservation and management in the commercial greenhouse has been emphasized to enable cost efficient crop production. This Doctoral Thesis presents an assessment of energy pathways for improved greenhouse performance by reducing the direct energy inputs and by conserving energy throughout the system. A reference theoretical model for analyzing the energy performance of a greenhouse has been developed using TRNSYS. This model is verified using real data from a conventional greenhouse in Stockholm (Ulriksdal). With this, a number of energy saving opportunities (e.g. double glazing) were assessed one by one with regards to the impact on the annual heating, cooling and electricity demand. Later, a multidimensional energy saving method, the “Closed Greenhouse”, was introduced. The closed greenhouse is an innovative concept with a combination of many energy saving opportunities. In the ideal closed greenhouse configuration, there are no ventilation windows, and the excess heat, in both sensible and latent forms, needs to be stored using a seasonal thermal energy storage. A short term (daily) storage can be used to eliminate the daily mismatch in the heating and cooling demand as well as handling the hourly fluctuations in the demand. The key conclusion form this work is that the innovative concept “closed greenhouse” can be cost-effective, independent of fossil fuel and technically feasible regardless of climate condition. For the Nordic climate case of Sweden, more than 800 GWh can be saved annually, by converting all conventional greenhouses into this concept. Climate change mitigation will follow, as a key impact towards sustainability. In more detail, the results show that the annual heating demand in an ideal closed greenhouse can be reduced to 60 kWhm-2 as compared to 300 kWhm-2 in the conventional greenhouse. However, by considering semi-closed or partly closed greenhouse concepts, practical implementation appears advantageous. The required external energy input for heating purpose can still be reduced by 25% to 75% depending on the fraction of closed area. The payback period time for the investment in a closed greenhouse varies between 5 and 8 years depending on the thermal energy storage design conditions. Thus, the closed greenhouse concept has the potential to be cost effective. Following these results, energy management pathways have been examined based on the proposed thermo-economic assessment. From this, it is clear that the main differences between the suggested scenarios are the type of energy source, as well as the cooling and dehumidification strategies judged feasible, and that these are very much dependent on the climatic conditions Finally, by proposing the “solar blind” concept as an active system, the surplus solar radiation can be absorbed by PVT panels and stored in thermal energy storage for supplying a portion of the greenhouse heating demand. In this concept, the annual external energy input for heating purpose in a commercial closed greenhouse with solar blind is reduced by 80%, down to 62 kWhm-2 (per unit of greenhouse area), as compared to a conventional configuration. Also the annual total useful heat gain and electricity generation, per unit of greenhouse area, by the solar blind in this concept is around 20 kWhm-2 and 80 kWhm-2, respectively. The generated electricity can be used for supplying the greenhouse power demand for artificial lighting and other devices. Typically, the electricity demand for a commercial greenhouse is about 170 kWhm-2. Here, the effect of “shading” on the crop yield is not considered, and would have to be carefully assessed in each case. / Hållbarhet har legat i fokus under decennier. En av de mest utmanande områdena är jordbrukssektorn, där. kommersiella växthus är ett av de mest effektiva odlingsalternativen med en avkastning per odlad yta upp till 10 gånger högre än för jordbruk på friland. Dock kommer denna förbättring med ett högre energibehov. Därför är energieffektivisering i kommersiella växthus viktig för att möjliggöra kostnadseffektiv odling. Denna doktorsavhandling presenterar en utvärdering av olika energiscenarios för förbättring av växthusens prestanda genom att minska extern energitillförsel och spara energi genom i systemet som helhet. För studien har en teoretisk modell för analys av energiprestanda i ett växthus utvecklats med hjälp av TRNSYS. Denna modell har verifierats med hjälp av verkliga data från ett konventionellt växthus i Stockholm (Ulriksdal). Med denna modell har ett antal energibesparingsåtgärder (som dubbelglas) bedömts med hänsyn till de totala värme-, kyl-och elbehoven. En flerdimensionell metod för energibesparing, det s.k. "slutna växthuset", introduceras. Det slutna växthuset är ett innovativt koncept som är en kombination av flera energibesparingsmöjligheter. I den ideala slutna växthuskonfigurationen finns det inga ventilationsfönster och värmeöverskott, både sensibel och latent, lagras i ett energilager för senare användning. Daglig lagring kan användas för att eliminera den dagliga obalansen i värme-och kylbehovet. Ett säsongslager introduceras för att möjliggöra användandet av sommarvärme för uppvärmning vintertid. Den viktigaste slutsatsen från detta arbete är att ett sådant innovativt koncept, det "slutna växthuset" kan vara kostnadseffektiv, oberoende av fossila bränslen och tekniskt genomförbart oavsett klimatförhållanden. För det svenska klimatet kan mer än 800 GWh sparas årligen, genom att konvertera alla vanliga växthus till detta koncept. Det årliga värmebehovet i ett idealiskt slutet växthus kan reduceras till 60 kWhm-2 jämfört med 300 kWhm-2 i ett konventionellt växthus. Energibesparingen kommer även att minska miljöpåverkan. Även ett delvis slutet växthus, där en del av ytan är slutet, eller där viss kontrollerad ventilation medges, minskar energibehovet samtidigt som praktiska fördelar har kunnat påvisas. Ett delvis slutet växthus kan minska energibehovet för uppvärmning med mellan 25% och 75% beroende på andelen sluten yta. En framräknad återbetalningstid för investeringen i ett slutet växthus varierar mellan 5 och 8 år beroende på design av energilagringssystemet. Sålunda har det slutna växthuskonceptet potential att vara kostnadseffektiv. Mot bakgrund av dessa lovande resultat har sedan scenarios för energy management analyserats med hänsyn till termo-ekonomiska faktorer. Från detta är det tydligt att de viktigaste skillnaderna mellan de föreslagna scenarierna är den typ av energikälla, samt kyl- och avfuktningsstrategier som används, och dessa val är mycket beroende av klimatförhållandena. Slutligen, föreslås ett nytt koncept, en s.k. "solpersienn", vilket är ett aktivt system där överskottet av solstrålningen absorberas av PVT-paneler och lagras i termiskenergilager för att tillföra en del av växthuseffekten värmebehov. I detta koncept minskar den årliga externa energitillförseln för uppvärmning i ett slutet växthus med 80%, ner till 62 kWhm-2. Den totala värme- och elproduktionen, med konceptet "solpersienn" blir cirka 20 kWhm-2 respektive 80 kWhm-2. Elproduktion kan användas för artificiell belysning och annan elektrisk utrustning i växthuset. / <p>QC 20130910</p>