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Abstract
Buildings are responsible for a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions. While energy efficiency features can significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions during a building’s operational stage, extra materials and processes associated with these features typically involve higher greenhouse gas emissions during the construction phase. In order to study this relationship, a case study of a highly energy-efficient house in rural Alaska was performed. For the purposes of this case study, a theoretical counterpart home was designed that has the same interior space, but insulation values close to the code minimum requirements. Using computer simulations, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed for the case study home as well as its conventional counterpart. The extra greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of the case study home were compared to the annual savings in greenhouse gas emissions achieved thanks to the energy efficiency features, and carbon payback was calculated. The carbon payback was calculated to be just over three years, which is only a small fraction of the life of the building. The results of this study show that despite higher greenhouse gas emissions during the construction phase, highly energy-efficient homes can play an important role in addressing climate change.
Highlights
About 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (U.S.) can be attributed to the built environment [1]
The findings show a trend of low-energy houses having higher embodied energy than conventional ones in each case, and lower operational energy needs
global warming potential (GWP) 2013 (100a), as for the building materials was applied to the heating fuel usage per year for both the case study house and the theoretical house
Summary
About 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (U.S.) can be attributed to the built environment [1]. The increase in emissions from the building sector worldwide is estimated to rise from 8.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide (GtCO2 ) in 2004 to 14.3 GtCO2 by 2030 [3]. While during their operational stage highly energy-efficient buildings can have significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to their conventional counterparts, their construction typically involves higher greenhouse gas emissions due to the extra materials and processes needed to build the highly energy-efficient buildings. The main purpose of the research described in this paper was to evaluate how the initial greenhouse gas emissions associated with highly energy-efficient features compare to the greenhouse gas emissions saved in the operational stage of the building thanks to these highly energy-efficient features. The term highly energy-efficient house in the context of this paper denotes buildings that are close to having zero fossil fuel requirements for Energies 2019, 12, 1732; doi:10.3390/en12091732 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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