Picturing the hidden environmental benefits of passive building design decisions

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:379886

Milne, M; Gomez, C F; Epailly, G ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Architecture and Urban Design

Every design decision an architect makes carries with it a hidden environmental cost. Architects are concerned about issues like sustainability, greenhouse gas production, and other environmental costs, but there is little they can do until there is an easy way to visualize exactly what these costs look like. This paper describes a user-friendly microcomputer design tool that calculates the environmental costs of each architectural design decision, and then displays an easy-to-understand picture of how these costs change from one design to the next. This new version of SOLAR-5 shows how a well designed passive building produces less air pollution and greenhouse gases, and thus how it contributes to a more sustainable environment. Seven different atmospheric pollutants are included in the database, measured in pounds of pollution per KwHr for electric power generated and per MMBTU of natural gas or heating oil burned. SOLAR-5 also displays the amount of energy a building uses and its cost of operation. This new design tool can show that good passive buildings not only conserve energy, but also account for hidden environmental benefits. In order to build a sustainable future for this planet, architects need easy-to-use design tools like this to help them visualize the many environmental consequences of their design decisions.

• OSTI ID: 379886
• Report Number(s): CONF-960430--; ISBN 0-89553-211-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR POLLUTION
BUILDINGS
CARBON OXIDES
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRIC POWER
ENERGY AUDITS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FUEL OILS
LIFE-CYCLE COST
NATURAL GAS
NITROGEN OXIDES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICULATES
S CODES
SOLAR ARCHITECTURE
SULFUR OXIDES