Personal Reflections on Energy & the Built Environment

Summarised Reflections The summarised reflections are very personal reflections on: 1) What have I learnt and gained from this course? 2) Has this course helped inspire certain lifestyle changes? 3) What do I plan to do with this knowledge in the future, personally and on a career level? 4) Reflections on individual assignment 5) Reflections on group work 6) Weekly reflections on course lecture and prescribed readings (please refer to blog entries) 1. What have I learnt and gained from this course? The most valuable thing this course has offered me is  introspection  on my current lifestyle choice and their implications on the environment. It has offered me an  insight and awareness on how small decisions I make on a daily basis, affect existing ecosystems , and really given me a  fundamental understanding of how to critically evaluate my life, in relation to sustainability. 2) Has this course helped inspire certain lifestyle changes? Transport I h...

Week 12 Reflections  “The Problem with Net-Zero Buildings (and the Case for Net-Zero Neighborhoods)”  by Nadav Malin The author seems critical of the concept of net-zero buildings and argues that low-rise building, spread on a large site (urban sprawl) could be made with more ease into a zero carbon building through the use of PV panels. Whereas this would be much harder to achieve with a high-rise building, where the roof area for PVs is significantly less. I do not entirely agree, as PV technology advances in a very fast pace and PV panels can also be mounted vertically on the façade. However, another important aspect to look at is urban sprawl. In less dense areas, where buildings are generally lower, the PV systems are most efficient because the roof area is maximized and overshadowing is minimal. For urban areas with high-rise buildings the opposite holds true. But while lower and spread buildings have better conditions to become net-zero energy buildings, they ...

Week 11 Pre-Session Reflection Integrated Waste Management Facility, Hong Kong http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/WFdev_IWMF.html This was a project that I had been working for half a year from Jan 2017 to Jun 2017. The site is located in Shek Kwu Chau, an island that is distanced from metropolitan Hong Kong. The site area is around 100.000sqm. The client of this project is Hong Kong government's Environmental Protection Department, who hired Keppel Seghers, an integrated waste management specialist, as their sub-contractor concerning the operation of the facility. While there is no doubt that building this facility would be much better than sending waste straight to landfill, I still have some concerns and criticism. Although some materials like plastic and metals are recovered and recycled, a lot of the waste is actually managed through a very large boiler (180m heigh and 18 radius), where it is processed, burned and then later energy i...

Week 10 Pre-Session Reflection: Individual reflections on the article  "Passive House Standards Make Net-Zero Easier"  by Steve Hansen Passive House will aims to reduce a building’s energy consumption by up to 90% where the rest of the energy required is to be provided by renewable energy sources, thereby effectively resulting in a zero-carbon building. Recently, in 2015 Passive House launched two new certification standards, namely Passive House Plus and Passive House Premium. These new standards have higher performance benchmarks with lower energy consumption and energy generation (on site and off-site). Typical Passive House strategies that reduce energy consumption include: high level of insulation triple glazing airtight envelope with minimal thermal bridging heat recovery ventilation system solar generation through PV system (energy surplus fed into grid) ground source heat pump for hot water and heating demands Post Session Ref...