scholarly journals Embodied Energy and Lifecycle Costs: Questioning (Mis)conceptions about Underground Construction

Buildings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Michael Robert Doyle ◽  
Philippe Thalmann ◽  
Aurèle Parriaux

In the construction community, underground construction is perceived as being significantly more costly and more energy-consuming than comparable surface construction. Although the literature is scarce, studies that have attempted to quantify this difference tend to compare built projects in heterogeneous conditions. The objective of this article is to present the results of life cycle cost and energy consumption simulations conducted as part of the Deep City project at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. This article begins by examining the preconceptions the construction industry seems to have about underground construction as reported in the press from 2007 to 2017. Then, we present the method and results of two unpublished studies on the differences in costs and energy consumption of a hypothetical commercial building project in two different geological contexts. We find that energy consumption can be 15% higher but also 4% lower. We also find that underground construction in unconsolidated sediment ground is approximately 23% more expensive, while only 10% in bedrock, which is significantly lower than the 200% to 300% differentials reported in previous studies. We attribute this to the level of detail of our studies, the inclusion of ground conditions, and conclude that our results help to dispel certain misconceptions about underground construction, which can contribute positively to urban sustainable development goals.

Author(s):  
Shubham S Kulkarni ◽  

As we know that nowadays due to the hot and humid weather and the increasing temperature the high amount of energy consumption is used for the heating & cooling purpose in residential as well as in commercial building for air conditioning systems. To overcome this problem and to reduce the energy consumption as well as good thermal comfort to people in the indoor environment, use the radiant heating & cooling system is a better way. This concept is used to cool or heat the room and absorbs the indoor sensible heat by thermal radiation. The system removes heat by using less energy and more energy-efficient. This system uses water as a medium to cool or heat the room space. There are three types discussed in these papers for cooling & heating. In this paper, we did an overall study regarding radiant heating and cooling systems. It reduces the energy lost due to the duct leakage. It also has a lower life cycle cost compared to conventional. In this paper, we have reviewed how to reduce energy consumption and give thermal comfortable air-condition through radiant cooling and chilled ceiling panel system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6594
Author(s):  
Ahmad Adeel ◽  
Bruno Notteboom ◽  
Ansar Yasar ◽  
Kris Scheerlinck ◽  
Jeroen Stevens

The incompatibility between the microscale-built environment designs around mass transit stations and stakeholders’ preferences causes dissatisfaction and inconvenience. The lack of a pedestrian-friendly environment, uncontrolled development patterns, traffic and parking issues make the street life vulnerable and unattractive for users, and affect the mass transit usage. How to design the streetscapes around mass transit stations to provide a user-friendly street environment is a crucial question to achieve sustainable transit-oriented development goals. To recognize the specific attributes of streetscape environment relevant in local context of BRT Lahore, this paper presents the results of a visual preference experiment in which nine attributes of built environment were systematically varied across choice sets. Multinomial logit models were set up to identify the preferences of three target groups: BRT users, commercial building users and residents at different locations. The research indicates that not only the road-related factors (bike lane and sidewalk widths, crossings facilities, street greenery) have a significant influence on people’s preference but also that building heights, and the typology of buildings and housing projects around BRT corridor have shaped these preferences. When planning and designing urban design projects around mass transit projects, these significant attributes should be considered.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumen Rej ◽  
Barnali Nag

Purpose Both energy and education have been positioned as priority objectives under the itinerary of UN development goals. Hence, it is necessary to address the implicit inter relationship between these two development goals in the context of developing nations such as India who are trying to grow in both per capita income and socio economic factors whilst struggling with the challenges of a severe energy supply constrained economy. Design/methodology/approach In the present study, the causal relationship between energy consumption per capita and education index (EI) as a proxy of educational advancement is investigated for India for 1990–2016 using the Johansen-Juselius cointegration test and vector error correction model. Findings The empirical results infer although energy consumption per capita and EI lack short run causality in either direction, existence of unidirectional long run causality from EI to per capita energy consumption is found for India. Further, it is observed that energy consumption per capita takes around four years to respond to unit shock in EI. Research limitations/implications The findings from this study imply that with the advancement of education, a rise in per capita energy consumption requirement can be foreseen on the demand side, and hence, India’s energy policy needs to emphasize further its sustainable energy supply goals to meet this additional demand coming from a population with better education facilities. Originality/value The authors hereby confirm that this manuscript is entirely their own original study and not submitted elsewhere.


2021 ◽  
Vol 905 (1) ◽  
pp. 012064
Author(s):  
M N Mu’afa ◽  
S Marwanti ◽  
W Rahayu

Abstract Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals is Zero Hunger or ensure food security in the world. This study aims to determine households’ food security in Sragen District using descriptive and analytical methods with survey techniques. The research was conducted in Gemolong Sub-district, Sragen District. The determination of village samples is done deliberately (purposive) considering the largest rainfed rice fields. The data analysis used is the analysis of energy consumption and household food security. The results showed that the energy consumption of farmers’ households amounted to 6,041 kcal/day with an energy sufficiency value of 5,368 kcal/day, then obtained energy consumption level of 113% and classified in the category of high level because energy consumption level ≥ 100%. Household food security conditions showed that 53.33% were food resistant households and 46.67% were food vulnerable. Increasing production and household income by optimizing drill wells to ensure water availability or procurement of seeds resistant to rainfed rice fields can address vulnerable food situations.


