This research aims at analyzing the design and performance of sustainable buildings in Hong Kong. It also provides a critical assessment of the application of design codes like LEED, BREEAM and Hong Kong Governmental codes of sustainable buildings. The project also evaluates the performance, regulation and operation of sustainable buildings. Finally, it identifies risks associated to sustainable buildings and provides recommendation to mitigate those risks.
What is the issue?
Sustainable buildings are not usually adapted widely due to lack of knowledge, awareness of environmental impact of conventional building and its construction process (Berardi 2013).
Why is it an issue?
Due to lack of awareness, environmental impacts are found at a wide scale, which are mostly emission of carbon and more wastage of energy, water and electricity.
What is the issue now?
Emission of carbon, lack of energy, water and electricity leads to serious issues causing 15% to global warming and 25% of energy wastage (Bocken 2014). Most importantly, majority of the Hong Kong city house dwellers as well as contractors are less aware of sustainable building and its environmental positive impacts.
What does this research sheds light on?
This research sheds light on the various advantages of sustainable buildings suitable within Hong Kong. It also analyses the guidelines formulated by BREEAM and LEEDs in designing sustainable buildings and the largest used sustainable building system, which are PV and wind turbo system. Finally, it provides recommendations for mitigating issues related sustainable buildings.
The plan of work involves outlining the research methodology that will be carried out. Next relevant literature will be reviewed regarding sustainable building, design methods of sustainable building in context of BREEAM and LEED standard. Performance, regulation and operation of sustainable buildings will also be reviewed. Finally, the issues related to sustainable buildings will be reviewed. Areas of current practices, which are good, will be identified and issues requiring future work will be evaluated. Issues will then be analyzed and findings will be summarized. Suitable recommendations will then be made.
Research philosophy that will be followed in this research will be post positivism as it tests and provides evidence that each theory can be altered with suitable justification. It also provides opportunity for critically performing the research. Exploratory research design will be followed. Primary research will be followed in which quantitative analysis will be conducted with surveys to construction workers and technicians of PV and wind turbo systems. Qualitative research will be carried via interviews on managers of sustainable building constructions. The questions presented will be of closed type in survey and open type in interviews and analyzed.
Sustainable buildings or green buildings are usually building structure built for residential, commercial and office purpose and are environmentally responsible as well as utilizes resources efficiently through entire life cycle of building comprising designing, constructional, maintenance, operational, renovation and demolition. Sustainable buildings targets at efficient usage of water, energy and other resources used in building purpose. It also aims at protection of health of the occupant and improvement of productivity of the employee. Sustainable buildings also effectively do reduction of environmental degradation, wastes and pollution by approximately 80% (Cabeza 2014).
Green building construction is promoted by the Association of Environment Conscious Building (AECB) in the UK where building regulations provides constraints over insulation levels and sustainable aspects of building construction. According to Crawford (2017), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) promotes sustainable building construction in the US and is responsible for 20% annual savings in water and energy costs, 38% reduced production of wastewater and 22% construction waste reduction.
Government of Hong Kong has developed guidelines for promoting energy efficiency in buildings. As per the government rules, reduction of waste through recycling and reducing are methods adapted. Saving of water is also done along with maintaining quality of indoor air as majority of people spends their time around 70% indoor (Dong 2015). Hong Kong government has taken strong policies through imposing overall cap of approximately 10%, IAQ management programs and other health and safeguard policies. Two of the major Hong Kong sustainable building projects include Lo Wu Correctional institution, which has an overall capacity to contain approximately 1400 inmates and the Diamond Hill Crematorium. Both of these buildings are highly energy efficient and are environment friendly. In addition, they are found to be zero carbon emitter.
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) is a method used for certifying, rating and assessing sustainability of buildings. It creates awareness among occupiers, operators and designers regarding benefits of sustainable buildings. As per Eichholtz (2013), BREEAM provides design criteria of energy efficiency, eater use, pollution critical level, transportation and waste reduction as a standard to be followed for a building to meet needs of a sustainable building. BREEAM certifies buildings on a scale of ‘Good’, ‘Pass’, ‘Excellent’, ‘Very good’ and ‘Outstanding’.
