scholarly journals The The Effects of Structural Lightweight Concrete on Energy Performance and Life Cycle Cost in Residential Buildings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safa Nayır ◽  
Ümit Bahadır ◽  
Şakir Erdoğdu ◽  
Vedat Toğan
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Lightweight Concrete ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Life Cycle Costs

Energy efficiency in the construction industry is crucial to reducing increased energy consumption. A significant portion of the energy is consumed in residential buildings. Thermal properties of the materials used in the building envelope can reduce the energy consumed in the buildings and thus contribute to the building economy. For this purpose, in the study, structural lightweight concretes (SLWC) with a lower thermal conductivity than normal weight concrete (NWC) were produced and energy efficiency and life cycle costs were compared between these concretes on a 1 + 1 reference flat. The compressive strength, unit weights and thermal conductivity coefficients of SLWCs and NWC were determined experimentally. Heating and cooling energy consumption and life cycle costs for the flat were calculated using the DesignBuilder simulation program according to the different concrete types produced. The results indicate that the thermal conductivity coefficients of all SLWCs produced were about 37–45 % lower than those of NWC. All mixes of the SLWCs provided energy saving by about 18–25 % compared to the NWC and two SLWCs reduced the life cycle cost by 4 %. In addition, the results showed that the best SLWC about energy was not the best SLWC about life cycle cost.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Cost Optimization of Residential Buildings in Bulgaria: a Case Study of the Building Envelope

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Doseva ◽  
Daniela Chakyrova
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Cost Optimization ◽  
Optimization Procedure ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Optimization Criterion ◽  
Building Envelope

Abstract Around 60 % of residential buildings in Bulgaria are constructed before the Nineties of the last century, i.e. they have been in use for more than 30 years. Furthermore, the final energy consumption of Bulgarian residential buildings is the highest in Europe. This raises the question of the improvement of the energy performance of existing residential buildings. The current study is intended to assess the influence of the heat transmittance coefficient of the external building envelop elements on the annual energy consumption for heating and cooling and finding its optimal value. Life-cycle cost (LCC) as the optimization criterion is using. The optimization procedure is conducted for the climatic and economic conditions in Bulgaria and taking into account the existing legal framework. The minimum of the building life cycle costs is determined by using a genetic algorithm.

scholarly journals Evaluating the potential energy savings of residential buildings and utilizing solar energy in the middle region of Saudi Arabia – Case study

2020 ◽  
pp. 014459872097514
Author(s):  
AbdulRahman S Almushaikah ◽  
Radwan A Almasri
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Middle Region

Lately, with the growth in energy consumption worldwide to support global efforts to improve the climate, developing nations have to take significant measures. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) implemented meaningful policy actions towards promoting energy efficiency (EE) in several sectors, especially in the building sector, to be more sustainable. In this paper, various EE measures and solar energy prospects are investigated for the residential sector, in two locations in the middle region of the KSA. An energy performance analysis of pre-existing residential buildings with an overall design is performed using simulation programs. However, installing EE measures in the building envelope is important to achieve an efficient sector regarding its energy consumption. The findings showed that applying EE measures for the building envelope, walls, roof, and windows should be considered first that makes the energy conservation possible. In Riyadh, EE measures are responsible for reducing energy consumption by 27% for walls, 14% for roof, and 6% for window, and by 29%, 13%, and 6% for walls, roof, and windows, respectively, for Qassim. However, the most impactful EE solution was selecting a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system with a high energy efficiency rate (EER), which can minimize the energy consumption by 33% and 32% for Riyadh and Qassim, respectively. The study's feasibility showed that the number of years needed to offset the initial investment for a proposed roof PV system exceeds the project's life, if the energy produced is exported to the grid at the official export tariff of 0.019 $/kWh. However, the simple payback time was 13.42 years if the energy produced is exported to the grid at a rate of 0.048 $/kWh, reflecting the project's economic feasibility.

Assessment of the Life Cycle Energy Efficiency of a Primary School Building in Turkey

2019 ◽  
Vol 887 ◽  
pp. 335-343
Author(s):  
Nazanin Moazzen ◽  
Mustafa Erkan Karaguler ◽  
Touraj Ashrafian
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Embodied Energy

Energy efficiency has become a crucial part of human life, which has an adverse impact on the social and economic development of any country. In Turkey, it is a critical issue especially in the construction sector due to increase in the dependency on the fuel demands. The energy consumption, which is used during the life cycle of a building, is a huge amount affected by the energy demand for material and building construction, HVAC and lighting systems, maintenance, equipment, and demolition. In general, the Life Cycle Energy (LCE) needs of the building can be summarised as the operational and embodied energy together with the energy use for demolition and recycling processes.Besides, schools alone are responsible for about 15% of the total energy consumption of the commercial building sector. To reduce the energy use and CO2 emission, the operational and embodied energy of the buildings must be minimised. Overall, it seems that choosing proper architectural measures for the envelope and using low emitting material can be a logical step for reducing operational and embodied energy consumptions.This paper is concentrated on the operating and embodied energy consumptions resulting from the application of different architectural measures through the building envelope. It proposes an educational building with low CO2 emission and proper energy performance in Turkey. To illustrate the method of the approach, this contribution illustrates a case study, which was performed on a representative schoold building in Istanbul, Turkey. Energy used for HVAC and lighting in the operating phase and the energy used for the manufacture of the materials are the most significant parts of embodied energy in the LCE analyses. This case study building’s primary energy consumption was calculated with the help of dynamic simulation tools, EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder. Then, different architectural energy efficiency measures were applied to the envelope of the case study building. Then, the influence of proposed actions on LCE consumption and Life Cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emissions were assessed according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method.

