Abstract
High initial costs hinder innovative technologies for building envelopes. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should consider energy savings to show relevant economic benefits and potential to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Energy (LCE) should focus on investment, operation, maintenance, dismantling, disposal, and/or recycling for the building. This study compares the LCC and LCE analysis of Water Flow Glazing (WFG) envelopes with traditional double and triple glazing facades. The assessment considers initial, operational, and disposal costs and energy consumption as well as different energy systems for heating and cooling. Real prototypes have been built in two different locations to record real-world data of yearly operational energy. WFG systems consistently showed a higher initial investment than traditional glazing. The final Life Cycle Cost analysis demonstrates that WFG systems are better over the operation phase only when it is compared with a traditional double-glazing. However, a Life Cycle Energy assessment over 50 years concluded that energy savings between 36% and 66% and CO2 emissions reduction between 30% and 70% could be achieved.
Highlights
Accepted: 8 April 2021In recent years, clean energy use has steadily grown
The building elements’ embodied energy has been taken from different sources, whereas the operational energy was calculated with experimental data from the prototypes
Maintenance costs for the envelope over 50 years have been calculated as a percentage of the initial cost (1% for the reference glass and 5% for Water Flow Glazing (WFG)), whereas the heat pump’s lifetime was 25 years
Summary
Energy consumption has not altered its pattern, with fossil fuels acting as the primary energy consumption and generation source. Many carbon emissions and greenhouse gasses caused by conventional energy sources have severe consequences on the environment. Building codes, regulations, and energy directives consider carbon emissions’ impact when evaluating energy efficiency [1]. New technologies emerge rapidly and force building designers to act without a thorough environmental impact analysis [2]. To control the construction sector’s environmental impact is the most critical challenge that the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry must face soon [3,4].
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