8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey

Architecture in the Net Zero Houses of the Future

Okay Gonulol, Ayca Tokuc*

Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Tinaztepe Yerleskesi, İzmir, 35160, Turkey

* E-mail: ayca.tokuc@deu.edu.tr

Abstract

To live in a healthy, comfortable and safe environment is a right for all human beings, yet the sustainability of this
habitat requires proper utilization of natural resources. There are many concepts in architecture that take into
account this basic assumption including; nearly zero energy, solar, green, sustainable, integrated, intelligent and
zero carbon. In addition, there are many national and international directives and initiatives that promote and
require constructions with a lower impact on the environment; however this is not the only issue in architectural
design. Some of the other essential topics in architecture are structural soundness, affordability, aesthetics, ease
of construction, the ability to deal with natural disasters etc. Therefore the design and construction of a building
requires a team of professionals and customers to work together.

This paper investigates the state of the art architectural technologies in net zero energy houses of the future by
looking at the built examples from the Decathlon 2015 Competition, which are designed to be net zero energy as
well as dealing with all the aforementioned topics. The methodology involves determination of architectural
characteristics, other energy efficiency solutions and comparison studies between houses. The architectural
characteristics, building elements, passive strategies, active strategies, solar energy, and other strategies are
detailed for six competition houses that took the highest points in the “Energy Balance” category by measured
results. Furthermore, state of the art technologies, which were integrated into the buildings, are also discussed in
light of the measured energy efficiency of the houses. In conclusion, the common characteristics and individual
technologies of the successful and not so successful net zero houses are given so that they can help light the way
to more energy efficient constructions.

Keywords: Net zero house, architecture, competition, energy balance, energy strategies.

I. Introduction 17 countries energy efficiency initiatives and

The building sector is a large energy end-use sector
that accounts for a larger proportion than both the
industry and transportation sectors in many
developed countries in terms of total energy
consumption (Yang et.al, 2014). Many countries are
aware of the essential role of the building sector in
energy consumption and take precautions against it
in their energy policies, one of which is the European
Union’s Nearly Zero Energy Buildings Directive that
requires all new buildings to be designed as nearly
zero energy by the end of 2020. Even though this
target is ambitious, it is possible to significantly
decrease the energy requirements of buildings by the
use of appropriate design and technologies (Cabeza
et.al., 2014).
Residential buildings constitute 75 percent of the total
building stock on a European average (Economidou,
2011). Due to their quantity they are the leader in
both energy consumption and CO2 emissions, 61% of
CO2 gas emissions is related to residential buildings
(Voss & Musali, 2011). The concern for energy use in
residential buildings started after the energy crisis in
the 1970’s and led to actions and programmes
aiming to rationalize the energy consumption of
dwellings (Xing, Hewitt & Griffiths, 2011). Chandel
et.al. (2016) provide a review of energy regulations of
regulations for residential buildings.
One of the most significant strategies that are used to
spread and accustom energy efficient practices and
make the future architects and engineers learn
energy efficient design practices is architectural
student competition such as the Solar Dechatlon. In
the Solar Decathlon 2015 Competition, state of the
art architectural technologies were used to build net
zero energy houses. This paper aims to investigate
the integration of these technologies into the houses
while creating high quality environments that
simultaneously deal with various other concerns such
as structural soundness, affordability, aesthetics,
ease of construction, natural disasters etc.
The teams of Texas/Germany, U at Buffalo,
Mass/Central America, UC Davis and Team Orange
County and NY City Tech were ranked in first five
places of the “Energy Balance” section according to
in place measurements. These examples are studied
and compared according to their architectural
characteristics, building elements, passive strategies,
active strategies, solar energy and other strategies.
In addition how young architects and engineers look
at these problems is observed.

