Zero Net – Buildings

I am not an expert in renewable energy. This post is my personal experience & understanding as an Information Technology professional having worked in various industries for over twenty years.

Introduction

When we say off the grid from an energy perspective, it means that the building or house is no longer using electricity in the traditional way most of use. We all are on some kind of grid where electricity is produced via wind, hydro, coal, oil and solar. Naturally, if the consumption is very high when it is very cold or hot, then the there can be power outages as the capacity of the grid to produce has reached maximum. 

Energy, traditionally, is produced by consuming natural resources like coal, oil and to a smaller percentage other resources. These methods of producing energy deplete the planet’s resources and produce carbon emissions.  

Due to global warming, most countries are interested in producing renewable energy like solar, wind, or hydro w/o producing emissions and not using natural resources. However, when the renewable energy produced is not enough, then they dip into the grid traditional form of energy.  So most of us are on the grid and consuming renewable energy and traditional production of energy. This a positive step forward in reducing emissions. 

Energy Efficient

The goal of all utility producing companies is to produce renewable energy on the grid for the consumers. However, hydro electric energy, wind, solar and to a minor extent sound cannot produce copious amounts for watts used by us. So they still produce traditional form of energy. 

All over the world many individuals have built homes which are energy efficient by installing solar panels and using best practices in the home for wiring, energy efficient appliances and natural light. 

However, some residential owners have gone further and want ‘Zero Energy’ buildings. And such buildings have been built as shown above in many countries; yes, even cold winter countries!

This can be achieved and has been demonstrated in many countries as stated in [1]. However, the more important thing is to build a zero energy building for offices, which also has been accomplished as can seen in the wikipedia article.

The purpose of this article is that I have worked in such a building as part of one of my projects with Department of Energy (USA).

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Personal Experience

I have worked in this building on a project for NREL [2] shown above. This building was constructed from recycled plastic; bricks and metal found in dumpsters; piping and wires which have been discarded. I was and am impressed by the materials used for construction; and the engineering design of the building from the windows, floors and how long the width of the building had to be so that in the middle of the building there is ample light to work during the day.

I am lucky to be in a profession – software development – that I got to learn about zero net energy buildings and also work there for my project.

In the basement was their computer hardware room which had multiple servers and the building was not using energy on the grid and being self reliant. The temperature in the basement was lower than the rest of the building and still the building was net zero.

So much so, that many technology companies, from Intel, Google, Microsoft came for tours to learn how they accomplished keeping racks of computers in working conditions by being off the grid.

I am confident that soon all over the world countries will work towards zero energy buildings and consume limited resources to a minimum.

References & Further Reading

1. Wikipedia has good notes on what each country has been doing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-energy_building
2. Sustainable Net Zero NREL Buildings https://www.nrel.gov/about/sustainable-buildings.html .
3. https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zero-energy-buildings
4. https://www.24hplans.com/cost-to-build-a-net-zero-energy-home/