Abstract
Paper is focused on the assessment of two alternatives of family house from environmental performance. Environmental impact categories such as Global warming potential (GWP), Acidification potential (AP) and Eutrophication potential (EP) expressed as CO2eq, SO2eq and PO43−eq using the LCA assessment method are presented. Alternative solutions of building materials are also compared from phase shift of thermal oscillation. Results show that natural building materials are characterized by lower environmental impacts expressed as equivalent emissions of CO2 (6%), SO2 (24%) and PO43− (44%). The wood fiber board can store nearly 24 times more heat than the mineral wool. The wood fiber boards have a phase shift of thermal oscillation of 7–13 h, while other insulation materials only about 3–4 h.
Highlights
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a methodology focused on evaluating the total environmental impacts should take into account all life stages of a building: planning, design, construction, use and demolition
A complete study was aimed to demonstrate that LCA methodology application in the construction sector involves substantial improvement in energy efficiency, when compared with current existing national energy efficiency certificates
This study reveals that to obtain improvements in terms of energy efficiency in the construction sector, it is very important to associate energy certification procedures with LCA application
Summary
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a methodology focused on evaluating the total environmental impacts should take into account all life stages of a building: planning, design, construction, use and demolition. Study [1] aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using LCA to select facilities in the construction sector, which minimize environmental and energy impacts. A simplified analysis was carried out in which three different compositions are studied for this facade, with identic thermal performance, proposing a totally objective comparative study and disregarding impacts associated to the use stage of the enclosures, conditioned by different factors. A complete study was aimed to demonstrate that LCA methodology application in the construction sector involves substantial improvement in energy efficiency, when compared with current existing national energy efficiency certificates. The construction and the end-of-life stages give a marginal contribution to the total impacts, since they account for the 1% and the 3%, respectively
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