Wen/Zhou Yiyan Figure/Tang Xiaoyi
September, China's first zero-emission energy-saving building - the University of Nottingham, Zhejiang, the University of Nottingham's Sustainable Energy Technology Research Center officially put into use. The center is the first zero-emission energy-saving building in China. With solar-powered lights, rainwater-flushed toilets, and geothermal heating, the building operates without any emissions, and nature's energy is utilized to the fullest extent. Some in the industry have questioned energy-efficient buildings: Architecture critic Cathleen McGuigan uses the term "green mansions" to point out three major problems facing such buildings: large footprints, high costs and design limitations.
"Move the cars, please, the bricks here are extraordinary."
When the reporter and his team arrived at China's first zero-carbon emission energy-saving building, the University of Nottingham's Sustainable Energy Technology Research Center, Qiao Dakuan, the director of the center, greeted them at the door with an urgent reminder when he saw the driver parked on the path leading to the building's entrance.
Qiao Daguan gestured to the ground as he spoke. After the driver moved the car out of the way, he looked intently at the ground to see if there were any traces of wheels on the ground. The reporter looked down and examined, which found that from the entrance to the building of about 100 meters long this trail, covered with stone tiles; these stone tiles are regularly distributed on the dense thumb-sized holes, which is the energy-saving building of the first "organs". "These bricks look ordinary, in fact, expensive. Brick under the installation of a set of rainwater collection system, the entire building hand washing, toilet flushing water rely on this system, so can not withstand heavy pressure." Qiao Daguan explained.
British Joe Daguan is an expert in sustainable energy research. A year ago, Qiao Daguan was sent to China by the University of Nottingham in the UK.
From the outside, the five-story building is surrounded by translucent blue-green glass, and its irregular three-dimensional design makes it stand out from the surrounding square buildings, making it feel like a deformed Rubik's Cube. The fan-shaped tilting design of the building's facade makes each side of the building look like a kaleidoscope of different shapes. The lawn around the building is installed on a large area of solar power panels and solar collectors and other equipment, constructed into a row of "metal fence". "Whether it's the vegetation, the buildings, or the battery storage devices, everything here is lovely and green."
The building is called a zero-carbon emission building because it is self-sufficient in electricity and water through renewable resources such as sunlight, geothermal heat and rainwater, and produces no carbon dioxide. A total floor area of 1556.3 square meters of five-storey building, how to achieve zero carbon emissions? November 11 at noon, the reporter stepped into this amazing building.
The secret of "breathing"
Ningbo is already in the late fall, and the outdoor temperature is about 15 degrees Celsius. But when the reporter entered the door of the laboratory on the first floor of the building, a warm air came out. Looking around, there is no shadow of air conditioning, nor any heating equipment operation issued by the rumbling sound.
"Our air conditioners are invisible." Qiao Daguan told reporters. The zero-emission building is not equipped with any air conditioning in the traditional sense, but the indoor temperature can be maintained year-round at 20-22 degrees Celsius in winter and 25-27 degrees Celsius in summer. The reporter followed Qiao Daguan to the ground floor of the 3rd floor, the secret of the ground floor building warm in winter and cool in summer was presented to the eyes. Originally, the building's main facade are double-layer glass, glass center has a sandwich, the whole building's cooling and heating, are completed in this sandwich.
Different from ordinary air conditioning with "electricity" drive, drive the air flow in the sandwich is renewable energy "water". In the east side of the building seventy to eighty meters underground, through the design of piling buried pipe, ground source heat pump chiller unit (referred to as "geothermal water pump") buried deep. In summer, the geothermal water pump solar collector system as a source of hot water, drive chiller refrigeration, air to 70 to 80 meters deep underground circulation, send up refreshing cool air; winter, send up the warmth of the hot air. In addition, because the building is equipped with electric total control of the "smart" window, according to the building installed sensor equipment, to determine the degree of opening of the windows and louvers, even in the basement can breathe freely.