BREEAM has several standards against new construction, international new construction, in use standards, refurbishment and communities. Life cycle stages of BREEAM include new construction, in-use, refurbishment, in-reuse, demolition and finally communities. Process of BREEAM includes a project registration where the project is registered into database. Next, the pre-assessment is estimated using BREEAM standard. The assessment of design stage is also certified. Next, the post construction phase is certified. Finally, BREEAM standard is used within construction major weighting of BREEAM category includes management of 12%, health and wellbeing of 15%, energy of 19%, transport of 8%, water of 6%, materials of 12.5%, waste of 7.5%, land use and ecology of 10% pollution of 10% and a surplus amount of innovation which is considered to be 10% (Evins 2013). As per BREEAM standard, lighting within building should be approximately 20% to 40% of energy cost in total. Exposure to high VOCs is prohibited due to its ill effect on health. With the help of thermal modeling analysis, BREEAM stabilizes the thermal quality of house with a standard within 270C as a temperature above that reduces performance of occupants significantly. Contamination of water and performance of acoustics are also regulated for achieving optimum performance. Energy used is calculated based on operational demand of energy, energy demand primarily and fuel source CO2 emissions.
BREEAM provides a design criteria in which toilets should consume not more than 6 liter of flush, 12 liter per minute for washing hands, 14 liter per minute for showers, 7.5 liter per minute for urinals and 12 liter per minute for kitchen tap. GhaffarianHoseini (2013) stated that approximately 75% of the external walls should comprise of bricks, 15% of steel, 5% of timber and 5% on plasterboard. Around total aggregate of more than 25% should be specified for development. Pollution level is specified to NOx level of 100 mg/kWh to more than or equal to 40 mg/kWh. Noise level is restricted to 5dB during day and 3dB during night. BREEAM costs around 700GBP to 1350GBP for registration process, interim quality assurance cost around 1500GBP to 2300GBP. The final quality assurance costs around 700GBP to 1350GBP. Assessor fees of BREEAM depend on design team existence, support requirement and complexity as well as size of project.
Leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED), provides set of regulations for rating construction, design, maintenance and operation of sustainable buildings. Various rating systems of LEED exists which are LEED New Construction (NC) v1.0, LEED 2009, LEED NCv2.2, LEED NCv2.0 and the latest LEED v4. Certification level of LEED includes certified points ranging between 40-49 points, silver ranging between 50-59 points, gold ranging between 60-79 points and platinum above 80 points. Total fees of LEED are based on area of building and ranges between $2900 to around $1 million for huge projects. Added costs of LEED certification include 1% to 6% of project cost in total. Cost increment of average cost is around 2% with an extra charge of $3 to $5 per square foot (Gou 2014).
Although primary aim of LEED is to increase sustainability of a building however, studies in New York shows that LEED does not always increases sustainability of building. Phillip Merrill Environmental Center is one of the most notable LEED certified building in the United States. It has a rating system of version 1.0. Point distribution of LEED includes Brownfield redevelopment of 1 point, Site development and protection as well as restoration of habitat for 1 point, 1 point for maximizing open space and 1 point for quantity control and storm water design. 1 point for quality control in storm water design, heat island effect for non-roofs for 1 point and finally heat island effects in roof for 1 point are also designated.
Harding (2014) commented that energy atmosphere provides 1-19 points for energy performance optimization, up to 3 points for reuse of building, maintenance, roofing and flooring. Management of construction waste leads up to 2 points and additional 2 points for regional materials and contents recycled. Innovation and accredited professionals constitutes up to 1-5 points.
Design of sustainable buildings includes optimization of site potentials for understanding the rehabilitation, orientation and location of new buildings. Energy use optimization is required for resources of fossil fuel, concern of reducing energy loads and energy interdependence. Sustainable buildings are also designed according to needs for protection and conservation of water. Building materials and space use helps in conservation of natural resources as well as life cycle of the environment. Green buildings are designed in Hong Kong with a total energy use of 36%, total consumption of electricity of around 65%, total water usage of 12%, total CO2 emission rating of 30%, raw materials in 30% and total waste output of 30% (Hyun 215).
A Photovoltaic system (PV) is one of the most efficient renewable sources of energy, which converts sunlight to electricity. The generated electricity is usually stored in a battery or used directly for electrical purpose within the house. Major components required for designing a PV panel system in Hong Kong are PV module that helps in conversion of sunlight to DC electricity. Charge controller for solar that helps in regulation of current and voltage getting g through PV panels. Inverter that converts PV panel DC outputs and battery that stores energy for supplying appliances that runs on electricity. Auxiliary electrical sources are also required as renewable sources of energy.
