Internet of Things for High Performance Net Zero Energy Buildings

Introduction

The building architecture is commercially based on their functional, aesthetic and luxury needs. In the commercialized world, the engineers and construction work force utilize maximum embodied energy with higher carbon emission.

Vernacular architecture is evolved based on ecological, Societal and economic conditions. The materials used were locally available in nature. Vernacular architecture is predominantly seen in ancient and historical Indian places such as Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, and Jaipur. This is later discarded due to globalization, irrespective of climatic conditions, the real estates have aped the west and buildings with glass facades have become popular in India. These kind of building trap the heat inside the building and hence the need of HVAC systems in the building, which causes carbon emission. (Nayak & Prajapati, 2006).

Materials and technology required for conventional buildings have high Embodied Energy and Embodied Carbon as they uses materials such as river sand, natural wood, cement, red burnt brick. Technology such as square footing, Burnt Brick Masonry (BBM), flat slabs which consumes more amount of concrete and many more. (Buchanan & Honey, 1993).

The ecological imbalance is majorly due to depletion of ozone layer and emission of toxic gases. The extraction of natural materials namely river sand, natural wood, stones, fertile soil which does not contain any reused materials for constructing conventional buildings. More often conventional buildings utilize more energy which imbalances the ecosystem. The orientation towards the emission of carbon across the globe is elaborated in the Figure 1.

Figure 1.

World Carbon dioxide emissions in metric tons per capita

Source https://www.worldbank.org/

The emission of carbon in South Asia is around 1.46 MT of CO2/capita North America is around 21.98 MT of CO2/capita in year 1973 & 15.22MT of CO2/capita in 1961 & presently 16.37 MT of CO2/capita (2014 recent data) Overall world 4.98 MT of CO2/capita which was predicted from the Carbon trading throughout the globe but US alone is contributing around average of 17 MT of CO2/capita which is 3 times more compared to world average as per the image.(https://www.worldbank.org/).

If everyone on the earth lives like Americans, it would need 5 earths, according to Global Footprint Network. Extreme use of resources has genuine consequences for the globe. Consumption of natural resources such as water, electricity, has been crossed their limit, in the name of Liberalization Privatization Globalization Ecological imbalance as reached its peak. The major issues of emission of carbon are picturized in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

The detailing of Carbon footprint in Conventional Constructions

In order to rectify the pitfalls of the above discussed scenarios Sustainable Construction is adopted. It is a technology, which encounters the needs of the present without compromising the ability of upcoming generations. The characteristics of Sustainable construction are Alternative materials- M-sand, robust sand, stabilized mud block, fly ash blocks, ground granulated blast furnace slag, use of plastic for road construction, maximum recycled content in Steel. Alternative construction technology such as inverted arch Foundation, rammed Earth masonry, Mivan construction, precast Technology and alternative roof - Filler slabs Jack arches composite beams and panel slabs are some of the properties of Sustainable construction. (Kibert, 2012).

For Net zero energy buildings (NZEB) or sustainable construction, we need better Indoor Air Quality which causes thermal comfort. These buildings achieve Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s) which were coined by UN Development programme – UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio-de-Janeiro in 2012. IoT is one of the technologies can be adopted for this purpose.