Open House International

Noguchi, Masa

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0001

Homes need to be socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable in response to societal pressure on our common future. The concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ was first advocated by the World Commission on Environment and Development, dated back to 1987, and it was considered as ‘a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet needs and aspirations.’ In 1992, this notion was given additional impetus at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro where an initial international treaty on environment was produced; however, this had neither limits on green house gas emissions nor legal enforcement provisions for individual nations. In 1997, the text of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted eventually at the 3rd Conference of the Parties held in Kyoto, Japan. As of April 2008, 178 states signed and ratified the Protocol; in consequence, most industrialized nations and some central European countries agreed to legally binding the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions of an average of 6 to 8% below 1990 levels between the years 2008 and 2012.

Charron, Rémi

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0002

In recent years, there have been a growing number of projects and initiatives to promote the development and market introduction of low and net-zero energy solar homes and communities. These projects integrate active solar technologies to highly efficient houses to achieve very low levels of net-energy consumption. Although a reduction in the energy use of residential buildings can be achieved by relatively simple individual measures, to achieve very high levels of energy savings on a cost effective basis requires the coherent application of several measures, which together optimise the performance of the complete building system. This article examines the design process used to achieve high levels of energy performance in residential buildings. It examines the current design processes for houses used in a number of international initiatives. The research explores how building designs are optimised within the current design processes and discusses how the application of computerised optimisation techniques would provide architects, home-builders, and engineers with a powerful design tool for low and net-zero energy solar buildings.

Morbitzer, Christoph

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0003

This article reviews the development of low energy and sustainable housing in the UK and Germany. It illustrates that despite their close geographical proximity substantially different approaches have been applied in the two countries in the pursuit of an energy efficient, domestic built environment.The article describes and compares the German Passivhaus and the UK Code for Sustainable Homes, both important drivers for low energy housing. It also relates them to two project examples, the ‘Energieautarkes Haus’ (energy independent house) in Freiburg and the BeDZED project near London.A main conclusion from the article is that Germany has developed with the Passivhaus a design concept that holds a considerable potential to reduce the energy consumption of the UK housing sector, and points out the surprisingly limited uptake so far. It however also emphasises the ability of the UK to apply a holistic building design approach, and points out that the UK has developed with BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes a framework that directs the flow of activity in the pursue of buildings with a low environmental impact.Finally, the article emphasises the need for better collaboration between different countries.

Johnson, Cassidy; Dignard-Bailey, Lisa

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0004

Work on the design and implementation for solar homes has been expanded to the community scale in several international projects. If low-carbon emission housing is to make an impact on citywide consumption of energy, we must move towards community-scale implementation of solar technologies, both in new housing developments and in existing ones. However, the uptake of solar communities requires new methods for implementation to promote innovation in the building industry, new policies and programmes on energy consumption and energy subsidies, as well as community-scale design guidelines for solar or other renewable technologies.This research surveys the implementation process of selected solar community projects in Netherlands, United States and Canada. It looks at new policies and programmes that are promoting community-scale solar projects from the perspective of innovation in the building industry. It examines the various actors that are necessary for solar communities within an urban planning framework and identifies five main actor groups.

Ishida, Ken-ichi

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0005

Japan signed the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the nation's carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by 6% below the 1990 level. The housing industry is no exception being required to reduce the negative impact of the housing delivery on the environment. Today, all newly-constructed detached houses being built by Sekisui House Ltd. are designed to alleviate the societal pressure, accompanied basically with the following techniques and/or technologies: (1) the reduction of energy use relating to air-conditioning by improving the houses' insulation performance to meet Japan's energy saving standard set in 1999, as well as ventilation by making use of a passive ventilation system driven by stack effect; (2) the reduction of energy consumption that derives from domestic hot water by applying a high-efficient water heater, where the system performance is improved from 80% to 95% of the efficiency-today, Japanese housing manufacturers also tend to promote the installation of a gas engine cogeneration system and air-source heat pump water heater in housing; (3) the micro-power generation by the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation system; and (4) the cooling effect achieved by tree shading, which helps lower the ambient temperature around buildings during the summer. The company's ‘Action Plan 20’ reflects the global warming prevention (or CO2 emission reduction) strategy, considered to be effective in the delivery of low-carbon housing in Japan.

Menon, Rosalie; Porteous, Colin D. A.

