Net-zero emission residential building in temperate weather condition

Residential load consumes a significant amount of grid energy for electrical and heating or cooling application. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or equivalent CO2 emission is the direct or indirect effect from either form of these energy uses. Energy demand is increasing with the addition of various new home appliances and energy price is also going up. Various initiatives can be taken to reduce energy demand. However the best way is by improving energy efficiency and that eventually reduces the emission. Using renewable energy (RE) to support local load demand is another approach to reduce CO2 emission. However effective use of RE depends on the climatic condition and synchronization of load-demand and local generation. Although unmatched energy from local RE generation can be sold back to the grid, the same amount of energy has to be purchased from the grid at higher cost. When the overall total amount of GHG emission in a year can be balanced by improving energy efficiency and by increasing local RE generation the condition of the house can be termed as zero emission house. This paper investigates the possibility of net-zero emission house in temperate weather condition in Geelong, Australia considering the cost of all relevant components. It was found that net-zero emission building can be implemented and can effectively reduce a total of 44 Mt of CO2 emission in a year from all 9 million residential buildings in Australia.