Energy modeling software is used to determine the energy consumption and CO2 emissions for the typical code compliant house in each climate zone. In this exercise two climate zones were selected, only one of which is presented here.
1. Energy Consumption and CO2 emissions in the reference house.
1.1. Energy modeling of the reference house with Home Energy Designer as indicated in the previous technique “geographical distribution of carbon emissions” and HEED. Both of these permit to determine the total energy consumption and their origins. In HEED this is done using the energy costs screen (Fig 1). This screen presents the results in units of energy and carbon emissions for air conditioning, fans and blowers, lights, equipment and appliances, electric heat or pumps, water heater, appliance fuel and furnace fuel.
1.2. Use Home Energy Saver to determine total energy consumption and their origin in the different zip codes. This is done using the results screen: heating, cooling, hot water, lighting, major appliances, miscellaneous.
1.3. Determine combinations of climate zones and zip codes with similar energy use patterns (Fig. 3). This will permit them to be compared with climate design strategies that would reduce the building’s carbon footprint.
2.Climate Analysis
2.1. Use Climate Consultant or the Weather Tool to determine design strategies that could be incorporated in the design of the house to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions. Traditionally climate analysis is done before any type of modeling is done. In this case it was done after the energy analysis to determine strategies that could reduce the emissions factors from the different sources detected in 1.
2.2. Rank the potential impact and performance of these strategies. This can be graphed for the heating and cooling seasons separately (Fig 5, 6). The strategies can be organized in tables that indicate potential CO2 reductions after implementing them (Fig 7).
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