scholarly journals Strategies to Improve the Energy Performance of Buildings: A Review of Their Life Cycle Impact

Buildings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia MIRABELLA ◽  
Martin RÖCK ◽  
Marcella Ruschi Mendes SAADE ◽  
Carolin SPIRINCKX ◽  
Marc BOSMANS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Operational Energy

Globally, the building sector is responsible for more than 40% of energy use and it contributes approximately 30% of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This high contribution stimulates research and policies to reduce the operational energy use and related GHG emissions of buildings. However, the environmental impacts of buildings can extend wide beyond the operational phase, and the portion of impacts related to the embodied energy of the building becomes relatively more important in low energy buildings. Therefore, the goal of the research is gaining insights into the environmental impacts of various building strategies for energy efficiency requirements compared to the life cycle environmental impacts of the whole building. The goal is to detect and investigate existing trade-offs in current approaches and solutions proposed by the research community. A literature review is driven by six fundamental and specific research questions (RQs), and performed based on two main tasks: (i) selection of literature studies, and (ii) critical analysis of the selected studies in line with the RQs. A final sample of 59 papers and 178 case studies has been collected, and key criteria are systematically analysed in a matrix. The study reveals that the high heterogeneity of the case studies makes it difficult to compare these in a straightforward way, but it allows to provide an overview of current methodological challenges and research gaps. Furthermore, the most complete studies provide valuable insights in the environmental benefits of the identified energy performance strategies over the building life cycle, but also shows the risk of burden shifting if only operational energy use is focused on, or when a limited number of environmental impact categories are assessed.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Impacts for Passive Detached Accessory Dwelling Units and Their Design Implications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deva Siva Veylan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Design Standards ◽  
Passive House ◽  
Accessory Dwelling Units ◽  
Passive Design ◽  
House Size

Detached accessory dwelling units are a building typology that, when built to passive design standards, can help reduce GHG emissions while addressing the socioeconomic pressures facing many housing markets. Energy performance metrics like those used in passive design standards are based on per unit of floor area and lead to a size-bias against smaller housing typologies. A life cycle assessment of cost-optimal passive house sizes ranging from 230 m² (2,500 ft²) to 30 m² (300 ft²) is performed to understand their total life cycle energy use and GHG emissions implications. Additionally, an analysis using BEopt examines operational energy use for 10 cost-optimal passive house sizes ranging from 230 m² (2,500 ft²) to 30 m² (300 ft²) across all 17 climate zones and examines how cost-optimal passive design changes with house size. The results show that per-occupant energy use and GHG emissions are similar or better for small house sizes and that cost-optimal passive design does not change significantly with house size.

scholarly journals The applicability of different energy performance calculation methods for building life cycle environmental optimization

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kiss ◽  
ZS. Szalay
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Calculation Methods ◽  
Apartment House ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
Time Accuracy ◽  
Building Life Cycle

Building life cycle assessment is getting more and more attention within the topic of environmental impact caused by the built environment. Although more and more research focus on the embodied impact of buildings, the investigation of the operational energy use still needs attention. The majority of the building stock still does not comply with the nearly zero energy requirements. Also, in case of retrofitting, when most of the embodied impact is already spent on the existing structures (and so immutable), the importance of the operational energy rises. There are several methods to calculate the energy performance of buildings covering the range from simplified seasonal methods to detailed hourly energy simulations. Not only the accuracy of the calculations, but the computational time can be significantly different within the methods. The latter is especially important in case of optimization, when there is limited time to perform one calculation. Our research shows that the use of different calculation techniques can lead to different optima for environmental impacts in case of retrofitting. In this paper we compare these calculation methods with focus on computational time, accuracy and applicability to environmental optimization of buildings. We present the results in a case study of the retrofitting of a middle-sized apartment house in Hungary.

scholarly journals Application of Life Cycle Energy Assessment in Residential Buildings: A Critical Review of Recent Trends

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Ehsan Sharifi ◽  
Ali Soltani
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
System Boundary ◽  
Energy Assessment ◽  
Boundary Definition

Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Correspondingly, many attempts have been made across the world to minimize energy consumption in this sector via regulations and building codes. The focus of these regulations has mainly been on reducing operational energy use, whereas the impacts of buildings’ embodied energy are frequently excluded. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the energy performance of buildings via a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. The increasing amount of research has however caused the issue of a variation in results presented by LCEA studies, in which apparently similar case studies exhibited different results. This paper aims to identify the main sources of variation in LCEA studies by critically analyzing 26 studies representing 86 cases in 12 countries. The findings indicate that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracy accruing from incomplete definitions of the system boundary, in tandem with the lack of consensus on measurements of operational and embodied energies. The findings call for a comprehensive framework through which system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized.

