Login
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the status of promising low carbon building services solutions fitted for a low emission building stock in urban areas.
It is believed that well-performing building envelopes with low thermal losses or low solar heat gains, enables simplified building services solutions. This paper compiles promising building services solutions studied in other research projects and fitted for highly insulated buildings for the most common building categories within a neighbourhood.
The common building categories include new and renovated offices, educational buildings, residential buildings, grocery stores and shopping centres. Some of the following building services solutions are still relevant for single buildings, but for utilizing surplus energy sources in particular, it is better to look at multiple buildings in a neighbourhood. Especially the following topics are presented and evaluated:
- Demand-controlled ventilation
- Ventilation-based heating and cooling
- Simplified hydronic heating
- Smart energy control
- Responsive lighting equipment
- Utilizing surplus energy sources
Each technical solution is discussed and its suitability for other building types is evaluated. Technical installations are moving towards low-temperature heating and high-temperature cooling, in order to better utilize renewable energy sources and surplus energy, and to reduce heat loss from the systems. Future buildings and renovated existing buildings should aim for an optimization between energy, power and indoor environment, and reasonable economy. Although power demand and peak loads have not been significantly discussed in this report, it is currently undergoing a lot of research to reduce costs of upgrading the electricity grid and will continue to receive substantial focus in the coming years. When assessing energy performance, comfort quality and economic feasibility of low energy building services, a comprehensive approach is needed.