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Development and Analysis of a Sustainable Low Energy House in a Hot and Humid Climate
Abstract
This study examines the lifetime building
energy consumption of a typical house in Bangkok,
Thailand. The lifetime building energy consumption
is composed of three major components: 1) the
energy used in building construction (i.e., embodied,
transportation and construction energy), 2) the energy
used in building operation (annual energy), and 3) the
energy used in building demolition (demolition
energy).
The study used measured environmental and
energy use data from a case-study house in Thailand.
For the construction energy and the energy used in
building demolition analyses, reference data from
reliable sources both in the U.S. and the U.K. were
used. The DOE-2 energy simulation program was
used to analyze changes to the annual energy use
caused by changing various building materials and/or
design configurations. A new energy efficient design
was then iteratively chosen that contained reduced
levels of embodied energy use and reduced annual
energy use.
The results from the analysis showed that the
total lifetime energy use was reduced from 3,974 to
2,773 MMBtu (a 30% reduction). This was
accomplished by replacing energy intensive materials
with less energy intensive materials that were also
energy efficient, namely the masonry walls. The
addition of insulation in the ceiling and energy
efficient windows was also included.
Citation
Chulsukon, P.; Haberl, J. S.; Degelman, L. O.; Sylvester, K. E. (2002). Development and Analysis of a Sustainable Low Energy House in a Hot and Humid Climate. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4576.