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Structural Insulated Panels for Residential Buildings in a Hot and Arid Climate

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Muataz Dhaif ◽  
André Stephan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Structural Insulated Panels ◽  
Operational Energy

In hot and humid climatic conditions, cooling tends to dominate building thermal energy use. Cooling loads can be reduced through the adoption of efficient building envelope materials, such as Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs). This study quantifies the life cycle cost and operational energy of a representative case-study house in Bahrain using SIPs and hollow concrete blocks (HCBs) for the envelope over a period of 50 years. Operational energy is calculated using a dynamic energy simulation tool, operational costs are calculated based on the energy demand and local tariff rates, and construction costs are estimated using market prices and quotations. The life cycle cost is quantified using the Net Present Cost technique. Results show that SIPs yield a 20.6% reduction in cooling energy use compared to HCBs. For SIP costs of 12 and 17 USD/m², the SIP house was cheaper throughout, or had a higher capital cost than the HCB house (breaking even in year 33), respectively. We propose policy recommendations with respect to material pricing, electricity tariffs, and energy efficiency, to improve the operational energy efficiency of houses in Bahrain and similar countries along the Arabian Peninsula.

scholarly journals Life cycle cost analysis of different residential heat pump systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 01014
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Doseva ◽  
Daniela Chakyrova
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Heat Pump ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Coefficient Of Performance ◽  
Pump System ◽  
Heat Pump System ◽  
Heating And Cooling

Nowadays, the application of air-source heat pumps for heating and cooling in residential buildings has been increased significantly. The main occasion for this is the accessibility of a heat source for these devices - the external air. Nevertheless, the increase of the energy efficiency of the air source heat pump systems is a difficult design problem because their capacity and performance are a function of the dynamically changing parameters of the outdoor air. Because of that, the main aim of this study is to develop an approach for choosing a structural scheme of an air-to-water heat pump system under specific climatic conditions. The considered systems are monovalent, bivalent-parallel and bivalent-alternative heat pump systems. In the current paper is conducted a dynamic energy modeling of heating and cooling demand of a typical residential building situated in Varna, Bulgaria and applying the bin temperature data. It is assessed the effect of the heat pump capacity over the annual and seasonal energy performance of the heat pump systems. It is established the effect of the bivalent temperature, cut-off temperature and on-off cycles duration on rates of the criteria for techno-economic assessment. The seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP), seasonal energy efficiency rate (SEER) and life cycle costs (LCC) of the analyzed heat pump systems are adopted as assessment parameters.

scholarly journals Least Cost Analysis of Energy Efficiency Upgrades for Ontario Using Trnsys

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Fereidouni Kondri
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Residential Housing ◽  
Domestic Hot Water

This report presents the methodology for determining least cost energy efficient upgrade solutions in new residential housing using brute force sequential search (BFSS) method for integration into the reference house to reduce energy consumption while minimizing the net present value (NPV) of life cycle costs. The results showed that, based on the life cycle cost analysis of 30 years, the optimal upgrades resulted in the average of 19.25% (case 1), 31% (case 2a), and 21% (case 2b) reduction in annual energy consumption. Economic conditions affect the sequencing of the upgrades. In this respect the preferred upgrades to be performed in order are; domestic hot water heating, above grade wall insulation, cooling systems, ceiling insulation, floor insulation, heat recovery ventilator, basement slab insulation and below grade wall insulation. When the gas commodity pricing becomes high, the more energy efficient upgrades for domestic hot water (DHW) get selected at a cost premium.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY RETROFITTING IN MULTIFAMILY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-136
Author(s):  
Chaitali Basu ◽  
Virendra Kumar Paul ◽  
M.G. Matt Syal
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
A Priority

