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The Built Environment in Sustainable Communities

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Sustainable Energy in the Built Environment - Steps Towards nZEB

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Energy ((SPE))

Abstract

The built environment is one the major contributors to the global increase of greenhouse gases emissions, thus novel solutions supporting sustainability are developed, considering both energy efficiency—targeting the Low Energy Buildings (LEB) status, and renewable energy systems, aiming at implementing Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). The large scale can be well satisfied when developing assemblies of highly efficient buildings, in sustainable communities, when synergy can occur if well planning the balance between common and individual utilities for heating, cooling, powering the buildings along with water supply and discharge unit(s) and sustainable transportation. The paper presents the stepwise design for developing a sustainable community and proves the concept for a new research community: the R&D Institute of the Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania. The design and development of 11 LEBs is presented and it is outline the need for valorizing the available natural resources in the passive solar design along with the use of tailored construction materials, selected based on the climatic profile. Further on, the implementation of sustainable energy mixes renewable based is discussed for reaching the nZEB status. Combined solutions are analyzed, considering the individual energy mixes installed on each building and the centralized production of thermal and electrical energy. Tailored solutions for insuring the water supply and discharge are further presented, based on ground-water resources and a combination of conventional biologic treatment with advanced wastewater treatment processes, able to remove the wide range of pollutants that are expected from a multi-disciplinary R&D facility.

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Acknowledgments

We hereby acknowledge the structural founds project PRO-DD (POS-CCE, O.2.2.1., ID 123, SMIS 2637, No 11/2009) for providing the infrastructure used in this work and the PNII-Cooperation project EST IN URBA, contract no. 28/2012 financed by UEFISCDI which supported the latest research hereby presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Renewable Energy Systems and Recycling R&D Centre, RES-REC, Transilvania University of Brasov, Eroilor 29, 500036, Brasov, Romania

    Ion Visa & Anca Duta

Authors
  1. Ion Visa
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  2. Anca Duta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ion Visa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Product Design, Mechatronics and Environment, Transilvania University of Brasov, BraĹźov, Romania

    Ion Visa

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Visa, I., Duta, A. (2014). The Built Environment in Sustainable Communities. In: Visa, I. (eds) Sustainable Energy in the Built Environment - Steps Towards nZEB. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09707-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09707-7_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09706-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09707-7

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