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Title
Zero-Energy Design: an approach to make your building sustainable
Category
general
UUID
434ec763efa84688a91402f8ff473290
Source URL
https://learningforlife.tudelft.nl/zero-energy-design-an-approach-to-make-your-b...
Parent URL
https://learningforlife.tudelft.nl/our-courses/architecture-and-urbanism/buildin...
Crawl Time
2026-03-23T11:24:49+00:00
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Zero-Energy Design: an approach to make your building sustainable

Source: https://learningforlife.tudelft.nl/zero-energy-design-an-approach-to-make-your-building-sustainable/ Parent: https://learningforlife.tudelft.nl/our-courses/architecture-and-urbanism/buildings-tech-design/

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Free

For instructor paced courses this is the length of the course.

For self-paced courses this is the length of the course if you spend the amount of time per week as specified. You're free to go faster or slower as you see fit.

7 Weeks - Effort 4 - 6 Hours per week

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Learn how to get to a net zero energy use of an existing building.

Reduction of energy consumption of buildings is an important step in the move towards a sustainable economy. How can buildings be made net zero energy, in different climates?

This course introduces you to zero energy design. It will teach you a stepped approach to design a zero energy climate concept for existing buildings: homes, schools, offices, shops etc. It will demonstrate how an integrated approach, which takes into account both passive measures (such as thermal insulation and sun shading) and active measures (such as heat pumps and photovoltaic panels), can deliver the best results.

It will do so by providing you with an overview of possible measures, and through reviewing several case studies of zero energy buildings in the Netherlands, with lessons for other climates as well. Thus, you will learn which measures are most suitable for individual buildings under local climate conditions.

This course is for anyone interested in making buildings more energy efficient, who already possess basic technical knowledge.

"In line with our mission to support engineers world-wide in gaining new competencies, our foundation contributed to the development of the TU Delft MOOC Zero Energy Design. We are convinced that this course offers new skills to engineers and helps to find solutions for one of the world's grand challenges." - Dutch Foundation PATO - Details

##### Course Syllabus

Week 1 Energy in the built environment\ Introduction to Zero Energy Design\ Analyse the energy consumption of a selected building\ \ Week 2 REDUCE: Passive measures\ Analyse the local climate and choose passive measures to reduce the energy demand, like thermal insulation and sun shading.\ \ Week 3 REDUCE: Active measures\ Overview of active measures to reduce the energy demand, like demand-controlled heating and ventilation.\ \ Week 4 REUSE\ Overview of the opportunities to reuse energy flows in buildings, like heat recovery from ventilation air and warm waste water\ \ Week 5 PRODUCE\ Overview of the opportunities to produce heat and electricity in the building, like PV-systems, ground source heat pumps.\ \ Week 6 INTEGRATE\ Apply all the measures from the previous weeks in an integrated net zero energy concept for the selected building\ \ Week 7 Wrap up - Qualifications

##### Chartered Engineering Competences

All our online courses and programs have been matched to the competences determined by KIVI’s Competence Structure, a common frame of reference for everyone, across all disciplines, levels and roles.

These competences apply to this course:

This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that runs on edX.

### Prerequisites

Bachelor Technical Study 1st year

This course is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Our MOOCs are delivered on edX.org and are open to all. They include video lectures, readings, assignments, and community discussions. Content is free, with optional certificates and additional exercises available for a fee.

Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Eric van den Ham and Tess Blom (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment) are the winners of the 2020 edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning, with their online course "Zero-Energy Design: an approach to make your building sustainable". Their MOOC is designed to help participants figure out which energy measures can be applied to make their buildings (more) sustainable and zero-energy consuming.

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