Designing Energy Efficient and Carbon Friendly Buildings In a Cold Climate

Various sectors of the building industry fail to communicate and optimize energy use of buildings. Developing an overall strategy to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact of buildings in all stages is of vital importance. This is completed by applying various Energy Conservation Measures onto buildings and comparing the results. Utilizing 14 eQuest models and an extensive Excel spreadsheet, various combinations of building envelope parameters and HVAC systems are analyzed, in order to aim for TGS Tier 3 targets and ASHRAE 90.1-2013 targets. The results analyzed include energy consumption, space heating/cooling loads, upfront construction costs, life cycle costs and others. These results will create trendlines and a basis to address which building or HVAC system parameters show the best payback in terms of thermal performance, reducing emissions and overall cost. Employing a certain combination of building and HVAC system parameters created Model C-2 that meets TGS Tier 3 – surpassing ASHRAE-90.1-2013 EUI by 70.4%, TEDI by 88.0% and GHGI by 73.0% at only marginal cost differences. Further improvement methods and analysis are discussed beyond the results of the models.