Talk:Zero energy building

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A story relating to the article Zero energy building (or a previous version of it) was included in the news section of the Energy Portal.

[edit] Solar hot water

Is "Zero energy building" a general term for any building that meets the definition of needing zero net external energy supply, or does it describe a particular design or set of designs?

If it's a general term, then solar hot water deserves a mention. --Singkong2005 04:14, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with Zero carbon building being redirected to this article

There's a problem with Zero carbon building being redirected to Zero energy building. A zero energy building is different from a zero carbon building in important ways. Whereas the U.S. focus is on energy security (and hence zero energy building), much of the rest of the world is focused on climate change and carbon emissions reduction (and hence zero carbon building). So, the intro to this article currently reads:

A zero energy building (ZEB) or net zero energy building is a term applied to a building with a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. In other words, the energy provided by on-site renewable energy sources is equal to the energy used.

Whereas a zero carbon article might be introduced with:

A zero carbon building is a term applied to a building with zero net emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from all energy used in the building's lifetime. In other words, any carbon-based energy consumed to build and use the building is minimised by energy efficient construction and offset by on-site production of carbon-neutral energy (typically 'renewable energy').

There are in fact about four subtly different definitions to do with construction, embodied energy and energy sources (net zero source energy, net site energy, net zero energy cost, and net zero energy emissions) but the point of the above is to illustrate the important difference between zero carbon and zero energy. So how do we go about formally suggesting a split? -Christiaan 19:54, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

You are right - the various definitions were not made clear, and the introduction had a European bias. I've added a new section on the various definitions, and changed the intro to address this.

If you have more information to include on zero carbon buildings, you could add this under the definition or, if you have enough information for a new article, I suggest to add a link to the words zero carbon building in the definitions section, and go ahead and write the article in place of the redirect page.

Gralo 13:33, 1 March 2007 (UTC)