Hillier College Students Receive a Medal at the 2022 Dana Knox Research Showcase
Just ahead of the Earth Day, two Hillier College of Architecture and Design students Jeongseo Lee, Ph.D. student in Urban Systems, and Elizabeth Kowalchuk, Undergraduate Senior in Architecture, received one of the 2022 Dana Knox Research Showcase medals for “An Evaluation Framework for a Net-Zero Energy Building’s Energy and IEQ Performance.” Lee and Kowalchuk won competition’s second place for graduate research.
“I am immensely proud of my students for their contribution to the body of research in sustainable built environment. They have been core members of NJIT’s (BE)2 Lab: Building Energy and Built Environment Laboratory. I am also appreciative of the recognition they received at the NJIT student research competition for their hard work and creativity,” said Professor Hyojin Kim, their research advisor.
Lee and Kowalchuk research focuses on the assessment of Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) and aims to develop a framework that assesses NZEB’s performance on energy consumption and on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ).
As Lee explained to minimize its energy demand, NZEBs adopted various passive energy-saving strategies such as natural ventilation and daylighting. These passive strategies use natural resources, causing NZEB's IEQ to be highly influenced by varying outdoor weather conditions, which is not well understood in the current literature.
“From the case-study building, we collected 15-min energy consumption and IEQ data over one year. By analyzing building operation mode and occupancy in addition to the outdoor weather, we could get a precise understanding of its energy use, and IEQ performance. Based on these findings, we will further work on the analysis of individual passive strategies with additional explanatory variables for the accurate measurement of NZEB's performance. Consequently, we expect the outcomes of this study will contribute to more accurate measurement and verification of NZEB’s energy and IEQ performance for building sustainability and occupants’ well-being,” said Lee.
Kowalchuk pointed out how their project looks at NZEBs not just in the context of energy savings for sustainability, but also through the lens of IEQ for occupant well-being. “In most studies of NZEB, exclusively energy saving is being assessed. In addition, these studies assess the energy savings of a building through computer simulation of "anticipated energy consumption," prior to the construction of the building. This method can yield completely different results, depending on how occupants inhabit the building. In contrast, our research is a post-occupancy study and uses actual collected data from the building while it is in use,” said Kowalchuk.
They explained how occupant's behavior can influence building performance. “For example, when occupants open the window for cooling or ventilation, it could save energy if the mechanically air-conditioned systems are properly turned off. Also, adjusting the set point temperature by occupants could save energy too, by lowering the heating or cooling load of the system,” said Lee.
“This is why it is important to consider both measures (energy and IEQ) in the evaluation and design of a NZEB,” added Kowalchuk.
Their research evaluated the performance of an already built building. “However, by defining the framework for the assessment of NZEB more holistically, it can help influence the future design of high-performance buildings,” said Kowalchuk.
Dana Knox Research Showcase “A Glimpse Into the Future” began in 2005 to highlight the impact of student research at NJIT and is awarded annually to outstanding graduate and undergraduate research presenters.