The energy requirements of residential developments

The aim of the project is to establish for different housing situations, the capital and operational energy requirements, including transport costs, and to use these to carry out an energy assessment of types of housing. In' order to fulfill this aim, detailed analysis of residential developments is carried out under the following headings: Capital Energy. Dwellings and estates are analysed to determine their energy requirements in terms of the materials used and the building process involved. The magnitude of the energy requirements is found and also the variation according to material changes, construction types and style of dwelling. From this, recommendations are made concerning the optimum dwelling form in energy terms. Operational Energy. The energy required to operate dwellings, that is for heating, lighting, and so forth, are established for different housing styles by household survey. Again the magnitude and variation are determined, the potential for making savings is estimated and recommendations are made for optimum design. Relationships between the energy requirements and various factors of the built form of the dwellings are also presented. Travel Energy. The travel from residential areas is studied in order to determine the energy requirements associated with them and to relate the energy to features of the development, such as density and to characteristics of the households concerned. These three components form the total residential energy requirements. They are each related to a common base of development density and then summed in order to present an overall picture, from which recommendations concerning development style are made. The following major conclusions are drawn from the work: (i) operational energy is the major component of the total energy requirement,but it is less significant at high densities where capital energy increases markedly. (ii) little is gained in energy terms by building at high densities. (iii) the style of development giving the best energy performance is a middle density (about 60 dwellings per hectare) with low rise construction and located in compact communities. (iv) simple construction methods are most advantageous with use of timber rather than steel or reinforced concrete.