Abstract
Buildings consume significant amounts of energy and resources at all stages of their life cycle, causing a huge impact on the environment. Life cycle energy analysis is a holistic approach to assessing the design energy efficiency of buildings. Although new construction involves the energy-efficient, sustainable buildings, the energy demand in the construction sector will increase due to the ever-increasing demand for housing. Therefore, housing construction has significant potential for energy saving and potential for further research. The aim of the article is an energy analysis of the life cycle of buildings to formulate a strategic framework for reducing the energy footprint of the construction sector. The article examines energy-efficient solutions at the stage of selection of building systems for the construction of external wall structures. The evaluation criteria were the indicators of heat transfer resistance, embodied energy and carbon dioxide emissions from the production of building materials. It is shown that in terms of thermal and technical indicators, structures with facade thermal insulation meet the requirements of the current legislation. Comparison of embodied energy indicators showed that for a wall structure made of solid bricks, this figure is 2.0–2.7 times higher than for walls using energy-efficient building materials, which is due to the high density of ceramic bricks and significant energy consumption for their firing. For aerated concrete walls, the value of embodied energy is 769 and 1019 MJ, and the embodied carbon dioxide value is 54 and 69 kg/m2 when using expanded polystyrene and mineral wool, respectively. Life cycle energy assessment provides a strategic framework for reducing energy demand in the construction sector for practical implementation by developers. Prospects for further research in this direction are to determine the embodied energy of the proposed solutions, taking into account the durability of building materials.
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