Lecture in Energy Smart Housing - Coursework Example

Portfolio on the Contents of Lecture Notes Name Tutor Course Institution Date Portfolio on the Contents of Lecture Notes Part 1 Reflections on the lecture material The focus of the lecture material is on energy smart homes. Energy smart designs are very beneficial because they facilitate significant savings. For instance, energy smart homes significantly reduces the operating costs of heating, cooling and lighting and also reduces emission of greenhouse gases as well as pollution due to minimised use of fossil fuels. Energy smart housing design reduces usage of non-renewable energy and offers not only energy savings but also comfort, without adversely impact the aesthetics of the home (Muhammad & Ullah, 2017). The information from the lecture material was very useful in both my learning as well as my future career. This is because I will apply the knowledge acquired in my daily life and also during my career. Basically, people spend a lot of money on home energy needs. Accordingly, I can use the acquired knowledge to ensure that the money spent on energy needs is significantly reduced. Currently I can use the gained knowledge and skills to provide tips on creating a smart home. This is because the design of a house or any building can substantially impact the quantity of energy needed to attain a comfortable environment. More importantly, I have come to greatly appreciate the subject. This is because the knowledge I gained from the lecture material seems very practical and realistic. In addition, I have severally seen people using smart designs in their homes and I have heard them account how smart home design significantly reduced their spending. Therefore, it became evident to me that the skills and knowledge gained from the lecture notes were very much applicable in my daily living. This is what has drawn so much interest in this subject. Basically, smart home designs are likely to very useful in the society. This is because normally people experience money issues and hence smart homes are likely to reduce spending in home due to reduced budget. This is because smart home designs save a lot of money. As a result, people will have money saved to spend on many other uses at homes. Smart homes can be designed in a conventional way and at the same time save energy. This is because overall energy savings in homes depend on many factors such as the appropriate orientation of windows, integration of thermal mass, suitable insulation levels, ventilation; selection and appropriate installation of energy smart services and devices, for instance cooling and heating appliances; and lastly responsive and responsible user behaviour, for instance suitable thermostat setting for equipments such ad refrigerators, closing doors and windows, closing curtains etc. This knowledge will further enable me to contribute greatly to people who may be designing their homes. For example, currently I can confidently offer advice regarding the appropriate orientation of windows for a building as suitable orientation of windows can facilitate appropriate lightening and hence doing away with the need to use artificial lightening even during the time when natural lighting can provide sufficient lightening (Muhammad & Ullah, 2017). Apart from saving energy and the associated costs, another interesting aspect with smart homes is the security that it brings (Bettini et al, 2012). For example, it is very possible to know when individuals are entering and leaving the house. For instance, there are window and door sensors that inform whenever a person enters or leaves the house. The sensors can even turn the lights on and off after the doors are opening. The sensors can even detect whenever an intruder breaks the window. Accordingly, the sensors can inform home owners regarding potential intruders and hence smart home design is above all a security measure (Bettini et al, 2012). This is possible because smart homes are normally connected to technologies such as wireless technology that will allow home owners to receive notification through their mobile phones or tablet and hence they are able to respond very fast. This also shows that smart home design improves security within the society (Bettini et al, 2012). Basically, going through and reading the lecture materials, has sparked my interest in use of computing systems in developing smart home application. I believe in future I will be able to use smart home application and increase the opportunity for individuals at home to stay and live independently. I plan to use sensors and actuators to develop the system in order to enable home occupants to manage their daily live activities within a safe, secure and relaxed manner. Moreover, using acquired knowledge, it will be possible to develop smart home system that will continue connecting society with more accessible ubiquitous computing services. This will not only be energy saving and hence reduce the costs, but it will also ensure people are safer and enjoy healthier and increased quality of life (Muhammad & Ullah, 2017). Part 2 Designing energy smart housing The main objective is to design a sustainable, self-sufficient and low maintenance house using strategies that would ensure higher efficiency. The smart home will be based on energy efficiency, natural integration as well as installation of control mechanisms. Energy efficiency will be attained by using renewable energy sources and in this case solar power (Van, 2009). Energy efficiency will also be attained via the smart management of its energy input and output in order to decrease the overall use of energy and energy cost as well. The home will also utilize natural integration and use the pre-existing biological systems to lower the level of energy needed for powering and maintaining it. Administration of all these functions will be achieved using a centralized control mechanism which will be computerized (Van, 2009). The key objective of the smart home will be to lower the operational costs of the home owner and also to reduce its effect on the environment and assist in improving the conditions for the house occupants and those around the home as well. The home will therefore be designed using sustainable methods in order to enhance its internal living conditions as well as reduce the operational costs while still reducing the harmful effect the home has on the environment (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2011). Methodology The smart home will be equipped using an automatic system that will regulate the internal environment of the house. The system will also be integrated with the solar system in order to enable the homeowner and occupants to monitor use of energy and output as well. The solar array will be integrated in order to generate electricity and hence lower the energy costs (Van, 2009). For this home, the array will use solar shingles which are solar panels