In addition, the geothermal water pump can also conduct heat directly through the floor. Qiao Daguan used one hand to easily move a piece of the floor (the building's floors are removable, in line with the characteristics of green buildings to facilitate the transformation), it turns out that there are many small holes under the floor. "See, the hot airflow generated in the geothermal water pump can come up through these small holes and then penetrate the space through the gaps in the floor. There's this warm feeling in the room."
In addition to the geothermal water pump, another important device in the energy-saving building is a row of solar light panels located on the south side of the slope, which, together with the roof of the building and the metal decorative materials by the windows, constitute a powerful solar power generation system, which converts daylight into enough heat to generate electricity to meet the electricity needs of the building's elevators, computers, chillers and other equipment. It is understood that on a sunny day, solar panels can generate 600 kilowatts to 800 kilowatts of electricity per hour for 60 to 80 100-watt light bulbs work at the same time. Do not worry about bad weather, the building's exterior lawn, a roughly 10 square meters in an alcove, placed in four about 1 meter wide, 2 meters high battery saving tank, these batteries are full, can cope with two weeks of rainy days. "Sometimes encounter continuous good weather, the building 'electricity' full power, in the case of the four battery saving tanks are full, we will also be excess unused electricity to supply the neighboring gymnasium." Qiao Daguan said proudly.
The reporter observed that the zero-carbon emission building not only the use of hot groundwater pumps, solar energy instead of coal combustion, to achieve "zero carbon emissions", but also very "power-saving", a good light environment instead of artificial lighting power needs, even if it is underground. Laboratory lighting is also very adequate. Looking around the basement, the reporter found that the original top of the four tilted triangular skylights to ensure that sufficient natural light is projected in. In addition to relying on the south facade of the entire building on top of a large glass introduction of light, there is the building's internal ingenious "light well" design.
The so-called "light well" is the installation of a piece of transparent glass on the floor of each office floor instead of tiles; while the roof of the building has a large volume of openings to introduce natural light into the building, and the transparent glass on each floor introduces this light to each floor.
"According to the UK Building Regulations, an average indoor natural light factor of 5% under standard cloudy sky patterns can eliminate the need for artificial lighting. The second floor of the Zero Carbon Emissions building, which is the worst lit, achieves an average natural light factor of 9.46%. There is no need to turn on the lights from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.," Qiao Dakuan told reporters. Qiao Daguan told reporters. Of course, the ingenious light well also exists only one flaw: wearing a skirt on the girls will walk up "naked". "In the summer, I'll be sure to remind the female students to be more vigilant." Qiao Daquan said wryly.
It's not like building a house, it's like building an airplane
"It's my dream house, full of magical energy, and it's going to look different when you look at it from different angles." In September of this year, the building's designer, Mario Cucinella, a renowned Italian environmental architect, couldn't help but marvel when he stood in front of his design for the first time.
Two years ago, Mario was given the task of designing a "zero carbon emission" building. To ensure that the building would receive maximum sunlight in the spring, fall and winter, and be in complete shadow in the summer, Mario created a computer simulation of several irregular three-dimensional buildings. As he debated which one to choose, a Chinese fan dance and a lantern dance were playing on the TV. It was hard to tell whether it was a Chinese dance or a movement, but it inspired Mario to use two traditional Chinese folk crafts, the folding fan and the lantern, in his design. After several deformations and twists of the rectangle, a "twisted lantern" was born, while each irregular glass wall resembles an unfolded folding fan.
January 2007, the building's construction drawings, the main designer, Ningbo Design Institute, deputy chief architect Guo Xiaohui got the first draft of Mario's design. "After decades of building houses, the first time I looked at a preliminary design like a 'heavenly book'." Originally a 1500 square meter building in Guo Xiaohui can only be considered "a piece of cake", but this time, he was the first time in his life without a clue. "When I saw the drawings, my heart sank, the three-dimensional building was extremely irregular, the south wall was crooked, and the east wall was slanted badly. To be honest, I really didn't want to take this job at that time."
