Reference no: EM132519444

CSM80002 Environmental Sustainability in Construction - Swinburne University of Technology

Construction Assignment

Low Energy and Low Carbon building design

Your aim is to redesign your allocated house model to minimise the energy consumption and carbon emission throughout the lifecycle (40 years) in cold Melbourne climate (Australian Climate Zone 6). The calculated life- cycle energy consumption and carbon emission from your redesigned home must be lower than the life-cycle energy consumption and carbon emission that you have calculated during the tutorial.

Please note that the architectural drawing of your house model is fixed. You should not change the layout of the house. You can only change the materials, construction, appliances and operation of appliances and heating/cooling system.

You should redesign your home considering the following aspects

Part 1) Minimise embodied energy and carbon: Identify and describe four approaches that you have applied in selecting the construction materials to minimise the embodied energy and carbon of your redesigned home.

Show the Embodied energy and Embodied carbon calculation of the selected materials including maintenance during the lifecycle.

You must submit the excel file of embodied energy and embodied carbon calculation via the assignment submission link. You will receive zero in this section if the excel file is not submitted.

Part 2) Minimise operating energy consumption and emission from appliances - Describe two approaches to select appropriate appliances for your redesigned home to minimise operational energy consumption and emission during the lifecycle. You should consider typical usage hours of your appliances. (2)

Show the operating energy consumption and emission calculation from the use of these appliances. (4)

You must submit the excel file of operating energy and carbon emission calculation via the assignment submission link. You will receive zero in this section if the excel file is not submitted.

Part 3) Minimise operating energy consumption and emission from Heating and Cooling - Calculate operational energy required for heating and cooling to maintain thermal comfort inside the building. You should

• Identify and describe three approaches that you have applied to minimise heating and cooling energy consumption in your redesigned home.

• Use EnergyPlus software to calculate heating and cooling energy consumption in Melbourne climate. Input the construction materials you have selected in step 1. You should select appropriate heating and cooling thermostat for Melbourne climate following NatHERS standard. (6 Marks)

• Assuming that you are using electricity for heating and cooling, calculate the emissions associated with heating and cooling energy consumption

You must provide screenshots of input (materials, construction, window glazing) and output (annual energy consumption) of your Energyplus model in your assignment.
Also, you must submit the Energyplus model through canvas assignment submission link. You will receive zero in this section if the Energyplus model is not submitted.

Part 4) Provide a comparison of the Life-Cycle energy consumption and carbon emission (step 1, 2 and 3) as a result of redesign with that of original model (calculated during the tutorial).

Part 5) If you want to construct your redesigned house in hot climate zones of Australia (Australian Climate Zone 1: i.e, Darwin, Cairns), what are the four design parameters you may need to revisit and make changes.