Wen Sheng Ou

Evaluation the Feasibility of Zero-Carbon Green Building in Taiwan

In order to accommodate the global climate change, the idea of constructing zero-carbon green buildings has become the main stream and highest standard in building design in many countries. Located in subtropical zone, Taiwan features hot and humid weather in summer. The high usage of air conditioning is the main challenge to design zero-carbon green buildings in Taiwan. However, the temperature in the middle and high mountain areas decreases as altitude increases and makes it possible to create a living environment without using air conditioning in the summer. This project analyzed weather data in the middle and high mountain areas of Taiwan. The degree hour method and weather research and forecast model were used to evaluate the demand of air conditioning in the summer based on outside air temperature. The results showed that the low air conditioning load areas are above 1000 m elevation. This project then simulated energy consumption of a two-floor building near the Sun Moon Lake, an area of low air conditioning load, to explore the feasibility of zero-carbon green buildings in Taiwan. Based on the life style of a four-member family, a simulation process was conducted to estimate energy consumption of various appliances and different life habits. This study showed that the energy consumption in the buildings can be reduced up to 70% by using three major design strategies. These strategies include selection of a low air conditioning load location, using high energy efficient appliances, and application of energy conserving habits. Followed by renewable energy evaluation, it is possible to put zero-carbon green building into practice in Taiwan.

Green Roof as a Green Material of Building in Mitigating Heat Island Effect in Taipei City

A large amount of research has been published in Taiwan on the reduction of the urban temperature for different strategies. The most important strategy for reducing ambient temperature is increasing green space in city. For analyzing the effect of the vegetation on the thermal environment, this paper collects temperature data from one green roof and one normal roof which are belong to a same office building to analyze the thermal influence of vegetation. The result of this research shows that in summer the maximum cool effect of green roof was -1.60 oC and -0.26 oC in average. Therefore, it can also provide useful data to governments for calculating the environmental benefit if they carry out a green roof policy in mitigating heat island effect in the future.

Evaluation on CO2 Emission of Light Weight Steel Housing in Taiwan

The reinforced concrete (RC) buildings commonly used in Taiwan not only create great pollutions in material manufacturing and construction phases but also destroy the environment. On the other hand, the light weight steel buildings are safe, healthy, comfortable, producing less waste, and environmental friendly. Therefore, light weight steel buildings have been promoted in Taiwan by the government as an important “green building” policy. In Taiwan, there is still a large market of low rise light weight steel housing. To promote light weight steel housing in Taiwan, we should evaluate its influence on environment. In this research, we established a CO2 emission database for light weight steel building materials and calculated CO2 emission for a light weight steel house. The results showed that a low rise light weight steel house has 39% less CO2 emission than an RC house in the same scale. A light weight steel house has a good building envelope that decreases energy consumption of air-condition by 35.42-42.95%. Therefore, a light weight steel house has less CO2 emission from building materials and energy consumption than an RC house.

Evaluation the Heat Environment for Using Phenolic Resin as Heat Insulation Construction Material

In this research, two buildings were constructed using phenolic insulation along with considerations of various experimental elements and condition. These environmental factors include natural ventilation, forced ventilation, the mist system, and shading. The results show that when the building is well insulated, the heat transported across the well is effectively prevented indicating that the phenolic resin is effective in insulating the building. Under full sunshine, the room temperature is 10 °C lower than the ambient temperature under full sunshine with the best insulation effect observed at 10:00 am. Shading will provide additional insulation effect to lower the room temperature by 3 °Cmore; the insulation efficiency can also be improved by ventilating the room. Results at 12:00 noon show that shading can effectively reduce solar radiation on the wall whereas force ventilation will carry away heat to reduce the room temperature. Shading will always be effective in reducing the room temperature by about 4 °C, and at 14:00, forced ventilation is the most effective in lowering the room temperature.

Study of a Constructed Wetland-Pond System for Treatment from Campus Buildings

A constructed wetland-pond system consisting of a subsurface-flow (SSF) wetland, and a scenic pond in series was used for reclamation of septic tank effluent from a campus building. The results show that SSF wetlands effectively removed major pollutants under a hydraulic loading rate between 3.6 and 7.1 cm/d, with average efficiencies ranging from 85% to 86% for TSS, and 71% to 84% for BOD5. There were a variety of ornamental plants and aquatic animals established in the scenic pond with good water quality, thus enhancing landscape and ecology amenity in campuses.

