Effect of Climate Change and Occupant Behaviour on the Environmental Impact of the Heating and Cooling Systems of a Real Apartment. A Parametric Study through Life Cycle Assessment

Gianmarco Fajilla,Emiliano Borri,Luisa F Cabeza,Luís Bragança,Marilena De Simone

doi:10.3390/en14248356

Gianmarco Fajilla, Emiliano Borri + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14248356

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Abstract

Climate change has a strong influence on the energy consumption of buildings, affecting both the heating and cooling demand in the actual and future scenario. In this paper, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the influence of both the occupant behaviour and the climate change on the environmental impact of the heating and cooling systems of an apartment located in southern Italy. The analysis was conducted using IPCC GWP and ReCiPe indicators as well as the Ecoinvent database. The influence of occupant behaviour was included in the analysis considering different usage profiles during the operational phase, while the effect of climate change was considered by varying the weather file every thirty years. The adoption of the real usage profiles showed that the impact of the systems was highly influenced by the occupant behaviour. In particular, the environmental impact of the heating system appeared more influenced by the operation hours, while that of the cooling system was more affected by the natural ventilation schedules. Furthermore, the influence of climate change demonstrated that more attention has to be dedicated to the cooling demand that in the future years will play an ever-greater role in the energy consumption of buildings.

Highlights

According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 of United Nations [1], global efforts made so far were insufficient and there still is much progress to be made for reaching the objectives of Agenda 2030 [2]
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out that global warming of 1.5 and 2 ◦ C will be exceeded during the twenty-first century unless significant actions are taken to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the coming decades [3]
The results showed that the larger households, and the families with elderly people or children are more likely to have a higher environmental impact due to the higher cooling and heating demand

Summary

Introduction

According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 of United Nations [1], global efforts made so far were insufficient and there still is much progress to be made for reaching the objectives of Agenda 2030 [2]. Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out that global warming of 1.5 and 2 ◦ C will be exceeded during the twenty-first century unless significant actions are taken to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the coming decades [3]. Deal [4] to reduce GHG emissions and becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Most of the European buildings present low energy performance and inefficient heating and cooling systems [5,6]. The building sector still constitutes an important issue to be addressed, being responsible for more than 40% of the worldwide energy consumption and 36% of global GHG [7,8,9,10].

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