Design steps of PV system include determination of demand for power consumption. Total watt-hour required for each appliances are also calculated. According to Jaillon (2014), PV modules total watt-hour requirements are then calculated and the size of the PV modules are determined that is usually 3.43 in Hong Kong for panel generation. Peak rating for total watt in PV modules are then calculated which is required for appliances operation. Numbers of PV panels of system are also calculated and inverter sizes are determined for 25-30% larger than total wattage appliances. Battery capacity is determined using the following formula, which is
(Total Watt-hours per day appliance uses x autonomous days)/(0.85 x 0.6 x voltage of nominal battery)
The solar charge controller size are also calculated and identified against voltage and current capacity and is usually numerically equal to total current in short circuit array of PV multiplied by 1.3 factor of safety. Generally rating of Hong Kong based designed solar charger controller are 40A at a voltage level of 12V or more. Inverter size are usually 190 W or more and batteries are usually rated 600 Ah 12 V for 3 autonomous days (Lechner 2014).
Wind turbine system is mechanisms used in sustainable building that convert wind energy to electrical energy and is one of the most widely accepted methods for sustainable building design. In Hong Kong design of wind turbines are established through locating the place and revising its wind data. Based on wind data of the location, it is usually designed as wind data plays important criteria for design of the turbines, which works on its basis. Connection styles are designed based on grid and battery system, direct connecting system and off grid system. Turbine style includes a horizontal axis and a vertical axis wind turbine that operates in different axis of rotation. Lee (2014) stated that a horizontal axis works along the horizontal plane and when a gust of wind collides with it, it starts rotating. However, on the contrary a vertical wind turbine works on the vertical plane and acts only for winds perpendicular to its axis.
A wind turbo system comprises of a drag, stator, rotor blades and a rotor. When wind strikes the blades, it makes it rotate and its other end is connected to a gearbox inside the house. The gearbox generates power, which is either stored in a battery or directly used for electrical performance. According to Moussa (2017), amount of power to be generated depends on various factors like pole length, area of pipe, moment, moment of inertia, external diameter, internal diameter, von misses stress, bending stress and shear stress. The power generator is designed through Passover of magnet to conductive wires and a more number of turns for the coil lead to higher generation of electricity. Inverters, charge controllers, batteries, grid connection and monitoring devices are used for manufacturing of the wind turbo system.
Sustainable buildings has great performance in various criteria like energy efficiency, water efficiency, material efficiency, quality enhancement of indoor environment, optimization of operations and maintenance, reduction of waste and reduction of impact on network of electricity. Less operating energy is required for high performance and leads up to approximately 30% of the total life cycle of project (Shaikh 2014). Efficiency of water is also improved due to implied restriction on water use. Sustainable materials like those that fly ash concrete, bamboo and straw are used as well as high performance renewable self-healing concrete are also used for building purpose. As per Tam (2016), indoor quality also improves as per survey results finding in 89% cases and increment of around 50% of maintenance and operations as well as 60% reduction of waste.
Green buildings or sustainable buildings are usually regulated by BREEAM (UK standard), LEED (US standard). However, in Hong Kong, guidelines implemented by government are usually followed that determines structural performance level (Wang 2014). Best method for maintenance of the buildings is implied through rating system that identifies the building performance in sustainability. Moreover, most of the houses implement a wind turbo system and PV system that does not requires daily operation and is fully autonomous in operation.
Development of sustainable buildings involves high cost as it involves system of constructing buildings using sustainable building materials. Sustainable building materials are very costly compared to conventional building materials and are difficult to find in abundance. Moreover, transportation of those materials from source to site also involves additional cost. Installation of PV system and wind turbo system involves complicated design and construction phase that is very much costly and requires skilled workmanship. Most importantly sustainable buildings incorporate delicate and difficult designs, which needs one time large cost of investment. Wheeler (2014) stated that although the return of investment is high in most cases, people tend to be least bothered, as no proven facts has been published that claims improvement of concrete evidence of higher cost advantage in sustainable buildings.
The major challenge faced by construction industry involves lack of design integration. Following LEED or BREEAM standards is not very simple task for engineers and designers but requires years of experience, expertise and competency. As construction industry relies on the workers and labors largely, due to workmanship and precision, design are not implemented accurately in construction that leads to failure of following standards (Moussa 2017).
Resistance offered by people in embracing sustainable building design is a major issue faced by contactors of sustainable building. Around 53% of the people still consider conventional buildings are better compared to sustainable building due to lack of knowledge and proper awareness (Zhang 2013). Often people prefer conventional buildings to sustainable buildings due to cultural mindset and traditional perspective.
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