Zero-carbon Homes

Zero-carbon Homes

Author: Joanna Williams

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1136575545

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Housing is a major contributor to CO2 emissions in Europe and America today and the construction of new homes offers an opportunity to address this issue. Providing homes that achieve "zero carbon", "carbon neutral", "zero-net energy" or "energy-plus" standard is becoming the goal of more innovative house-builders globally, whilst energy providers seek to decarbonise the energy supply to new and existing development. Various new technical systems for achieving these goals are beginning to emerge. For example the passive house whose energy requirement for space heating and cooling is almost zero; the smart grid that has revolutionized the management of energy, whilst enabling the connection of small-scale, renewable energy producers and electric vehicles to the grid; or the European super-grid which will enable zero carbon energy to be generated in the Sahara desert and stored in Norway. This book explores the diverse approaches that are being adopted around the world to deliver zero carbon homes and the different societal systems and geographic circumstances in which they have developed. It postulates a roadmap for delivering zero carbon homes, together with a toolbox approach for policy and practice to suit particular national and local circumstances. A series of case studies are presented that offer lessons for delivering zero carbon homes. These examples are also used to demonstrate how prototype systems can move into the mainstream. The book highlights some of the instruments and mechanisms that could be used to support this transformation and addresses the wider implications of introducing these innovative systems in terms of industry, lifestyle and urban form.


The Zero-Carbon House

The Zero-Carbon House

Author: Martin Godrey Cook

Publisher: Crowood

Published: 2011-09-16

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1847973310

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Zero Carbon' is an abstract concept for most people, but we have lived energy-profligate lifestyles for too long on finite fossil-fuel resources. We now face potential environmental catastrophe from climate change and global warming, with a continuing exponentially expanding global population that doubles every four decades. The capacity of the planet to reabsorb carbon dioxide is about two to three tonnes of carbon equivalent per person at current population levels of seven billion and therefore there is a desperate need for us to reduce our carbon footprint. A way of helping to achieve this is to live in a zero-carbon house, and this will become UK legislation for new homes by 2016. This fascinating book covers all aspects of the zero-carbon house, from its evolution to achieving carbon neutrality in old and new homes as well as entire communities. Includes an overview of zero carbon and how to achieve it on a global scale; covers communities of zero-carbon houses and provides inspirational examples of low-carbon lifestyles. Case studies show how principles are put into successful practice to save energy, carbon, money and the environment.


Drawdown

Drawdown

Author: Paul Hawken

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-04-18

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1524704652

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• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.


ZEDlife

ZEDlife

Author: Bill Dunster

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 100070128X

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The argument for low-cost, zero-energy, zero-waste architecture has never been timelier, while the mainstream has largely abandoned or neglected this agenda: in the UK the recent mandatory zero-carbon performance targets for new homes have been postponed or forgotten at a time when thousands of new homes will be built, and there is already a shortage of electric generating capacity. This book offers a forceful challenge to the current addiction to overconsumption of natural capital and energy, and provides workable, sustainable solutions for zero-carbon, zero-waste design.


Design for Biodiversity

Design for Biodiversity

Author: Kelly Gunnell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1000705129

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The built environment has the potential to have a major impact on biodiversity, not least with the increasingly demanding requirements to design more energy efficient and airtight buildings, leaving less space for species to inhabit. The construction industry has an important role to play in ensuring that buildings are designed and refurbished in a way in which biodiversity can be enhanced. Through written guidance and architectural drawings, this book advises on how to incorporate provision for biodiversity within developments. With sections on different building-reliant species, general principles for design, ready-made products that be incorporated into designs, and legislation, policy and regulations, this book is an invaluable resource for all architects, ecologists and anyone involved in designing or briefing for biodiversity in buildings.


Zero-Energy Buildings

Zero-Energy Buildings

Author: Jesus Alberto Pulido Arcas

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2020-12-16

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1789852455

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The building industry is one of the largest energy consumers and countries all over the world are striving to design buildings that satisfy the user’s expectations while containing their energy consumption. In this context, zero-energy buildings have emerged as a technological paradigm that can solve this global issue, but its implementation in different contexts has brought a profound debate about its technical, social, and environmental limitations. Thanks to contributions from a variety of scholars from different countries, this book explores different aspects of the zero-energy buildings and gives the reader a broad view of the feasibility of implementation in different contexts.


