Carbon-neutral building renovation potential with passive house-certified components: Applications for an exemplary apartment building in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Building energy consumption for heating and cooling and the comparatively short building lifecycle help account for the increasing ratio of the building sector's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To counteract this increase, sustainable building envelope renovations can minimize GHG emissions through the extension of building lifecycle, saving of construction material, increased energy efficiency, and reduced heating and cooling energy demands. To reduce the GHG emissions of energy efficient building envelope renovation systems, this article compares the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results of different Passive House (PH) certified building envelope components regarding their GHG emissions per area unit. Based on PH-certified components, different building envelope renovation components were developed. The LCA facilitated the identification of components with the lowest carbon emissions, which were applied in the PH-conforming renovation model of an exemplary apartment building in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The LCA results over a service life of 50 years illustrate that the highest GHG emissions are associated with the renovated building's primary service energy demand, followed by windows, and the transport of materials. These research findings facilitate the environmental impact determination of multiple PH-standard building renovation systems, and support the planning of building renovations with minimized carbon footprints and service energy demands.