At first, Guo Xiaohui was always worried about the safety of the building. Guo Xiaohui in the previous design, occasionally encountered a corner or a wall design is irregular, but he has never drawn the entire building completely irregular deepening construction drawings. Not only that, the building's external curtain wall and the inner wall also need to retain 20 centimeters of clearance, and the external curtain wall is also all glass. This "Golden Bell" like shape design is difficult to Guo Xiaohui.
In the early stages of the design process, Guo tried to call Mario over the ocean to ask him to change the design, but Mario was adamant. Mario explained the metaphor of the "twisted lantern" to him, "Mario told me that the irregularity of the shape of the building object corresponds to the idea of 'multiple possibilities of renewable energy research', so it can't be changed. "
Guo Xiaohui, who began to understand the concept of green building, finally decided to give it a try, first purchasing a set of software worth more than 100,000 yuan to measure the spatial positioning of the building, and then communicating with him across the ocean countless times. Finally in March 2007 completed the construction design drawings.
"Normally, the construction period for a 1,500-square-meter building is about seven months, but this building took a whole year and seven months to build." Shen Weiqi, assistant to the president of the University of Nottingham Ningbo, lamented, "The university originally planned to complete the building in October 2007, and then invited Professor Qiao Dakuan to come here to prepare for the lectures in September of the same year. Unexpectedly, this energy-saving building is just like a child that is difficult to deliver, and the construction period has been extended for almost one year."
An engineer involved in the construction told reporters, "This is the most difficult building among the hundreds of houses I have built." He had to climb up and down irregular scaffolding every day because of the building's irregular surface. And even more difficult than this test is from the psychological pressure, no one knows this building is constructed, those high-tech environmental protection equipment can actually function properly? During the construction period, the engineer had rushed to Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities to study energy-saving buildings, but repeatedly disappointed. Earlier this year, the engineer heard that Beijing Tsinghua University also has a similar energy-saving building, also from the hand of Mario, so went to "learn from".
"I was disappointed that many of the energy-saving devices in that building have become ornamental, air conditioning, lights or in use, the reference value is not great, everything still have to feel their way." He told reporters that in order to ensure that China's first zero-carbon emission building in the installation of equipment is accurate, "I do not feel like building a house, but in the building of airplanes, shall not have half a point of error."
According to the school's calculations, over the next 25 years, the building will save 448.9 tons of coal and reduce carbon emissions by 1,081.8 tons. 1,081.8 tons of carbon emissions, how big is it? Data released by the United Nations Environment Programme shows that if someone switches from running on a treadmill for 45 minutes to jogging in a nearby park, he can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 1,000 grams per session, while using a traditional toothbrush instead of an electric toothbrush reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 48 grams per person per session.
Energy-efficient buildings or "green mansions"?
Since the Tsinghua University energy-saving building was completed, the domestic construction units and major universities for energy-saving building interest is growing day by day. Ningbo this "China's first zero-carbon emission building" once again let people focus on "energy-saving building". Shen Weiqi told reporters that since the building opened two months (visits need to be booked in advance), has attracted more than 30 teams of experts to visit, many professionals said they hoped to "copy" the energy-saving technology of zero-carbon emission building. The School of Architecture at Tongji University in Shanghai, which has been planning to build an energy-saving building for two years, also invited Qiao Dakuan to give a lecture not long ago.
In the past few years, "zero carbon emission" and "carbon neutral" have been the hottest words in the international construction industry. 2000, 573 building projects worldwide*** applied for LEED certification (Energy and Environmental Design Certification), issued by the U.S. Green Building Council. building certification by the U.S. Green Building Council). In 2008, the number soared to 16,000. The U.K. Green Council released a report saying it would make all non-residential buildings achieve "zero carbon emissions" by 2020, while the U.S., Canada, and Japan have also introduced policies to encourage property developers to build energy-efficient buildings, such as lowering lending rates and cutting taxes.
