Project: Re-design Your Home into a Net Zero Carbon Emission Building 1. Project Objectives – The project gives you an opportunity to build 'Your Home (YH)' similar to your current home and 'Re-designed Home (RH)' to meet 'net-zero-emission' at the same location you would like. Note: YH can be the building where you now live or any existing residential building at any location. – Compare your RH with your YH on the aspects of energy, emissions, cost and benefit; – 'Net-zero-emission' requires that the sum of • embodied carbon of construction materials • carbon emissions related to construction and maintenance (replacement), • daily energy consumptions, • emission related to wastes and disposals is completely offset by your on-site renewable energy supply over a period of the service life of buildings (e.g. 40 years); – The development strategies may include minimising construction material consumptions by recycling and reuse, more energy efficient buildings, together with the use of renewable energy; 2. Assignment Requirements – 2.1 Review low/zero-carbon design technology 1) selection of low carbon construction materials, 2) innovative construction process, 3) management of energy consumption and consumption behaviour, 4) renewable energy; 5) recycle and reuse. Note: Minimum 10 references must be provided to substantiate your review of each subject required above (2 for each of above subjects) . – 2.2 YH Details Note: Estimation of an amount of construction materials and relevant carbon emissions is NOT required in this section, but should be done in section 2.4 • Develop a building design or select a house from the provided base house models (similar to your current home), and detail location, building type, floor plan, building surroundings of YH • Detail construction materials for YH • Detail construction process for YH • Detail heating/cooling, hot water, and appliances of YH – 2.3 Detail RH to meet 'net-zero-emission', given at the same location, same building type, same floor plan, and same building surroundings Note: Estimation of an amount of construction materials and relevant carbon emissions is NOT required in this section, but should be done in section 2.4 • Your selection of construction materials for RH with minimum embodied carbon emissions • Your selection of construction materials for RH, which require less maintenance/replacement (durable) over its service life • Your approach to reuse and recycle construction materials for RH • Your selection of construction process that has less carbon emissions for RH • Your energy management design to reduce energy consumption for heating/cooling, • Your energy management design to reduce energy consumption for hot water, and appliances • Your selection of on-site renewable energy (design details should be included in section 2.5 – 2.4 Estimate the annual and total carbon emission over the service life of YH and RH (e.g. 40 years), and compare them • Estimate embodied carbon (EC) emission of YH and RH – construction materials. Note: Reuse and recycle may reduce additional embodied carbon emission during renovation, but residual embodied carbon emission of reused or recycled construction materials should not be ignored. – Estimate carbon emission related to the construction of YH and RH. – Estimate carbon emission related to maintenance (e.g. replacement of building structures or elements over the service life of YH and RH) – Estimate carbon emission from wastes of your rebuilt/redesigned home. Note: ICE Table included in your 'learning materials' in Blackboard could be used for the assessment of embodied carbon, but be aware of its limitations. • Estimate operating carbon emission in relation to the daily usage for hot water, and all appliances of YH and RH. Note: Daily usage could be estimated based on the hours of usage of each appliance,. • Estimate operating carbon emission in relation to the daily usage for heating and cooling of YH and RH. – Apply your design or the selected house model in Section 2.2 to develop YH and RH Models for the simulation using EnergyPlus Note: building materials, orientation, window design etc should be added through EnergyPlus before simulation could be run – Estimate energy consumption and corresponding carbon emission for heating and cooling Note: a better design of insulation, window, and roof etc could reduce energy consumption significantly. • Summarise the changes(reduction/increase percentage) in carbon emissions as a result of redesign on the aspect of material consumption, maintenance, operating and wastes as well as their total. – 2.5 Use HOMER to design on-site renewable energy supply to achieve 'net-zero-emission' over the service life of RH (e.g. 40 years) • Develop and describe HOMER Model by using the design option described in section 2.3 for your renewable energy system of RH • Detail and explain the inputs of climate, daily energy consumption and parameters of your renewable systems for HOMER • Detail and explain cost information including grid electricity cost (if it is connected to RH), renewable system cost, buyback price of renewable energy, and discount rate (4%) Note: embodied energy could be averaged over the 40 year service life and added into daily energy consumption in the simulation • Detail and explain HOMER outputs of your design – 2.6 Estimate cost and benefit (e.g. energy saving) of RH in comparison with YH • Estimate annual cost/benefit, and summaries them in a table or diagram. – The cost is a result of implementation to achieve the benefit. For example, the cost includes capitals for improvement of energy efficiency and implementation of low-carbon technology as well as renewable energy technology in RH, and the benefit includes the energy saving. • Estimate the total cost and benefit in a present value, and the corresponding benefit/cost ratio. – The present value of future cost/benefit is discounted at 4% • Estimate the payback period of your investment in the renewable energy as well as any measures to improve energy efficiency and implement low-carbon technology in RH. – 2.7 Discuss the feasibility and challenges of implementing RH, and the ways to overcome the challenges. Marking Criteria • Address all requirements of the assignment (90%). • Technical Writing (10%)  Title  Summary (or abstract)  Introduction  Chapters to address all requirements (can be multiple chapters with multiple sub-sections)  Conclusion and discussion  References