Optimized community layouts incorporating heat pump technology in large commercial buildings
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The global focus on reducing carbon emissions is becoming more pressing to meet Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) targets. As such, energy demands within the building sector, which account for more than one third of the world's emissions, must be reduced. Here, an urban energy co-optimization model was used to evaluate the effectiveness of energy efficient heat pumps to replace traditional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in large commercial building archetypes at the community scale. This work looks at the effects of such a transition to more energy efficient HVAC systems within a community cogeneration network layout, using a neighborhood in San Francisco, CA as a case study. The model uses a Genetic Algorithm to generate and optimize sustainability performance for over 100,000 community designs, using 21 commercial building archetypes, 32 combined heating and power engines, and 16 chillers. The results of the study show that there are significant reductions in the social cost of carbon (SCC), lifecycle cost of equipment (LCC), and total energy demand in an optimized community design when heat pumps are installed within community cogeneration settings. The results also share insights into the optimal mix of cogeneration equipment needed to reduce SCC and LCC at the community scale. However, on a broader solution space scale, the average community designs within the top-performing SCC did not show any statistically significant improvements in carbon emissions for community designs with heat pumps. The replacement of traditional HVAC with heat pumps in a subset of large commercial buildings therefore produces a small set of design options for urban and energy planners to choose from when using this type of model, and suggests that if heat pumps are pursued for energy and carbon savings goals, it needs to be designed optimally for the building's conditions to produce positive outcomes. The findings also suggest leveraging the use of such a model for carbon reduction goals through the model's ability to quantify the SCC when examining building level changes to HVAC systems. Together, the results provide planners and policy makers with insight on the importance of the technological design considerations of heat pumps when advancing their use in net zero energy and building electrification goals for carbon reductions.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Esaki-Kua, Lauren Ayako |
|---|---|
| Degree committee member | Lepech, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Lepech, Michael |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Civil & Environmental Engineering Department |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Lauren A. Esaki-Kua. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. |
| Thesis | Thesis Engineering Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/vf781nv4903 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Lauren Ayako Esaki-Kua
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