357
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey

II. Solar Decathlon 2015 balance competition and their overall standing are
shown on Tab.1. It can be clearly noticed that the
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a standings of teams on energy balance are not
program which challenges teams cooperated by depended on, and are usually compeletely different
universities, to design, build, and operate from, the overall standing of a team. This data shows
solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, that only energy balance competition leadership is
energy-efficient, and attractive at the same time. The not enough to get first standing on overall standing,
winner team is the team that blends affordability, thus teams need to give importance to points from
consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal other areas of competition.
energy production and maximum efficiency by the
best way (Solar Dechatlon, 2015). The first five ranked teams on energy balance
competition are investigated in this paper. These
Solar Decathlon was held in 2002 first time. Since teams are; Texas/Germany, U at Buffalo,
2005 till 2015, it has been organized biannually. The Mass/Central America, UC Davis, Team Orange
contestant houses are built on an area that is defined County and NY Tech. Since the first place is shared
by competition organizators and they are exhibited by two teams, there are six teams in the first five
for 2-3 weeks for the visitors who want to explore places. A short description is given about each of
them. According to a research report in 2009, these six teams regarding their energy performance
500,000 visitors have visited the exhibition houses and relationship with architectural and technological
from 2002 to 2009. The exhibition served different solutions.
goals and effected various experiences for
homeowners, participating-student and solar-related Tab. 1: Energy balance and overall standings of
researchers. The Decathlon also contributed some teams
non-attending fields like market acceleration and Teams Energy Balance Overall
public awareness (Martin, 2012). Competition Standing
Texas/Germany T1. 100.000 4. 887.034
U at Buffalo T1. 100.000 2. 941.191
The latest Solar Decathlon, held in 2015, was Mass/Central 2. 95.004 14. 585.903
organised at Orange County Great Park, Irvine in America
California State on 8-18 October, 2015. This contest UC Davis 3. 92.466 7. 843.410
has 10 sub contests divided into two categories, Team Orange 4. 89.692 9. 838.456
County
which are measured and juried. Juried sub-contest NY City Tech 5. 88.196 13. 688.790
are examined and scored by juries. They are; Stevens 6. 83.174 1. 950.685
Architecture, Market Appeal, Engineering, Missouri S&T 7. 78.679 5. 878.726
Communications and Affordability. Measured Cal Poly 8. 77.235 3. 910.000
sub-contests are graded according to measurements Crowder/Drury 9. 73.328 8. 842.920
West 10. 50.000 12. 732.362
taken from the built houses on the days of the Virginia/Rome
exhibition and have some minimum limits; if teams Team NY Alfred 11. 49.076 11. 758.758
can’t reach these limits they are eliminated. The Clemson 12. 46.436 6. 851.461
sub-contests are; Comfort Zone, Appliances, Home Sacramento 13. 17.582 10. 782.273
Life, Commuting and Energy balance. In the Solar State
Decathlon 2015, out of the 17 teams selected to build
a house for the exhibition, only 14 were ranked.
Austin, Texas is a fast growing city and this growth is
III. Energy balance putting a strain on its infrastructure, especially water
and electricity. The University of Texas has partnered
The Energy Balance Sub-Contest of the U.S. with Muenchen University for this competition and
Department of Energy in the Solar Decathlon 2015 designed “NexusHaus”. The house provides a model
was divided into two sections, which are energy for accessory housing in Austin, which aims to collect
production and energy consumption, each of which most of its own water in a closed loop aquaponics
was worth 50 points. system.

For energy production, a team would receive full
points for producing at least as much energy as its
house needed, thus achieving a net energy
consumption of zero during the competition. Points
would be reduced for a net electrical energy balance
between -50 kWh and 0 kWh.
For energy consumption, a team whould receive full
points for using 175 kWh of energy or less throughout
the competition. Points would be reduced for
consumption between 175 kWh and 300 kWh. (Solar
Dechatlon, 2015)
Points of contestant teams taken from energy
Grow home is designed by University at Buffalo and
shares the first place with The University of Texas on
energy balance standing while it has taken second
place on general standing. Grow stands for the first
letters of “Garden Relax or Work”. In Grow home,
urban living and self sufficiency concepts are
reevaluated and dynamic, seasonally changing
elements are used.
Western New England University, Universidad
Tecnológica de Panamá, and Universidad
Tecnológica Centroamericana have teamed up to
design EASI house, which has taken 14th place on

