FACTOR 10 ENERGY REDUCTION RETROFIT INVESTIGATION FOR CANADIAN RESIDENCES

摘要

The challenge has been issued by the Factor 10 Club in the Carnoules Statement to Government and Business Leaders to reduce energy consumption by a factor of 10 within a generation, using currently available technologies. This paper explores the technical feasibility of reducing the primary energy use in existing Canadian houses by a factor of 10. Various techniques and technologies including building envelope improvements, furnace and hot water heater efficiency improvements, electrical energy use reduction strategies, heat recovery from ventilation air and wastewater, lifestyle changes, and the use of renewable energy sources are explored and applied to the specific case of single detached residential housing in Saskatoon, Canada. The HOT2000 building energy simulation software is used to model the energy balance of pre- and post-retrofit example houses. RETScreen software is used to simulate photovoltaic energy generation and solar thermal energy collection. Common energy reduction retrofits simulated include envelope improvements and electrical consumption reductions, achieving nearly 80% energy reductions from the baseline model in each example. One example house makes use of photovoltaic cells to further reduce the electrical energy consumption from fossil fuel sources to the factor 10 goal. The other example generates 98% of the required thermal energy from evacuated tube solar thermal collectors, reducing its primary energy requirements by a factor of 10. A brief economic discussion shows that energy reductions of this magnitude have a rate of return in the order of 4%. The technical means exist to achieve a 90% energy use reduction in existing houses, even in an extreme climate like that of the Canadian prairies. The problem must be approached with a multi-pronged effort, reducing energy losses, maximizing free energy capture, and making some lifestyle adjustments to intentionally reduce primary energy consumption.