Recurrent embodied energy and its relationship with service life and life cycle energy

Facilities ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 160-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish K. Dixit ◽  
Charles H. Culp ◽  
Sarel Lavy ◽  
Jose Fernandez-Solis
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Service Life ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Literature Based Discovery

Purpose – The recurrent embodied energy (REE) is the energy consumed in the maintenance, replacement and retrofit processes of a facility. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the relationship of REE with the service life and life cycle embodied energy. The amount of variation in the reported REE values is also determined and discussed. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach that is known as the literature based discovery (LBD) was adopted. Existing literature was surveyed to gather case studies and to analyze the reported values of REE. Findings – The reported values of REE showed considerable variation across referred studies. It was also found that the reported REE values demonstrated a moderate positive correlation with the service life but a very strong positive correlation with the life cycle embodied energy of both the residential and commercial facilities. Research limitations/implications – This review paper pointed out the importance of the maintenance and replacement processes in reducing the life cycle energy use in a facility. Future research could focus on performing case studies to evaluate this relationship. Practical implications – The findings highlight the significance of REE in reducing the life cycle energy impacts of a facility. As facility managers routinely deal with maintenance and replacement processes, they hold an important responsibility of reducing the life cycle energy. Originality/value – The findings of the paper would motivate the facilities management professionals to prefer long service life materials and components during the postconstruction phases of a built facility.

Zero Energy Houses and Embodied Energy: Regulatory and Design Considerations

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patxi Hernandez ◽  
Paul Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

Building energy performance regulations and standards around the world are evolving aiming to reduce the energy use in buildings. As we move towards zero energy buildings, the embodied energy of construction materials and energy systems becomes more important, as it represents a high percentage of the overall life cycle energy use of a building. However, this issue is still ignored by many regulations and certification methods, as happens with the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which focuses on the energy used in operation. This paper analyses a typical house designed to comply with Irish building regulations, calculating its energy use for heating and how water with the Irish national calculation tool, which uses a methodology in line with the EPBD. A range of measures to reduce the energy performance in use of this typical house are proposed, calculating the reduced energy demand and moving towards a zero energy demand building. A life-cycle approach is added to the analysis, taking into account the differential embodied energy of the implemented measures in relation to the typical house base-case, annualizing the differential embodied energy and re-calculating the overall energy use. The paper discusses how a simplified approach for accounting embodied energy of materials could be useful in a goal to achieve the lowest life-cycle energy use in buildings, and concludes with a note on how accounting for embodied energy is a key element when moving towards zero energy buildings.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Life-Cycle Assessment Analysis: Application to Restoration Projects and New Construction in Alpine Climate, Japan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3608
Author(s):  
Yohei Endo ◽  
Hideki Takamura
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Heritage Buildings ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
New Construction ◽  
Analysis Application ◽  
Materials Used

The present paper discusses the applications of life-cycle assessment (LCA) to construction works in Japan. LCA has been frequently used to assess the environmental impacts of new construction. Nonetheless, the applications of LCA to restoration have not been fully confirmed to date. It is said that historical buildings may contribute to sustainable development. Nonetheless, as for heritage buildings, since the protection of cultural value is usually prioritised, their environmental impacts may not be sufficiently explored. To this aim, this paper evaluated the environmental impacts of the restoration of heritage buildings. This paper consisted of two tasks. First, the restoration projects of heritage buildings in Japan were introduced. The restoration of two heritage houses was discussed, referring to heritage protection legislation in Japan. Second, LCA was performed on the restoration of heritage houses and the construction of contemporary houses. Environmental impacts were compared between the restoration and new construction with regard to greenhouse gas emissions and operational energy use. A focus was given to the amount of materials used. Restoration consumes a limited amount of materials compared to new construction, although the energy use of heritage buildings is considerable. The environmental impacts of restoration were quantified so that they were compared with those of new construction. The comparison indicated issues applying LCA to heritage buildings.

scholarly journals Estimation of Carbon Footprint of Residential Building in Warm Humid Climate of India through BIM

