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A design tool for off-grid housing in Australia.

Author(s) : REN Z., CHAN W., CHEN D., et al.

Type of article: Article, Case study

Summary

This study presents an integrated tool for off-grid housing design across Australia. The tool has been developed by implementing a solar PV battery system model into the existing Australian Zero Emission House design tool (AusZEH). AusZEH is a tool for designing low/zero carbon housing that incorporates technologies and measures to reduce whole house energy consumption, and takes into account local climate, building envelope, equipment and appliances, and occupant behaviour. The off-grid housing design is evaluated by matching energy supply (predicted by the solar PV battery model) at one-hour time step with the energy demand (as predicted by AusZEH). A case study is developed for existing old houses which shows that, with non-electric energy sources (e.g. natural gas) for the four main end-uses (water heating, space heating, cook-top and oven), households may operate off the grid at an installation cost of PV-battery of around A$47,000 in Sydney (a balanced heating/cooling region) and A$59,500 in Townsville (a tropical region). In Melbourne (a heating dominated region), the most cost-effective way to go off-grid is to first retrofit the house to be 6 stars and then install a PV-battery system. The total cost is around A$49,500. This tool provides a cost-effective pathway for off-grid housing design in Australia

Details

  • Original title: A design tool for off-grid housing in Australia.
  • Record ID : 30023849
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Environment
  • Source: EcoLibrium - vol. 17 - n. 1
  • Publication date: 2018/02

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