Page 74 - Designing for Zero Carbon-Volume 2_Case Studies of All-Electric Multifamily Residential Buildings

CASE STUDY NO. 3
VERA CRUZ VILLAGE
Design Analysis: Optimizing Zero-Carbon Design
Design Analysis: Embodied Carbon
Although a detailed embodied carbon analysis was not conducted by the project team, retrofits of existing buildings typically have a much lower embodied carbon profile than building the same project as new construction, estimated between 50 to 75% less.18
Design Analysis: Energy Modeling and Operational Carbon
Energy modeling was done several times. The first energy modeling analysis was done in 2018 using Energy Pro Lite (v. 4.0) as part of Phase 1, funded by California LWIP, to evaluate the total impact of standard energy retrofit measures applied to all the apartments. A second energy mod- eling analysis was done in 2020 using IES VE (v.2019) software as part of Phase 2, the research study REALIZE-CA funded by the CEC EPIC program that studied the impact of the special retrofit measures to be applied only to apartment Buildings 615 and 619.
18 See E. Rosenbloom et. al., “Transforming Existing Building from Climate Liabilities to Climate Assets”, RMI Report 2023, https://rmi.org/insight/transforming-existing-buildings-from-climate- liabilities-to-climate-assets/#:~:text=Low%2Dembodied%2Dcarbon%20and%20carbon,can%20 reduce%20total%20building%20emissions.&text=Investing%20in%20existing%20buildings%20 makes,constructing%20the%20same%20building%20new.
3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00
Jan Feb Mar
Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep
Oct Nov Dec
kBtu/sq.ft.
2022
Modeled Monthly Energy Use MeasurAeldl AMpaortnmtehnltsy Energy Use
All Apartments
265,476 kWh/year Modeled EUI = 19.4
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Designing for Zero Carbon: Volume 2