Towards a zero energy home

"Imagine living in a home that treads lightly on the environment...'', generates its own electricity, heats and cools itself and consumes very little electricity while thinking for itself.... well that's the home of today and that's the home that you can invest in...!" Alastair Armstrong, Electrical Engineer. Virtually everything we interact with in the home involves energy (think of it as money) at one level or another, writes Roger Metcalfe.

Switch on a light, make toast, boil an egg, turn on the TV, make tea, or take a hot shower and cash flows! Most of us hardly give energy a thought, but energy awareness can profoundly enhance our lives.

In the end it all comes down to energy management and a higher level of awareness enables us to practise intelligent energy management, resulting in reduced energy bills and thereby putting money into your back pocket that would have gone to your energy supplier (Eskom).

A zero-energy building is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions. In view of SANS 10400 XA and recently gazetted SANS 204, it is instructive (especially for architects) to understand the meaning of a low or zero energy building. Read the full article.