Live Sustainably Now

Live Sustainably Now

Author: Karl Coplan

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2019-12-31

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0231549164

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Any realistic response to climate change will require reducing carbon emissions to a sustainable level. Yet even people who already recognize that the climate is the most urgent issue facing the planet struggle to understand their individual responsibilities. Is it even possible to live with a sustainable carbon footprint in modern American society—much less to live well? What are the options for those who would like to make climate awareness part of their daily lives but don’t want to go off the grid or become a hermit? In Live Sustainably Now, Karl Coplan shares his personal journey of attempting to cut back on carbon without giving up the amenities of a suburban middle-class lifestyle. Coplan chronicles the joys and challenges of a year on a carbon budget—kayaking to work, hunting down electric-car charging stations, eating a Mediterranean-style diet, and enjoying plenty of travel on weekends and vacations while avoiding long-distance flights. He explains how to set a personal carbon cap and measure your actual footprint, with his own results detailed in monthly diary entries. Presenting the pros and cons of different energy, transportation, and lifestyle options, Live Sustainably Now shows that there does not have to be a trade-off between the ethical obligation to maintain a sustainable carbon footprint and the belief that life should be fulfilling and fun. This powerful and persuasive book provides an individual-level blueprint for a carbon-sustainable tweak to the American dream.


Designing Zero Carbon Buildings Using Dynamic Simulation Methods

Designing Zero Carbon Buildings Using Dynamic Simulation Methods

Author: Ljubomir Jankovic

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-06-23

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 1317218353

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In addition to the application of fundamental principles that lead to a structured method for zero carbon design of buildings, this considerably expanded second edition includes new advanced topics on multi-objective optimisation; reverse modelling; reduction of the simulation performance gap; predictive control; nature-inspired emergent simulation leading to sketches that become ‘alive’; and an alternative economics for achieving the sustainability paradigm. The book features student design work from a Master’s programme run by the author, and their design speculation for a human settlement on Mars. Tasks for simple simulation experiments are available for the majority of topics, providing the material for classroom exercise and giving the reader an easy introduction into the field. Extended new case studies of zero carbon buildings are featured in the book, including schemes from Japan, China, Germany, Denmark and the UK, and provide the reader with an enhanced design toolbox to stimulate their own design thinking.


Reinventing Fire

Reinventing Fire

Author: Amory Lovins

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2011-10-15

Total Pages: 4

ISBN-13: 1603583726

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Imagine fuel without fear. No climate change. No oil spills, no dead coalminers, no dirty air, no devastated lands, no lost wildlife. No energy poverty. No oil-fed wars, tyrannies, or terrorists. No leaking nuclear wastes or spreading nuclear weapons. Nothing to run out. Nothing to cut off. Nothing to worry about. Just energy abundance, benign and affordable, for all, forever. That richer, fairer, cooler, safer world is possible, practical, even profitable-because saving and replacing fossil fuels now works better and costs no more than buying and burning them. Reinventing Fire shows how business-motivated by profit, supported by civil society, sped by smart policy-can get the US completely off oil and coal by 2050, and later beyond natural gas as well. Authored by a world leader on energy and innovation, the book maps a robust path for integrating real, here-and-now, comprehensive energy solutions in four industries-transportation, buildings, electricity, and manufacturing-melding radically efficient energy use with reliable, secure, renewable energy supplies.Popular in tone and rooted in applied hope, Reinventing Fire shows how smart businesses are creating a potent, global, market-driven, and explosively growing movement to defossilize fuels. It points readers to trillions in savings over the next 40 years, and trillions more in new business opportunities.Whether you care most about national security, or jobs and competitive advantage, or climate and environment, this major contribution by world leaders in energy innovation offers startling innovations will support your values, inspire your support, and transform your sense of possibility.Pragmatic citizens today are more interested in outcomes than motives. Reinventing Fire answers this trans-ideological call. Whether you care most about national security, or jobs and competitive advantage, or climate and environment, its startling innovations will support your values, inspire your support, and transform your sense of possibility.


The New Autonomous House

The New Autonomous House

Author: Brenda Vale

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780500282878

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"I've seen many books on this subject, but none so well documented and honest."—Whole Earth