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0006

Although a UK trajectory toward zero-carbon development for all new housing by 2016 has been set, the cost of building such homes and the changes implied for current constructional culture, together with lack of fiscal incentives, makes the target very difficult to achieve. Moreover, the recent governmental clarification of the definition of zero-carbon housing may make it impossible. This paper proposes a prototype construction (see also the associated paper in this issue) and examines in detail both the constructional and cost barriers to eliminating carbon emissions from tightly limited total thermal and electrical consumption targets (not more than 70 kWh/m2). Having established generous access to sunlight and daylight as prerequisites, a related health issue is air quality, especially with air-tight construction. While thermal and hygroscopic capacity can mediate between quality and efficiency, current norms for Scottish housing are notably poor in both respects. A key aim is to assess whether specification for a ‘low-carbon house’ can be cost effective. An analysis is undertaken to asses the increased cost associated with integration of energy efficient measures in the proposed prototype model. The specification of the building envelope and associated renewable technologies are addressed with reference to their cost implication on the overall build cost. Finally potential governmental incentives are proposed to not only meet the 2016 target, but also to promote enthusiasm by the end user. The paper concludes that low-carbon and zero-carbon scenarios would require radical changes of funding/fiscal and building cultures.

Sharpe, Tim

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0007

One of the most significant challenges facing contemporary architectural and urban design is how it can become more sustainable. Energy consumption by housing is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and a cause of depletion of non-renewable energy sources. Of particular concern is existing stock, which has the worst performance and is hardest to improve.One means of addressing these issues that is attracting increasing interest is the integration of embedded renewable energy technologies. This paper discusses the use of wind turbines on buildings as a response to climate change legislation. It examines the potential for embedded generation in a specific built form (existing high rise housing) and places this in the context of a particular geographical location (Glasgow, Scotland) where the existing provision is highly problematic, but which also presents significant potential. It describes findings from two projects in Glasgow, a pilot installation on a city centre multi-storey block, and subsequent feasibility study for a Housing Association managed multi-storey block and identifies the problems and opportunities that may be applied in similar projects elsewhere.

Porteous, Colin D. A.; Menon, Rosalie

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0008

Taking its cue from the UK government's declaration that every new home should be ‘zero-carbon’ by 2016, this paper explores how close a flexible, prototype-housing model might come to meeting this target (accepting that there is currently some ambiguity between the respective official ‘zero-carbon’ definitions regarding off-site renewable supply). The prime aim is to design economically (affordable by housing associations) to the European ‘passive house’ standard of no more than 15 kWh/m2 for space heating and a maximum total consumption of 70 kWh/m2 adding in hot water and electricity. The model also prioritizes generous access to sunlight and daylight, as well as realistic levels of air change in a low-volume, intensively occupied scenario. Associated aims are: a) to meet thermal loads without use of fossil fuels such as gas or oil; and b) to employ architecturally integrated active solar thermal and electrical arrays to respectively meet at least one third of the water heating and electrical loads. Micro-wind generation is excluded from the study as too site-dependent. A subsidiary agenda is to achieve a flexible plan in terms of orientation and access, and to provide utility facilities that support the environmental strategy (e.g. drying clothes without compromising energy use or air quality). The paper goes on to address equivalent prospects for retrofit, briefly discusses institutional and other barriers to achievement, and muses on how much of the balance of the electrical demand can be met renewably in Scotland in the near future.

Noguchi, Masa

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0009

In response to the growing demand for zero-energy housing, today's home needs not only to be energy-efficient, but also to provide part of its own energy requirements. The energy efficiency may be improved by applying high thermal performance building envelope and passive energy and environmental systems to housing. Micro-power can be generated through the use of renewable energy technologies. This paper is aimed at providing a comprehensive guideline on the design techniques and approaches to the delivery of net zero-energy healthy housing in view of the ÉcoTerra house, which won the Canadian federal government's EQuilibrium sustainable housing competition. The house was built in Eastman in the province of Quebec and it is currently open to the general public in order to sharpen the consumers' awareness of commercially available net zero-energy healthy housing today.

Noguchi, Masa; Collins, Darragh

2008 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2008-B0010

Today, Japanese housing manufacturers compete to produce net zero-energy-cost houses that are usually equipped with some renewable energy technologies-e.g. a solar photovoltaic electric power generating system, a CO2 refrigerant heat-pump water heater and a combined heat and power system. Interestingly, the manufacturers tend to install these costly renewable technologies as standard equipment rather than options. To initiate and maintenance the sales of their environmentally-friendly houses, the manufacturers bring into effect their quality-oriented production and user-oriented communication approaches. The manufacturers' way to commercialise their industrialised housing to some extent reflects their high cost-performance marketing strategy. This paper somewhat reflects the learning outcomes of the Zero-carbon PV Mass Custom Home Technical Mission to Japan that the first author organised in 2006 and 2007. It is aimed at identifying the manufacturers' essential commercialisation strategies being applied for the niche-marketing of their net zero-energy-cost housing.