Design of Energy-Efficient Buildings

The building envelope, or thermal envelope, governs heat transfer between inside and outside by three continuous layers—airtightness, insulation, and wind and weather tightness—addressing joints and surface area efficiency.

The airtightness layer blocks air and moisture in the building envelope, preventing condensation and mold and helping avoid sick building syndrome; ensure proper joints and testing.

Explore the insulation layer's role in blocking outdoor climate and noise, using conduction, radiation, and convection concepts with lambda, u value, and r value to optimize envelope performance.

Explore how the wind and weather tightness layer blocks outdoor air and water from entering the building envelope while allowing vapor to escape, protecting insulation and cavities.

Recaps the three layers of the thermal envelope—air tightness, insulation, and wind and weather tightness—and explains windows, doors, and thermal bridges, plus design strategies to reduce heat loss.

Understand how mechanical ventilation with heat recovery saves energy by using a heat exchanger to precondition filtered incoming air from exhaust air.

Explore energy-efficient hot water in homes by prioritizing heat pumps, insulation, and short piping, while noting COP and climate influences and optional geothermal or solar heating.

Design a tight thermal envelope to reduce heat loss, harness passive solar gains from south and east windows, and rely on a split heat pump when solar input is insufficient.

Discover strategies to prevent overheating using a well-designed thermal envelope, external shading, daylight harvesting, and active and passive cooling, including heat pumps.

Explore how daylight and efficient electric lighting reduce energy use. Optimize window openings for daylighting and ensure color rendering index (CRI) remains high.

Explore the uses of light in buildings, including task lighting, texture, daylight patterns, and highlighting features. Learn how light guides attention, defines spaces, and sets ambience while enabling energy-efficient design.

Explores daylight harvesting and the daylight factor to improve indoor lighting and learning outcomes. Shows how window size, placement, orientation, and color choices maximize light while controlling glare and heat.

Contrast incandescent and luminescent light sources, from sunlight to LEDs and HID lamps. Understand efficiency, heat, and suitability for energy-efficient building.

Explore how to achieve task-focused lighting with directional lamps, angles, and multiple light sources, calculate lux using lumens per square meter, and balance daylight for energy-efficient buildings.

Examine how appliances consume energy, noting that lighting and appliances account for about 14.4% of final energy consumption in a typical EU home, with higher shares possible in efficient buildings.

Learn how the Passive House Institute, founded in 1996, advances the passive house concept through research, development of construction concepts and planning tools, and global testing and certification.

highlights the three layers of the building envelope, the nba star system for ventilation, the heat pump and solar system for water heating, and lighting and appliance energy ratings.