The energy performance of an existing building is the amount of energy consumed to meet various needs associated with the standardized use of a building and is reflected in one or more indicators known as Building Energy Performance Indicators (EnPIs). These indicators are distributed amongst six main factors influencing energy consumption: climate, building envelope, building services and energy systems, building operation and maintenance, occupants' activities and behaviour, and indoor environmental quality. Any improvement made to either the existing structure or the physical and operational upgrade of a building system that enhances energy performance is considered an energy efficiency retrofit. The main goal of this research is to support the implementation of multifamily residential building energy retrofits through expert knowledge consensus on EnPIs for energy efficiency retrofit planning. The research methodology consists of a comprehensive literature review which has identified 35 EnPIs for assessing performance of existing residential buildings, followed by a ranking questionnaire survey of experts in the built-environment to arrive at a priority listing of indicators based on mean rank. This was followed by concordance analysis and measure of standard deviation. A total of 280 experts were contacted globally for the survey, and 106 completed responses were received resulting in a 37.85% response rate. The respondents were divided into two groups for analysis: academician/researchers and industry practitioners. The primary outcome of the research is a priority listing of EnPIs based on the quantitative data from the knowledge-base of experts from these two groups. It is the outcome of their perceptions of retrofitting factors and corresponding indicators. A retrofit strategy consists of five phases for retrofitting planning in which the second phase comprises an energy audit and performance assessment and diagnostics. This research substantiates the performance assessment process through the identification of EnPIs.

scholarly journals A Sustainable Solution for Energy Efficiency in Italian Climatic Contexts

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2817
Author(s):  
Valeria Annibaldi ◽  
Federica Cucchiella ◽  
Marianna Rotilio
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Reference Scenario ◽  
Life Cycle Cost Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Optimal Thickness ◽  
Hemp Fiber ◽  
Sustainable Solutions

In the European Union, about 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions come from buildings; therefore, the improvement of their energy performance is a strongly focused issue. In particular, the energy efficiency of the building envelope is a very important element to pay attention to. Many studies have been conducted on this field of research, and the study illustrated in this paper also belongs to this topic. In particular, this article presents a multidisciplinary method to find sustainable solutions for energy efficiency in Italian climatic contexts using the Life Cycle Cost Analysis approach. In detail, this paper defines the reference scenario and then deepens the methodology used to determine the economically optimal thickness of a specific insulating material—hemp fiber—applied to a specific type of wall—uninsulated cavity walls made of hollow bricks, which are very widespread in Italy. The analysis is developed in relation to three different regions—Piedmont, Abruzzo, and Campania. The results show that the economically optimal thickness is different for each region analyzed and demonstrates how energy efficiency strategies must be carefully weighed according to the specific conditions of the site.

scholarly journals Application of Rough Set Theory (RST) to Forecast Energy Consumption in Buildings Undergoing Thermal Modernization

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Szul ◽  
Stanisław Kokoszka
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Set Theory ◽  
Rough Set ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Rough Set Theory ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Simple Procedure ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Improve Energy Efficiency

In many regions, the heat used for space heating is a basic item in the energy balance of a building and significantly affects its operating costs. The accuracy of the assessment of heat consumption in an existing building and the determination of the main components of heat loss depends to a large extent on whether the energy efficiency improvement targets set in the thermal upgrading project are achieved. A frequent problem in the case of energy calculations is the lack of complete architectural and construction documentation of the analyzed objects. Therefore, there is a need to search for methods that will be suitable for a quick technical analysis of measures taken to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings. These methods should have satisfactory results in predicting energy consumption where the input is limited, inaccurate, or uncertain. Therefore, the aim of this work was to test the usefulness of a model based on Rough Set Theory (RST) for estimating the thermal energy consumption of buildings undergoing an energy renovation. The research was carried out on a group of 109 thermally improved residential buildings, for which energy performance was based on actual energy consumption before and after thermal modernization. Specific sets of important variables characterizing the examined buildings were distinguished. The groups of variables were used to estimate energy consumption in such a way as to obtain a compromise between the effort of obtaining them and the quality of the forecast. This has allowed the construction of a prediction model that allows the use of a fast, relatively simple procedure to estimate the final energy demand rate for heating buildings.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Summer Overheating Phenomenon in Reinforced Concrete and Cross Laminated Timber Residential Buildings in the Cold and Severe Cold Regions of China

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6305
Author(s):  
Haibo Guo ◽  
Lu Huang ◽  
Wenjie Song ◽  
Xinyue Wang ◽  
Hongnan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Thermal Design ◽  
Cold Regions ◽  
Cross Laminated Timber ◽  
Design Standard

As the climate changed in recent years, an increase in summer indoor temperatures in severe cold and cold regions of China has started to affect thermal comfort. However, the local design standard for energy efficiency does not recognize this phenomenon. This paper reports the potential overheating phenomenon in residential buildings and examines the rationale for the current thermal designs adopted in severe cold and cold regions of China. In this study, the two most commonly used building materials, reinforced concrete (RC) and cross laminated timber (CLT), are used separately in the design of an 18-story residential building envelope located in six different cities in the severe cold and cold regions. The energy consumption and indoor operative temperatures during the operation of these buildings are simulated using Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES VE). The results demonstrate that both the RC and the CLT buildings experience varying degrees of overheating in any climate subregion. The CLT buildings have longer overheating hours compared to the RC buildings, especially in the cold regions. The results also indicate that for apartments on higher stories, the cooling energy consumption and indoor temperature also increase gradually. The research results suggest that the local design standard for energy efficiency needs to be adjusted by adding thermal design methods for summer to reduce the periods of overheating.

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