358
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey

general standing and second place on energy
balance standing. EASI stands for Efficient,
Affordable Solar Innovation. The house was
designed for New England climate.
UC Davis has an agricultural tradition; therefore it
aimed at creating sustainable space at an affordable
price, mainly for underserved farmworkers and other
communities.
The vibrant ethnic diversity of the New York City and
the effects of global warming led students of the New
York City College of Technology to design the DURA
house, short for Diverse, Urban, Resilient, and
Adaptable. The house was designed for a lot that
was damaged by the Hurricane Sandy and aims to
mitigate disaster damage. Since the area is a dense
urban environment, their design can be stacked up to
four stories.
The University of California, Irvine; Chapman
University; Irvine Valley College; and Saddleback
College have teamed up and designed Casa del Sol
that has taken 9th place on general standing and
fourth place on energy balance standing.
III.1. Architectural characteristics
NexusHaus is a prototype modular home that
consists of two rectangular living modules (a module
for day use and one for night use) and a nexus, which
connects the two modules. In the day module, the
living, kitchen and dining space are combined. A thick
wall on the west provides space for seating and
cooking elements. The night module has two
bedrooms and a shared bathroom. A glass wall
brings the outdoors in. The textile roof on the deck
creates a flexible outdoor area for living. Sliding
doors in the nexus allows for variations in seasonal
living. The house can provide outdoor living for three
seasons of the year.
collects water while reducing the gutters. This water
collection plays a prominent role for the active
strategies of the house.
The DURA house has flexibility as its main defining
characteristic. The rooms can be configured to
accommodate a number of different living styles and
functions. A room is created by two movable walls
and adaptable furniture within the room can be
converted from a desk to a bunk bed. The building is
elevated by footings so that water would pass without
obstruction in case of a hurricane or rising sea levels.
The structure is durable against gale force winds and
seismic activity.
Casa del Sol has a square-like shape, its living
spaces haven’t exact quantity and borders because
of this house’s flexible design. The house has two
bathrooms and one kitchen, which also do not have
exact borders and can be extended by its users. The
young is the target client therefore users can have
large empty spaces when they have parties and have
extra rooms when they have visitors.
Tab. 2: Spatial room distributions and flexibility.
Teams Plan Type Flexibility
Texas /
Germany -
NexusHaus
U at Buffalo –
Grow
Mass/
Central America
- EASI
UC Davis -
AggieSol

