Research Information System
Gazi University Journal of Science PART B: ART, HUMANITIES, DESIGN AND PLANNING, vol.12, no.4, pp.667-686, 2024 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
With the COVID-19 pandemic, residences have taken on a multifaceted function, encompassing activities such as working, producing, and pursuing personal development, in addition to their sheltering function, leading to much longer periods spent indoors. This situation has also caused an increase in the amount of energy needed to maintain the continuity of residential life. This increasing energy consumption creates harmful effects on the environment. Due to the ecosystem starting to suffer damage, and this damage posing a threat to human life, environment-related studies have accelerated worldwide. In this context, the "Energy Performance of Buildings Directive" (EPBD) was enacted in European Union in 2002, and revised directive (EPBD-Recast) in 2010, to assess and certify the energy performance of buildings and thereby increase energy efficiency. The concepts of "nearly zero-energy building" and "net zero-energy building" were introduced within the scope of the revised directive. In this context, the aim of this study is investigating the conditions and methods of using NZEB (Net Zero Energy Building) solutions, developed by considering the parameters affecting energy performance of residences and design variables, in housing production of Turkey for cold climate region, towards solving these problems and developing an optimum housing design approach towards NZEB. Sivas province, located in cold climate region, was chosen as study area. Within the scope of study, design decision steps including passive design criteria, passive systems, active systems, and energy production systems specific to cold climate region were created. A prototype residential building design was made according to design decision steps within the developed guide. The energy efficiency improvement study of obtained housing design was carried out and simulated through the DesignBuilder program, and energy consumption-production analysis results were evaluated. The study demonstrates the potential of residential buildings to reach the NZEB standard, specifically in cold climate regions.