Net-zero buildings, what are they and what they should be?

Birol Kilkis

Energy, 2022, vol. 256, issue C

Abstract: This paper quantifies that current net-zero building definitions will remain as necessary but not sufficient conditions in sustainable decarbonization efforts until they recognize exergy destructions as one of the root causes of emission responsibilities. A direct relationship between exergy destructions and nearly-avoidable carbon dioxide emissions has been set as a sufficient condition to upgrade the decarbonization mindset. This relationship is demonstrated in a case study where a solar prosumer building with photovoltaic panels and a ground-source heat pump, known as a net-zero energy building, is responsible for emissions. Based on the second law, emission responsibilities, primarily at the PV panels and the heat pump, were identified. By replacing them with advanced photo-voltaic-heat panels with temperature peaking and heat pump with adsorption cooling machines, carbon dioxide emission responsibility due to avoidable exergy destructions was reduced by 96%. The main attribute is using solar power only for electric power instead of downgrading it downstream to heat or cold by the heat pump, minimizing exergy mismatches between electrical and thermal power. The paper also shows that a net-zero energy building may neither be a net-zero exergy building nor a zero-carbon building due to these exergy destructions.

Keywords: Rational exergy management model; Nearly zero-carbon building; Nearly-avoidable carbon dioxide emissions; Prosumer building; Renewable energy; Heat pump (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544222013457
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:256:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222013457

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.124442

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().