MSE Talk: Jasmina Burek

Speaker: Dr. Jasmina Burek, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Title: Evaluating Passive-Solar House Design for Sustainable Living Across the U.S.

Abstract: Buildings contribute to 50% of global material use and are the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (~40% of total GHG emissions). In the United States, single-family houses are responsible for the highest share of GHG emissions within the building sector. Thus, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches to support decision-making in the early design stages of sustainable housing. Passive design strategies, including wall insulation, geometric parameters, building orientation, ventilation, and air tightness, can maximize the energy efficiency of houses. However, these strategies also increase GHG emissions and cost due to the additional materials required for insulation, which results in higher embodied energy from extraction, manufacturing, assembly, and transportation. Zero-energy buildings (ZEB) are highly energy-efficient and use on-site active design strategies, such as rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV), to generate energy that offsets or exceeds the energy consumed from the electric grid. In this research, we integrated the concepts of passive house (PH) and ZEB to assess the environmental impacts and cost trade-offs of passive-solar houses across the U.S. compared to conventional houses. The environmental impacts and cost analysis was performed using probabilistic parametric life cycle assessment (LCA), enhanced for regional specificity across seven U.S. climate zones and state level electric grids. LCA is a widely recognized method for measuring resource use and environmental impacts of buildings, from raw material extraction through construction, use, and finally demolition and disposal. The probabilistic approach, such as Monte Carlo simulations, allows for quantification and incorporation of uncertainties and provides a more realistic range of potential outcomes. Also, varying parameters within defined ranges allows for identification of parameters that most significantly impact the results. The goal of the study was to identify passive-solar building designs that improve energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions, and lower life cycle costs of single-family houses in different states. Preliminary results showed that PHs, even without solar enhancements, reduce carbon emissions by 30% over the building's entire life cycle, including 50 years of operation. Economic analysis showed that PHs have an average initial cost increase of 4%, while the embodied carbon increased by an average of 8%. Finally, when a PV solar system is designed to match energy demand, the avoided GHG emissions from PV-generated energy cover over 100% of a passive-solar house’s operation phase GHG emissions, which constitute around 80% of a passive-solar house’s lifetime emissions.

Bio: Dr. Jasmina Burek (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and the Principal Investigator at the BUilding REsilience through Knowledge (BUREK) Lab. Her research focuses on sustainability and resilience engineering. She develops decision-making models to measure and minimize environmental, social, and economic impacts (footprint assessment) of products, materials, buildings using life cycle assessment (LCA). Dr. Burek has also contributed to the development of LCA methods, including positive sustainability (handprint assessment) for organizational decarbonization. At UML, Dr. Burek aims to enhance the university’s positive impact (handprint) through on-campus projects, such as establishing a Food Forest, which will include interdisciplinary research to integrate LCA and ecosystem services. Also, she teaches graduate courses in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment and Advanced Thermodynamic, serves as a panelist on ISO Critical Reviews for LCA studies, and is a member of the Early-Career Editorial Board for Sustainable Production and Consumption Journal.