A certification tool for on-grid net zero energy consumption buildings

Energy efficiency in buildings sector can provide influential solutions to the threats arising from the increase in carbon emissions. Since efficient design of the buildings and equipping them with renewable systems increases the final cost, strategies should be developed to encourage building owners. The first stage of these strategies is certification of these buildings. However, modeling of the buildings equipped with renewable systems is possible with the use of more than one software and requires detailed technical expertise. An easy-to-use software, where all calculations are conducted in a single software, will be useful in the spread of certification processes. For this reason, in this study, an easy-to-use software has been developed that can be used during the certification of zero energy buildings which eliminates the requirement of more than one software. The software makes use of the climate, electricity consumption, building, and renewable system properties data to predict the energy demand and production, and generate zero energy consumption building certificate. The heating demand, photovoltaic (PV) and wind system estimate of the software are verified by using real data and R2 values are calculated as 0.92, 0.97, and 0.98 respectively. A certificated passive and zero energy consumption building is modeled in the developed software as a case study building and NZEB certificate was awarded to the building by the software. Therefore, in this study, an easy-to-use software is developed and verified to certificate the on-grid zero energy buildings that eliminates requirement of detailed technical knowledge and usage of more than one software.