2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangang Xue ◽  
Muhammad Mohsin ◽  
Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary ◽  
Nadeem Iqbal

This study evaluates the role of information in the environmental performance index (EPI) in different energy-consuming sectors in Pakistan through a novel slack-based data envelopment analysis (DEA). The index combines energy consumption as the primary input and gross domestic product (GDP) as the desirable output and CO2 emissions as the undesirable output. Yale’s EPI measures the efficiency of the sectoral level environmental performance of primary energy consumption in the country. Performance analysis was conducted from 2009 to 2018. The sectors were assigned scores between one and zero, with zero indicating maximum decision-making unit (DMU) inefficiency and one indicating maximum DMU efficiency. Despite being in the top-performing sector, agriculture scored only 0.51 in 2018, and the electricity sector obtained 0.412. Results also show that even the best-performing sector operates below the efficiency level. The mining and quarrying sector ranked second by obtaining 0.623 EPI and 0.035 SBEPI. Results also show that much of the energy supply of Pakistan (60.17%) is focused on fossil fuels, supplemented by hydropower (33%), while nuclear, wind, biogas, and solar power account for 5.15%, 0.47%, 0.32%, and 0.03%, respectively. Nonetheless, the overall results for both measures remained reasonably consistent. According to the literature and the energy crisis and climate instability dilemma, the authors conclude that changes to a diverse green power network are a possibility and an imminent need. Similarly, the government should penalize companies with poor performance. Furthermore, to ensure the capacity development and stability of environmental management and associated actions in the country, providing access to knowledge and training to groom human resources and achieve the highest performance is crucial.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Sartipi ◽  

With the growing attention to smart buildings, local governments are seeking practical ways to optimize the energy consumption of commercial buildings. An ideal smart building is capable of monitoring its own energy consumption and adjusting the operation of electric devices, being lighting and air conditioners, based on the occupant behaviour. In this study, data had been obtained from the monitoring sensors in a commercial building located in the heart of Sydney from 2013 until 2020 on a 15-minute time intervals. The data derivation and analysis are intrinsically static at the moment which makes it difficult for building management to make instantaneous decision regarding the measures to be taken for a lower energy consumption. Using data analysis and visualization tools in Tableau, this study provides detailed insights about the trends in energy consumption in the given building. The outcomes facilitate the decision making for building management and can be seen as a milestone towards a dynamic optimization protocol in a bigger picture which is introduced in the second part of this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 08003
Author(s):  
Jalal ud Din Akbar ◽  
Muhammad Ridhuan Tony Lim Abdullah

Global challenges of climate change and environmental deterioration helped in formulating seventeen sustainable development goals through United Nation. Achieving these sustainable goals, Malaysia initiated and track progress towards affordable and clean energy. The natural environment and climate are mostly influenced by human behavior. Due to the role of human behavior in climate change, a strong tendency towards the pursuit of energy sustainability exists. Attention is paid to strengthen the human behavior from general acts of doing things to carrying specific actions by adopting a responsible behavior into daily routine. A number of factors were identified through literature such as social structure, institution, and education for understanding the individual behavior for sustainability with regard to energy consumption. Many experts related to the field of energy were engaged to sort and prioritize these factors with respect to their importance by using multi-criteria decision making tool of analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The experts were selected from different sectors such as academia, NGOs and industry. With the help of experts, a framework of individual energy consumption behaviour is developed to allow the government and other stakeholders to make policies accordingly to achieve energy sustainable.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Fereidouni Kondri

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saravanan Dhanushkodi ◽  
Vincent H. Wilson ◽  
Kumarasamy Sudhakar

Abstract Cashew nut farming in India is mostly carried out in small and marginal holdings. Energy consumption in the small scale cashew nut processing industry is very high and is mainly due to the high energy consumption of the drying process. The drying operation provides a lot of scope for energy saving and substitutions of other renewable energy sources. Renewable energy-based drying systems with loading capacity of 40 kg were proposed for application in small scale cashew nut processing industries. The main objective of this work is to perform economic feasibility of substituting solar, biomass and hybrid dryer in place of conventional steam drying for cashew drying. Four economic indicators were used to assess the feasibility of three renewable based drying technologies. The payback time was 1.58 yr. for solar, 1.32 for biomass and 1.99 for the hybrid drying system, whereas as the cost-benefit estimates were 5.23 for solar, 4.15 for biomass and 3.32 for the hybrid system. It was found that it is of paramount importance to develop solar biomass hybrid dryer for small scale processing industries.


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