ABSTRACT
The concept of zero energy buildings is considered a highly demanded one because of the danger of global warming effects due to gas emissions from petroleum-based energy sources. In this work, a comprehensive study for zero energy buildings is carried out for one building in Jordan with a 240m2 area which consists of 10 apartments with 150m2 each. The study focussed on developing the best design of renewable energy that achieves zero energy for each apartment using photovoltaics (PV) and thermal solar collectors. The heating and cooling loads were calculated using a commercial software package (HAP) and F-chart method for solar heating load calculations. Three different scenarios were suggested, the expected monthly saving and payback periods are 63.7 JD, 3.1 years for scenario one, 59 JD, 3.4 years for scenario two, and 55 JD, 4.1 years for scenario three, respectively. It was found that the peak power energy of photovoltaic panels for a single typical apartment is 4.62 kWp which saves 764 JD/year and the required heating and cooling peak loads are 3336 kWh/year and 7632 kWh/year respectively. Hence the conservation of energy measures and the integration of renewable energy will create energy efficiency and create a net-zero energy building.