Grow home consists of dry and wet modules, which

compose a T shape. The wet module incorporates
bathroom, kitchen and mechanical room, while the
Team Orange
dry module has the bedroom, living room and County - DURA
growlarium. A canopy made of steel frames covers
the roof of the Grow Home. That canopy also makes
up the Growlarium part of the house.
NY City Tech –
Rectangular shaped EASI House has two bedroms, a Casa del Sol
kitchen, a bathroom, a technical room and a living
area. Kitchen is at the centre and is intimately linked
with living space. By doing this living space can be
Living and kitchen Bedroom Bath
heated by taking advantage of heat comes from
Semi Open Technical Hall
kitchen. Bedrooms of the house are located end Flexibility Vegetation
spaces of rectangle.
From the six houses, only Mass/Central America and
One of the most prominent problems of farmworkers NY City Tech teams prefered a rectangular plan
is the accumulation of debris inside their living space, shape. The other four teams prefered sqare-like plan
to which AggieSol proposed a separate entry named shapes (Tab. 2). The square plan allows for more
the cleansing room with bath, shower and double compactness, thus reducing winter heat losses and
sided lockers and air purifying plants inside. The summer heat gains. This compact form is usually
house has a butterfly shaped roof that drains and broken by using semi-open areas and flexibility;
359
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey
therefore natural ventilation would flow through the
house.
III.2. Building elements
The NexusHaus has a steel structure with a wooden
deck, yet its outlook is mostly of wood, glass and
greenery. The canopy is covered by textile.
In Grow home, roof and walls of wet module and dry
module except Growlarium are structural insulated
panels (SIP). SIP used on the wall and roof have
nearly 26 cm thickness and 0.34 U value. SIP walls
consist of EPS insulation between of OSB boards.
Windows and sliding doors of the Growlarium are
highly insulated and have triple tempered, air filled,
low-e glazings (Bohm, 2015).
EASI house has a wooden frame which is made of
SPF studs, R-19 fiber glass insulation and OSB
boards. House’s exterior wall thickness is 12.4 cm.
Insulation on exterior walls make the U value of the
walls 0.07. Same insulation material with greater
thickness has been used on roof. Windows of the
home have low-e glazings (Lee, 2015).
AggieSol uses balloon framing with 24” axial stud
placement instead of the traditional 16”, therefore it
uses 10% less lumber while making space for 5%
more insulation. Additionally aligning the roof, wall
and floor joists allows for 15% less material and 10%
less labor thus reduces related costs. The materials
used such as zero VOC linoleum flooring were
selected with care (Good, 2015).
The students of NY Tech have designed a
highly-insulated, air-tight, yet vapor permeable wall
section for the DURA house. The placement of the
openings were carefully simulated and optimised,
coupled with careful construction the envelope
showed high performance during the competition.
Exterior walls of roof of Casa del Sol have 20.3 cm
thickness (without exterior fiber cement panels).
These walls include 14 cm mineral wool and nearly 5
cm EPS insulation. Each side was covered with
plywood sheeting. Window and sliding doors have
low-e glazing filled with argon gas (McDonald, 2015).
III.3. Passive strategies
The solar heat gain in summer is a huge problem for
Texas, therefore NexusHaus has a large deck on the
south side that is covered against the sun. In addition
the nexus can be opened for ventilation. During the
winter, the nexus is closed for both privacy and
thermal buffer zone. The thermal/water storage
system is integrated into the house.
Growlarium of the Grow home is enclosed with
glazings and sliding glasses. Glasses on the side
surfaces of Growlarium are highly insulated and have
a high U-value, meaning they don’t cause air leaks.
In summer times, shaders, placed on the roof of the
360
Growlarium helps shading inside and doesn’t let
overheating. Sliding glasses helps the natural
ventilation by the help of little openings that are
placed on the kitchen wall. In the winter time,
Growlarium turns into a buffer zone for living space
by closing insulated, low-e glazings and removing the
shades that are placed on the roof. Sliding doors that
separate the living room from Growlarium help to
control the buffer zone. Another passive system of
the house is its canopy, which encloses the house,
shades the house and the deck to reduce the cooling
loads (Bohm, 2015).
AggieSol utilises low window to wall ratio, operatable
exterior window shades, light pipes, light colored
exterior, and thermal mass. Thermal mass is present
in both the granite countertops and the gypsum
concrete radiant floor. Flexible reflective tube from
the roof leads sunlight into the house without
accompanying solar heat gains. The thermal mass in
the radiant slab is not very useful for reducing heating
load but it would help to decrease the cooling load by
11.4% (Good, 2015).
DURA haouse has a highly insulated building
envelope and passive ventilation. The designers
used the house design guidelines from Milne et.al,
2009 and incorporated various design elements into
the house including thermal insulation and internal
heat gain, passive solar direct gain for low mass, sun
shading of windows, wind protection of outdoor
spaces, high thermal mass interior surfaces, and a
heat chimney. The climatic conditions analysis
showed that the outdoor conditions were comfortable
only 10.7% of the total yearly hours and the use of
passive strategies increased this ratio to 46% of
yearly comfortable hours (Aptekar, 2015).
Casa Del Sol’s passive solar system is named “The
California State flower” by the design team because it
opens and closes as it adjusts to the light of the sun.
The outdoor living room is connected to the
surrounding neighborhood by pivot panels. Being in
the northern hemisphere, the sun hangs in the
southern sky. To protect residents from the sun and
