Architects Should Lead Home Energy Discussion

January 8, 2024 

Architects Need to Lead Here 

Energy design is a largely misunderstood part of the traditional architectural design process, but it is a particularly important part of the design process for building intelligent and efficient renewable energy systems for larger custom homes.  

Energy design includes the use of design software, equipment selection, parameter setting, area calculation, auxiliary heat source selection and auxiliary heat source calculations. We suggest that adding the owners intended use of the property and their lifestyle objectives need to be considered early in the design process.  

In our conversations with architects on this topic, they find that many of their clients are relying on vendors to solve these challenges and it is not part of the initial design process. We think this is a short-sighted approach, as an architect is hired to help design the homeowner’s vision of what they want their home to look like and how they want it to function. With today’s regulatory limitations, the architect needs to help intelligently design the entire energy system to deliver on the homeowner’s lifestyle objectives as well. These two elements are now inextricably tied together.  

  According to this piece from the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/186/4/012007/pdf)  

So Many Vendors and Apps

So many vendors provide partial solutions for these energy gaps, which makes separating the wheat from the chaff even more challenging. Certain battery manufacturers are compatible (integrated) with certain inverter and smart panel manufacturers, so knowing who works with who becomes paramount to architecting a well-integrated solution. Plus, many of these companies have an app to control their devices, but not the overall system.   

Layering a smart panel app on top of this makes sense to achieve peak shaving and load shedding objectives, but who works with who, or not, and how many apps do you need? Apps are cool, for the first month, but most homeowners want a “set it and forget” approach, and only pull out the App at parties to show their friends what their energy usage looks like, how much their solar is producing or what they can manipulate through the App.  

Peak Shaving and Load Shedding 

During peak rate times, the system can shift certain loads to batteries (Peak Shaving) so you are not paying the peak rates charged by the utility during this time. Employing Load Shedding during a power outage allows you to keep critical loads running on batteries for as long as possible. These could include heat pumps, refrigerators, security and access control systems, network infrastructure, and strategic lighting and power outlets throughout the home. Examples of power-hungry loads that are shed might include pool pumps, electric patio heaters, EV chargers and inductive cook tops, to name a few.  This is an important conversation to have with the homeowner.

With many towns banning new gas hookups and generators, as well as limiting how much battery energy storage you can have onsite, builders, homeowners and architects are challenged to design an integrated, all-in energy approach that satisfies the homeowners lifestyle objectives.   

We’ve Got Your Back

Many Architects lack of practical real-world experience in energy system design and are challenged to keep up with changing codes and vendors. That is where we can help. We have been involved in designing micro-grids and energy systems for high end clients, as well as some regular folks off grid weekend getaways. They all have unique needs and wants, lifestyle objectives, and those considerations coupled with regulatory and site limitations are the key ingredients in architecting the right energy system.