Use of innovative low carbon materials for sustainable energy-efficient housing in Nigeria

Abstract

Sustainable energy-efficient housing is environmentally-conscious housing. Energy efficient houses consume less energy while maintaining or improving the comfort conditions of occupants. This paper examines low carbon initiatives in housing construction in Nigeria based on the use of stabilized soil blocks, solid interlocking blocks, and supplementary cementitious materials such as fly ash, rice husk ash, palm oil fuel ash, and their various combinations in concrete production as low carbon materials. These are materials readily available in Nigeria and can be useful for sustainable housing construction. Their use is for the purpose of reducing embodied energy in construction of houses and reduction of operational energy in housing use. Owing to the poor state of energy generation and transmission in Nigeria energy efficiency measures are imperative to reduce the energy required in houses. The paper thus affirms the need to adopt energy efficiency strategies in housing in order to achieve eco-friendly and sustainable environment in Nigeria.