moderate solar heat gain, southern shading elements
have been placed over windows and living spaces
such as in the tensile structure above. Unsheltered
windows on the western side of open to and invite in
prevailing cool ocean winds. Automated windows
serve to naturally ventilate living spaces. A brise
soleil is built up on the eastern side to protect
occupants against warm, violent Santa Ana winds,
which often strike in October; this system is also
attached on the other side of the detached studio.
III.4. Active strategies
The modules in NexusHaus are air conditioned.
Thermal storage for a district cooling system is
proposed with a nearly 4m water tower that is cooled
down at night by electricity (Garrison, 2015). Ductless
ventilators precondition air coming into the modules.
In the early morning, the air conditioned air passes
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey
through the water that was cooled through the night
and is piped throughout the house. In NexusHaus,
the solar power, thermal/water storage system and a
smart home management system are integrated to
the house. The smart system visualises how the
occupant behaviour would affect the energy and
water use in the house. The homeowner can read
information, visualise different scenarios and control
the environmental conditions inside the home.
Grow House has an air-to-air heating ventilation air
conditioning (HVAC) system, which has four zone
variable air volume. This system ensures maximum
energy savings by only conditioning and distributing
air to the needed spaces at needed time within the
house.
Heating and cooling demand of EASI house is solved
by a ductless heating and cooling system that is
9,000 Btu/h, 1 kW and is centrally located to provide
maximum comfort throughout the house. This system
can be moved during extreme weather conditions for
increased comfort in individual areas (Lee, 2015).
The primary heating and cooling system of the
AggieSol house is the radiant floor system that uses
water from a large rainwater reservoir. Throughout
the night, the stored water is sprinkled to the roof,
cooled by radiant/sky radiation, recollected, and
filtered. In the day it is pumped through the slab to
cool down the house. The water can also be heated
and repumped through the slab for radiative heating.
BEopt and Excel simulations suggest that the
combined radiant/night sky system would reduce
space cooling by around 3500 kWh. A greywater heat
recovery system extracts energy from the outgoing
water, which would reduce the cooling load further,
around 1400 kWh. It would also be used to preheat
the potable water for the domestic supply.
The active systems of the DURA house include a
hydronic heating system that uses thermal energy
from the solar panels, a super energy-efficient energy
recovery ventilation triple-action air filtration and
minisplits. Thermal electric panels convert waste heat
from the photovoltaic panels into electricity.
Temperature, humidity and lighting levels are
monitored and regulated by the home automation
system.
The Casa del Sol has a low entropy ventilator to
reach HVAC requirements. A home automation
system monitors various criteria such as temperature,
humidity, light and motion. Therefore it regulates the
ventilator, façade elements, lighting and shading for
better energy balance.
III.5. Solar energy
The electricity provided by the solar panels on the
NexusHaus in the afternoon is fed to the grid and
then energy from the grid is used to cool down the
water tower for air conditioning. The other systems in
the house reduce peak electricity consumption by
361
almost 80% against a traditional Austin house
(Garrison, 2015).
Grow home has 24 photovoltaic panels with 7 kW
energy production power. The system’s rated
efficiency is 17.2%. It is planned to produce 9 MWh
of electrical energy per year when it is installed in
Buffalo after the competition. That means the solar
system will produce nearly twice the energy the
house will consume (Bohm, 2015).
The solar electric system set up in EASI house can
produce 5kW energy with twenty panels, each with
250W power, and is mounted on the roof. Water
heating is supplied by an 11kW tankless water heater
that heats on-demand to decrease the electricity
load.
AggieSol uses 42.5% less energy than a
conventional home and is 1.9% energy positive
throughout the year. The appliance selection was
done by an appliance scoring equation that evaluates
efficiency, cost, availability and aesthetics, thus
reducing the yearly energy load by 400 kWh. The
sprinkler cooling system that operates during the
night also cleans the photovoltaic panels so that they
would perform without related performance losses
(Good, 2015).
In the DURA house, the photovoltaic panels are used
as façade elements that emphasize the use of active
technologies to the outsiders. The seasonal
optimisation of the solar panels is done by building
integrated tracking solar shutters. Moreover, manual
individualised operation in accordance with the users’
lifestyles is possible.
Casa Del Sol has twentyfour photovoltaic panels,
each with 305W production power. A sub wet-bulb
evaporative chiller is used to chill water that runs in
the home’s ceilings and a heat pump provides air
conditioning. To increase efficiency, the heat pump
rejects its waste heat into the hot water tank. A water
to water heat pump works with the solar thermal
collectors to provide hot and cold water for the
radiant ceiling and domestic water systems. The
water-to-water heat pump uses electricity to transfer
the heat from the water to the house during heating,
and transfer heat from the house to the water during
cooling, all without generating its own heat. Casa del
Sol also has solar thermal collectors that help to
provide heat for its dryer besides providing the
house’s hot water. (McDonald, 2015).
III.6. Other strategies
NexusHaus aims for being a net zero water house i.e.
a water independent home in addition to being a net
zero energy house. The house is designed to run
only on water from direct rainfall captured by the