But as the energy-saving building boom intensifies, the industry has begun to question green building. Newsweek ran an article in September titled "Bad News for Green Buildings". Architecture critic Cathleen McGuigan used the term " GreenMcMansion " (GreenMcMansion) to point out the three major problems facing green buildings today, namely, large land area, high cost and design limitations. In addition, energy-efficient buildings can go from "zero energy" to "energy hogs" if the high-tech equipment breaks down or loses thermal efficiency before it reaches the end of its useful life.
To achieve the goal of energy efficiency, energy-efficient buildings take up much more space than ordinary buildings. The Palazzo, a Las Vegas casino hotel that opened in January last year, occupies 8.3 million square meters, but is also LEED-certified. In this regard, Qiao Daguan said that with the innovation of environmental protection technology, 300 square meters of solar panels in the near future may become 150 square meters, and even reduced to be able to be installed in the building, green buildings will eventually disappear the shortcomings of the occupation of a lot of space.
Green buildings are expensive. Guo Xiaohui told reporters, "Ningbo's zero-consumption energy-saving building construction design costs nearly 1,000 yuan per square meter, 30 times more expensive than ordinary buildings. This does not include the design fees paid to the Italian designer Mario." An engineer involved in the construction also said that similar commercial buildings cost about 1,500 yuan per square meter, while the building, according to his estimate, construction costs may be as high as 10,000 yuan per square meter or more. In addition, the investment cost of solar power panels, solar collectors, geothermal water pumps, etc. is also very high. When the reporter asked the school to confirm the total cost of this building, assistant principal Shen Weiqi kept his mouth shut. He said, "Since this building is just an integration of many high technologies, it makes little sense to study its cost."
Talking about the design limitations of the "green mansion," Cathleen McGuigan wrote in a commentary, "While ugly green architecture is a step above ugly non-green architecture, that still doesn't hide its ugliness." This is just as many people feel after seeing this zero-carbon emission building in China. The reporter interviewed some teachers and students at the school, and they used words like "novel" and "weird" to describe the building, and some even exclaimed, "This is the ugliest building I've ever seen! Some even exclaimed, "This is the ugliest building I've ever seen. Qiao Dakuan explains this by saying that the shape had to be distorted moderately because the energy-efficient building itself needed to ensure adequate lighting. "It's like fur coats, which used to be worn by Hollywood stars and considered a symbol of luxury and beauty. After being repeatedly criticized by animal activists, fur coats became less glamorous and more repulsive. The fate of green buildings is exactly the opposite of fur coats."
Professor Jiang Yi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice president of Tsinghua University's School of Architecture, said in an interview that both Tsinghua's energy-saving building and China's first zero-carbon emission building are just showpieces of integrated technology. He believes that the promotion of energy saving is by no means simply installing some so-called energy-saving equipment, but must pursue the actual energy consumption must really be reduced. He said, for example, some of the so-called "green homes" in Beijing to cancel the balcony, each family to send a dryer, the building exterior installation of some solar cells, the actual power consumption is much higher than the general residential; some homes using a large number of advanced technology of the central air conditioning, the measurement shows that each square meter of air conditioning per year, power consumption of about 20 degrees, while the ordinary split air-conditioning residential, power consumption is only 2 degrees. The residential, the power consumption is only about 2 degrees.
Jiang Yi pointed out that China's current urban buildings per unit area energy consumption is not high, only about 1/3 of the U.S. Tsinghua University campus (in addition to the East Gate near the buildings built after 2005) the average energy consumption of buildings is the same climate in the U.S. Ivy League school campuses in the same climate city of the building energy consumption of 1/5. The average energy consumption of a building is 1/5 of the energy consumption of an Ivy League campus in the same climate in the United States.
" China's urban buildings can not rely on a large number of solar power, wind power, biomass power generation to solve the problem of building energy, but to rely on rational building design, energy system design, the correct operation and management methods, and the user's energy-saving concepts and energy-saving lifestyles to achieve real energy saving." Jiang Yi said.