that resemble roofing tiles but the solar panels have power outputs. A 2.8 kW solar system would be used to ensure that most of the power used in the house is provided by the solar. This is likely to save a lot of costs that would be going to electricity bills. In addition, a geothermal heating and cooling system would be installed in the house in order to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Normal house emits high amounts of green house gases such as carbon dioxide when compared to smart house. Finally, the last aspect was natural integration where the house was fitted with green roof in order to ensure less energy wastage (Van, 2009). Generally, the smart home will reduce the operational costs, reduce carbon emissions and also provide a better environment for the home occupants and the neighborhood as well. The cost saving will be a huge selling factor for this home due to its reduced operational costs, increased safety because of the control system and cleaner home due to less wastage (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2011). Insulation Insulation is an architectural imperative for buildings. Insulation is used in preventing loss of significant amounts of energy and hence saves electricity bills. Insulation also minimizes emission of greenhouse gases and decreased dependence on heating and cooling systems (Downson et al, 2014). During building construction, I would use insulation in reducing energy consumption and building operation costs. Additionally, insulation can be used for acoustic benefits. I would prefer using hi-tech polymers and cotton insulation. Rigid foam insulation is also appropriate to use in new buildings because it provides an extremely high R-value per inch of thickness. Basically, installation of the insulation materials saves a lot of energy when compared to the energy consumed during production (Downson et al, 2014). Moisture does not affect the R-value and also insects cannot destroy the plastic foam. However, because plastics have high embodied energy contents and also likely risks associated with volatile chemicals from plastics, it is advisable to consider using organic insulation. There are different brands of insulation made from recycled newspapers or textiles. These ones can be accessed in form of batting, loose-fill or even spray-on applications. A spay-on insulation application and acoustic insulation produced from recycled paper fibers provides an R-value of 4.54 per square inch and this indicates its appropriateness. These types of insulations also conserve not only trees, but also water and landfill space. The acrylic binder is less toxic and also prevents ultimate settling that can lower R-values (Downson et al, 2014). When insulating new constructions, it would be important to understand the regulations governing the minimum insulation requirements. It is recommendable to use ultra-efficient home design during planning phase for synchronization of insulation with other elements of construction in order to eradicate retrofitting. This will involve identifying the insulation locations, the R-values of these locations, as well as the kind of insulation to use, for example seal and moisture control (Downson et al, 2014). For retrofitting insulation in an existing building, the first step would be to perform an energy assessment in order to establish the amount of insulation required for the building. Even though retrofitting structure is costly, it is a one-time investment that pays off with time and eventually saves a lot of costs and hence it is worthwhile (Downson et al, 2014). Ventilation For ventilation, it would be advisable to avoid unnecessary cooling and heating. Dampers should also be maintained in order to lower air leakage and increase cooling and heating when necessary through introduction of excessive external air. Appropriate ventilation should be used and should be based on the temperature, contaminant or even an occupancy sensor (Reinishc et al, 2010). The air flows should be balanced for suitable zero, +ve or –ve pressure because this will assist in avoiding cross contamination of air between the different process regions. Direct air make-up with heat recovery for extracting crucial contaminants should be used. Control contaminants should be used at source in order to lower the cost of extraction. Systems should also be used for destratifying ceiling air because for heated spaces hot air is likely to build up at ceiling level. When heating is needed, energy costs can be lowered by ensuring the heat returns to floor level. In addition, use of local exhaust should be minimized because bid open hoods tire out significant amounts of air for satisfactory capture velocity to be maintained. The exhausted air should consist of external air which should be conditioned. Since unwarranted use of an exhaust hood can result to significant waste, appropriate exhaust can save significantly (Reinishc et al, 2010). Ventilation requires energy to raise the air mass from the external temperature to the space temperature within the building. The rate of required energy is dependent on the quantity of air that is introduced within the building, as well as the variation between the outdoor and indoor temperatures. This energy is calculated using equation: Q = 1.232 x FA x (T2 – T1) Q is the heat loss rate FA is the flow rate of ventilation air T2 is the internal temperature T1 is the external temperature 1.232 = a constant accounting for conversion to common units For instance, for a building whose ventilation system provides 1,200 litres per second of external air into a building, it would be necessary to calculate the rate of energy needed when the external temperature is -5 oC and the building space is 23oC. Q = 1.232 x FA x (T2 – T1) Hence Q = 1.232 x 1200 x (23 – (-5)) Q = 41395 (414 kW) Reference list Bettini, P. Lukowicz, B. Lagesse, D. Reinhardt, 2012, Privacy Challenges in Pervasive Living Spaces (Panel Discussion),” in The First International Workshop on Pervasive Smart Living Spaces. 1(2). Downson M, Harrison D & Zahir D, 2014, Trombe walls with nanoporous aerogel insulation applied to UK housing refurbishments, International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials, 5(4).  Muhammad A & Ullah K, 2017, Smart home automation system using Bluetooth technology", Innovations in Electrical Engineering and Computational Technologies (ICIEECT) 2017 International Conference on, pp. 1-6. Reinishc C, Kofler M & Kastner W, 2010, ThinkHome Energy Efficiency in Future Smart Homes, EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems, 1(2). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2011, Energy Efficiency in Affordable Housing, New York: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Van H, 2009, PV Thermal Systems: PV Panels Supplying Renewable Electricity and Heat, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl, 1(12), pp:415–426. Lecture materials Read More