Learning building decarbonization technologies incorporating daily life experiences

Abstract

The building sector is responsible for more than 90% of electricity consumption in Hong Kong, imposing an urgent task on building decarbonization. There is increasing worldwide interest in low-energy or low-carbon buildings. The Hong Kong Government aims to reduce the carbon intensity by 65–70% by 2030 (from the 2005 level) and achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2050. Therefore, practical skills in building decarbonization will facilitate Hong Kong’s transition to carbon neutrality. Strong competency in building decarbonization technologies will make our undergraduate students more employable. However, the current building-related courses are mainly focused on theoretical knowledge or simple experimental skills, with little involvement in daily life experiences. For most of the time, many students cannot fully understand the necessity or significance of learning the technologies until they really need to use them someday. So, they show less interest and gain weak competency after learning. In this project, we aim to enable students to learn building decarbonization technologies by incorporating daily life experiences. The project was conducted in the PI’s two UG courses (SEE4112 Sustainable Engineering Systems: Modelling and Analysis; SEE4003 Energy and Environmental Engineering Laboratory). Various building decarbonization technologies (including building design, efficient HVAC, efficient appliance, smart control, efficient occupant behavior, etc.) were investigated via modeling or experiment. The effects of our daily life activities or behaviors on the benefits were evaluated interestingly. Students were guided to implement some building decarbonization technologies in their own homes and measure the generated benefits. The impact of the project on student learning and teaching practice is very positive, with the following Project Intended Learning Outcomes achieved: (1) Enable students to learn building decarbonization technologies by incorporating daily life experiences in an interesting way; (2) Raise students’ enthusiasm in applying building decarbonization technologies to address a series of practical energy and environmental issues; and (3) Improve students’ core skills in building energy efficiency and thus core competency in the decarbonization industry. This project takes advantage of the PI’s unique research experiences in building decarbonization and the favorable background of students in SEE. The innovative incorporation of the daily-life-experience-oriented curriculum raises students’ enthusiasm in applying building decarbonization technologies to address a series of practical energy and environmental issues in their future endeavors. This project can strengthen the leading position of SEE and CityU in education, research, and service in the carbon decarbonization industry in Hong Kong and Asia.