Case Study for Test Tool of Chloride in Swimming Pool with Method of Effective Evaluation of Multiprocess Performance Analysis

Human exposure to chloride ions in swimming pools has been recognized as a potential health concern. Although environmental monitoring is a useful technique to investigate chloride ions concentrations in indoor swimming-pool air, in practice, the interpretations of measured data would inevitably run into difficulties due to the complex interactions among the numerous variables, including environmental conditions and occupant activities. Consequently, the examination of chloride ions within swimming pool becomes an important test item for water quality control procedure. To effectively check the concentration of chloride ions in swimming pool, the evaluation process with an evaluation algorithm, indices of precision degree ( ), accuracy degree ( ) and the objective evaluation method with capability and concept of six sigma, proposed by Sung and Vännman are quoted in this paper to criticize examination tools for water quality in swimming pool. To ensure whether the evaluation method to measure chloride ion concentration in swimming pool holds precision, accuracy degrees and application functionality or not. The analysis results reveal that this method is suitable for examining the evaluation tool of chloride ions within swimming pool.

Software Development for Taiwan Building Envelope Load

Taiwan’s building laws are very rigorous for envelope load of various buildings, and building envelope load should be calculated according to the Technical Code for Energy Conservation Design of Buildings. The complex calculation may undermine cooperative initiative of the industry. If computer aid can be used, the time for calculation and laws search can be save. To provide practical computer-aided calculation tool of envelope load for builders and academic departments, this study designed a computer-aided software BEEP-2010 which can quickly calculate whether the designed building meets the regulations. Java is used to write programs for this software. The database system applies the Relational Database. ER-model is used to normalize the database design. The user interface design adopts graphics mode to simplify operation interface. As long as the user understands basic concept of the envelope load, he/she only needs statistics of the area data and print the calculation result in the form of standard window to reduce the inconvenience in table search. Thus, this can greatly improve calculation efficiency of envelope load of Taiwan building businesses and help promote green buildings.

Assessment of the Environmental Load of Building Violations in Tainan City: Analysis of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Past assessments of the carbon dioxide emissions attributable to buildings in Taiwan generally employed conversion formulas based on the floor area of legal buildings, and did not perform any quantitative assessments of illegal building space. As a consequence, this study builds on past research and places special emphasis on the effect of building violations. The study employed building violation data was derived from inspections performed by Tainan City Government from 2001 to 2007, a classification of illegal structure type, and environmental load analysis to derive the carbon dioxide emissions of four major types of building violations in Tainan City. It is found that reinforced concrete and light steel scaffolded concrete accounted for a combined share of 89% of all illegal structures in the city. In the floor area of illegal structures built each year in Tainan City accounts for roughly 5.6% of the floor area of authorized construction during the same year, but this quantity has been neglected in past assessments of building life cycle environmental load.

Studies on an Integrated Energy-Saving System Combining Architectural Energy-Saving Features and Renewable Energy in Taiwan

Saving energy along with reducing carbon emission is an unavoidable new trend in response to continual global warming. In Taiwan, the energy consumed by commercial buildings and residential houses accounts for about 18% of the total energy consumption with 31% consumed for HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) to emit 21 millions of carbon dioxide annually. Hence, in this research, an integrated energy-saving system combining green architecture, recirculation and reuse of water resources, indoor plants to purify indoor air quality, and solar energy and hydrogen energy is proposed for providing HVAC and illumination. The research has accomplished the following: (1) roof-top plants will lower the indoor temperature during summer; (2) utilizing aquatic plants to purify the wastewater for recirculation and reuse will effectively remove BOD and COD from contaminated water; (3) indoor plants are effective in lowering loadings to air conditioners and energy consumption; (4) the solar air conditioner has excellent overall energy saving features; (5) the solar hydrogen generating system and reformed methanol system have been developed applied to develop a 100 W PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell); and (6) a portable plant cultivation system has been developed to enhance plant growth for removing indoor carbon dioxide so that the building needs not be ventilated much to maintain adequate indoor air quality.

Global Radiation for Solar Architecture Design of Taiwan

Solar radiation data is an important consideration factor in building environment planning. This study focused on the regional characteristics of global solar radiation of Taiwan. The research utilized the raw meteorological data meseaursed by the Central Weather Bureau to establish reliable solar radiation data of weather stations by means of statistic analysis. A total of weather station’s data are used where their geographical location are evenly distributed from northern to southern Taiwan. The results of this study will presented the diagrams of annual and monthly averaged solar radiation in Taiwan. Geographical distribution of inter-annual trend of global solar radiation during this period was also presented in this paper. It can be used for further study of the climate zoning comparing with other climate conditions. Furthermore, researchers of solar cell design, building energy, shading design, site planning, etc. can utilize the distribution diagram to fetch reliable solar radiation values to carry on reasonable quantitative analysis.