Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 5
Multivariant design of energy-efficient house in Africa
Climate change is both a present and future challenge and represents a key
reason to incorporate long-term thinking into the energy design of buildings
(Georgiadou et al.
2012
).
The building sector contributes up to 30 % of global annual green house gas
emissions and consumes up to 40 % of all energy [UNEP], that is why—has the
largest potential for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to
other major emitting sectors. Buildings able to respond to future changes will not
become prematurely obsolete; hence, key decisions relating to the energy per-
formance of buildings need to be 'future-proofed' from the early planning and
design stages against long-term social, technological, economic, environmental
and regulatory changes (Mora et al.
2011
).
A building design based on energy-saving criteria reduces economic costs
throughout the useful life of the building because of its lower energy consumption,
and this more than compensates for the greater initial investment. Since there are
also fewer CO
2
emissions into the atmosphere throughout the building's life cycle,
this benefits society as well (Pacheco et al.
2012
). So the building design optimised
at the early planning and design stage therefore, make it possible to construct not
only energy efficient, but also eco-friendly buildings.
The decision support system (
http://iti.vgtu.lt/imitacijosmain/simpletable.
aspx?sistemid=428
)
presented here will facilitate the sustainable building design
process and will make it possible to assess any alternatives against a range of
criteria. In this particular case, the analysis of building envelope alternatives is
adjusted for Johannesburg, a city in South Africa.
