Flexible Energy Efficient Design Guidelines For Climate Responsive Low-Income Housing

Abstract

The City of New Albany’s local government is proposing a renovation and demolition project to the current low-income housing options. The New Albany Housing Authority has expressed interest in high performing energy buildings for the new designs, but few plans have been produced for the project. The large-scale project has the opportunity to greatly benefit the entire city of New Albany, as well as providing environmental implications to the local and global community. New Albany is a suburban town located in the south central point of Indiana, bordering the urban area of Louisville, KY and only separated by the Ohio River. New Albany is a city with a population of roughly 35,000 peoples who primarily work the urban areas within and surrounding New Albany. Low-income housing and sustainable design are closely linked due to the nature of living conditions and budgeting low-income families face. The difference in energy and utility costs between a poor and high performing building for a low-income family could alter their financial burdens and bring them out of low-income status over time. Low-income families traditionally are forced to live in housing that is poorly cared for and constructed, creating a variety of health issues and reduces the quality of life for those who are already in crisis situations. Introducing sustainable housing to low-income families is critical to the City of New Albany as over 500 housing units are going to be demolished and redesigned to better improve the quality of life for the affected population. Proposed design strategies to be tested focus of cost effective strategies as well as the law of diminishing return. Primarily the strategies tested will be orientation, daylight, ventilation, insulation, shading, infrastructure upgrades, and geometries. The proposed geometries to be tested alongside the base case unit are as follows: single unit, duplex units, row housing units, and multistory units. The aim of this study is to test and create proven results to suggest for building design guidelines on the basis of energy performance and cost affordability and effectiveness. From this study, the efficiencies of three tiered strategies were found and tested against the differing geometries. The row-housing unit had the best initial, baseline performance and when all tiers of strategies were applied the resulting energy consumption was at 10,000 kWh equating to roughly $1,080 annually. This drastically lower cost would allow for low-income families to create change in their life and improve their overall quality of life.