shading structure and the greywater produced on site.
The home aquapodonics system uses 90% less
water than traditional food production and the
landscape elements around the house are selected
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey
such that they can be used as food. In addition, an
underfloor purification and storage system provides
potable water for indoor use. The house requires
connection to the central water system only for times
of long dry spells (DOE Solar Decathlon, 2015).
Grow house does not only use the sun to produce
energy but also to save the energy when basic
needed vegetables are grown and delivered to user
from the greenhouse in the Growlarium. In this part
users can grow their own vegetables like onions,
pepper, tomatoes etc. on portable tables. The house
also has solar collectors to produce hot water.
AggieSol is designed to be easily constructed in a
factory and shipped in place by two trucks, one for
the north and one for the south part of the building.
The manufacture and shipping cost was calculated
as 150$ per square foot.
In DURA, there are interior and exterior green walls
that help to purify air, provide evaporative cooling and
humidity. Greywater is used for toilets and harvested
rainwater is stored in tanks for watering purposes.
However in extreme cases such as a natural disaster,
greywater could be filtered for watering or drinking
purposes.
When it rains, rainwater from the roof of Casa Del Sol
is caught and diverted into multiple rainwater tanks
installed on the side of Casa del Sol, allowing the
water to be stored for future use, including gray water
systems, emergency potable water or flushing toilets.
IV. Conclusion
The Solar Decathlon competition addresses the
issues of sustainable and affordable urban housing
within a net zero house concept. All of the examined
houses were designed to deal with various issues
and their architectural characteristics, building
elements, passive strategies, active strategies, solar
energy, and other strategies all work together
towards the same goals. At the same time, exhibition
houses have the capacity to catalyse change in the
housing industry towards more sustainable practices
(Martin, 2012). Many students from construction,
architecture and engineering were involved in a
project that required all of their input and insights,
which is an invaluable experience.
From Fig.1, it is clearly seen that neither being the
most energy efficient nor having the best design is
enough to win this competition. All sub-goals should
be achieved to reach the upper ranks. The best
example of that stuation is Mass Central. They are in
the third place in terms of energy balance yet when it
comes to overall standing they are only on the 14th
place. This rating style does not let the teams to care
about only one part of the architectural design
process but also requires them to care about other
criteria such as aestehics and user satisfication.
362
Fig. 1: Overall standing of Solar Dechatlon 2015
showing points from sub-categories
These examples contain the best practices; well
designed, sustainable and economical. It could be
more meaningful to add houses whom points are
lower on previous works. In addition, some other
strategies can be investigated.
These projects are affordable and buildable, and they
show that sustainability is not an idea for the future; it
can be available for everyone. Yet the way to
accomplish this is not clear however the Solar
Decathlon Student Competition, which prepares the
future generations for such a world, is a step in the
right direction.
References
Aptekar A., Project manual, Team NYCCT. U.S.
Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).
Bohm M., Grow Buffalo, As buılt project manual. U.S.
Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).
Cabeza L.F., Rincón L., Vilariño V., Pérez G., Castell
A., Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle
energy analysis (LCEA) of buildings and the building
sector: A review, Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, 29, 394– 416 (2014).
Chandel S.S., Sharma A., Marwaha B.M., Review of
energy efficiency initiatives and regulations for
residential buildings in India, Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 54, 1443-1458 (2016).
Design Strategies derived from a series of studies
by Murray Milne, Robin Liggett, Andrew Benson, and
Yasmin Bhattacharya UCLA Department of
Architecture and Urban Design “Climate Consultant
4.0 Develops Design Guidelines for Each Unique
Climate”
http://www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu/papers/
ASES09-Milne.pdf
DOE Solar Decathlon, Texas/Germany Audiovisual
Presentation – SolarDecathlon 2015.
https://youtu.be/I-heZmm7Kf4. 1th January 2016
(2015).
Economidou M., Europe's buildings under the
microscope. Buildings Performance Institute Europe
(2011).
 8th International Exergy, Energy and Environment Symposium (IEEES-8), May 1-4, 2016, Antalya, Turkey

Garrison M., Project manual, Nexushaus. U.S.

Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).

Good R., AggieSol, Project Manual. U.S. Department

of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).

Lee K., EASI House, Project Manual. U.S.

Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).

Martin L., Impact Evaluation of the U.S. Department

of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Program, DOE Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (2012).

McDonald A., Casa Del Sol, Project Manual. U.S.

Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (2015).

Solar Dechatlon, The U.S. Department of Energy

Solar Decathlon.http://www.solardecathlon.gov. 1th
January 2016 (2015).

Voss K., & Musali E., Net zero energy buildings:

international comparison of carbon-neutral lifestyle.
Munich: Birkhauser (2011).

Xing Y., Hewitt N., & Griffiths P., Zero carbon

buildings refurbishment–A Hierarchical pathway.
Cardif University (2011).

Yang L., Yan H., Lam J.C., Thermal comfort and

building energy consumption implications – A review,
Applied Energy, 115, 164–173 (2014).

363