Zero Energy Building

Zero Energy Building (ZEB) is a building designed to make use of natural free resources in order to reduce energy use in building, install energy efficient systems, and generate energy from renewable sources equal to or more than energy used in the project. Medium and large scale, cost effective zero energy buildings are expected to be viable in the next 15-20 years. However, rapid building technology development and determined building owners and designers had made medium and large scale buildings become successful today. This paper explored design guidelines applicable for zero energy building in Thailand and demonstrate that cost effective and repeatable zero energy buildings could be possible. Future research opportunities in the field of zero energy building design in the tropic are also identified.