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Key Futures in Energy Efficient Buildings:
Building placement: A building’s location and surroundings play a key role in regulating its temperature and lighting. Trees, landscaping, and hills can provide shade and block wind, for example. In cooler climates, designing buildings with an east-west orientation to increase the number of south-facing windows minimizes energy use, by maximizing passive solar heating. Building shell: Tight building design, including energy-efficient windows, well-sealed doors, and additional insulation of walls, basement slabs, and foundations can reduce heat loss by 25 to 50 percent. Highly insulated buildings may require ventilation, and heat recovery ventilators can provide airflow with minimal energy use. Cool roofs: Dark roofs become up to 70°F hotter than the most reflective white surfaces, and they transmit some of this additional heat inside the building. Studies by the US EPA in Sacramento, CA and by the Florida Solar Energy Center in Florida found that lightly colored roofs use 40 percent less energy for cooling than buildings with darker roofs. White roof systems save more energy in sunnier climates, and a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found cool roof systems have net energy savings in colder climates as far north as Chicago, Illinois. Heating and cooling: Advanced heating and cooling systems can reduce energy consumption and improve the comfort of the building’s inhabitants. For example, programmable thermostats automatically raise or lower temperatures at night or during the day when no one is present. Zone heating and cooling systems allow the temperature of specific rooms or different floors to be controlled independently. Air-source and geothermal heat pumps can provide both heating and cooling efficiently. Evaporative cooling in dry areas and desiccant cooling in more humid areas are also generally more efficient than conventional cooling systems. Integrated space and water heating systems are often energy efficient in larger buildings Lightings: Several methods reduce the need for artificial lighting: proper placement of windows and skylights and use of architectural features that reflect light into a building, such as light shelves. When lighting is required, compact fluorescent light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last 6 to 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs. While early fluorescent lights produced stark white light, newer florescent lights produce more natural light, and they are cost effective, despite their higher initial cost. Task lighting, lighting sensors and dimmers also reduce the power needed for lighting. Increased use of natural and task lighting have been shown to increase productivity in schools and offices. Home and office appliances: The energy-efficient appliances, including refrigerators, freezers, ovens, stoves, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers with its Energy Star label use significantly less energy than older appliances. For example, current Energy Star qualified refrigerators, use 40 percent less energy than conventional models did in 2001. Modern power management systems also reduce energy usage by idle appliances by turning them off or putting them into a low-energy mode after a certain time.
Source: ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY STUDY INSTITUTE, Energy Efficiency Fact Sheet, Release: May 2006 |
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