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4237
Author(s):  
Rosaliya Kurian ◽  
Kishor Sitaram Kulkarni ◽  
Prasanna Venkatesan Ramani ◽  
Chandan Swaroop Meena ◽  
Ashok Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Civil Infrastructure ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
Building Life Cycle

In recent years Asian Nations showed concern over the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their civil infrastructure. This study presents a contextual investigation of a residential apartment complex in the territory of the southern part of India. The LCA is performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) software embedded with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of materials utilized in construction, transportation of materials and operational energy use throughout the building lifecycle. The results of the study illustrate that cement is the material that most contributes to carbon emissions among the other materials looked at in this study. The operational stage contributed the highest amount of carbon emissions. This study emphasizes variation in the LCA results based on the selection of a combination of definite software-database combinations and manual-database computations used. For this, three LCA databases were adopted (GaBi database and ecoinvent databases through One Click LCA software), and the ICE database was used for manual calculations. The ICE database showed realistic value comparing the GaBi and ecoinvent databases. The findings of this study are valuable for the policymakers and practitioners to accomplish optimization of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the building life cycle.

scholarly journals Benchmarks for Embodied and Operational Energy Assessment of Hellenic Single-Family Houses

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4384
Author(s):  
Elena G. Dascalaki ◽  
Poulia A. Argiropoulou ◽  
Constantinos A. Balaras ◽  
Kalliopi G. Droutsa ◽  
Simon Kontoyiannidis
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy Intensity ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Relative Significance ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Operational Energy

Building energy performance benchmarking increases awareness and enables stakeholders to make better informed decisions for designing, operating, and renovating sustainable buildings. In the era of nearly zero energy buildings, the embodied energy along with operational energy use are essential for evaluating the environmental impacts and building performance throughout their lifecycle. Key metrics and baselines for the embodied energy intensity in representative Hellenic houses are presented in this paper. The method is set up to progressively cover all types of buildings. The lifecycle analysis was performed using the well-established SimaPro software package and the EcoInvent lifecycle inventory database, complemented with national data from short energy audits carried out in Greece. The operational energy intensity was estimated using the national calculation engine for assessing the building’s energy performance and the predictions were adapted to obtain more realistic estimates. The sensitivity analysis for different type of buildings considered 16 case studies, accounting for representative construction practices, locations (climate conditions), system efficiencies, renovation practices, and lifetime of buildings. The results were used to quantify the relative significance of operational and embodied energy, and to estimate the energy recovery time for popular energy conservation and energy efficiency measures. The derived indicators reaffirm the importance of embodied energy in construction materials and systems for new high performing buildings and for renovating existing buildings to nearly zero energy.

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 Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Embodied Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 461
Author(s):  
Mona Abouhamad ◽  
Metwally Abu-Hamd
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Building Construction ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Production Stage ◽  
Credit Points ◽  
Construction System

This paper develops a life cycle assessment framework for embodied environmental impacts of building construction systems. The framework is intended to be used early in the design stage to assist decision making in identifying sources of higher embodied impacts and in selecting sustainable design alternatives. The framework covers commonly used building construction systems such as reinforced concrete construction (RCC), hot-rolled steel construction (HRS), and light steel construction (LSC). The system boundary is defined for the framework from cradle-to-grave plus recycling and reuse possibilities. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and life cycle assessment are integrated in the developed framework to evaluate life cycle embodied energy and embodied greenhouse emissions of design options. The life cycle inventory data used to develop the framework were extracted from BIM models for the building material quantities, verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for the material production stage, and the design of construction operations for the construction and end-of-life stages. Application of the developed framework to a case study of a university building revealed the following results. The material production stage had the highest contribution to embodied impacts, reaching about 90%. Compared with the conventional RCC construction system, the HRS construction system had 41% more life cycle embodied energy, while the LSC construction system had 34% less life cycle embodied energy. When each system was credited with the net benefits resulting from possible recycling/reuse beyond building life, the HRS construction system had 10% less life cycle embodied energy, while the LSC construction system had 68% less life cycle embodied energy. Similarly, the HRS construction system had 29% less life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while the LSC construction system had 62% less life cycle GHG emissions. Sustainability assessment results showed that the RCC construction system received zero Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credit points, the HRS construction system received three LEED credit points, while the LSC construction system received five LEED credit points.

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