Embodied Energy Of Buildings Research Articles

Analyzing embodied energy and embodied water for university buildings using input-output-based hybrid method

Buildings present a unique opportunity to not just effectively decrease global energy use but also drastically reduce nearly 40% of global carbon emissions to help mitigate the ongoing climate change. Although most of the building energy use is attributed to building operations as operational energy (OE), a portion of it is termed embodied energy (EE) that is consumed in building construction, transportation, and material production activities. EE of a building, therefore, includes energy consumed directly in onsite and offsite construction and transportation and indirectly through material consumption since each construction material consumes energy in its production and transportation. Like EE, buildings also consume significant amounts of fresh water directly and indirectly as embodied water (EW) in their construction, which is becoming a major concern globally. As fresh water is also depleted in producing and refining energy sources used as EE, a portion of this EW is attributed to energy-related water use (EREW). Most research so far has been focusing on the energy and carbon emission dimensions of buildings overlooking the equally important aspect of water use, which is also crucial for delivering a truly environmentally sustainable building. In this study, an input-output-based hybrid (IOH) model is created to compute and compare EE and EW of 10 higher education buildings and examine the correlation of the calculated EE and EW values. The results demonstrate that the total EE and electricity EE of the study buildings share a very strong positive correlation (r2 = 0.93-0.99) with the buildings’ total EW at the building level. This correlation, however, weakens at the material level. The share of EREW in the total EW ranges from 9-13%, which indicates that reducing just EE may not help decrease EW, and additional efforts may be needed to address EW and reduce fresh water use in building construction.

Appraisal of Vernacular Building Materials and Alternative Technoligies for Roofing and Terracing Options of Embodied Energy in Buildings

Nearly two million residential building are built annually in India apart from the offices, commercial and industrial buildings with demand and supply which is increasing year by year. It is essential to conserve the conventional energy by developing energy efficient buildings. Environmental quality and conservation of fossil fuels may become important in the context of limiting of GHGs emission and also reducing cost of materials. The most important stages from point of view of energy intensity: (a) Raw material acquisition; (b) Preparation & Manufacturing;(c) Transportation But this paper broadly considered to analyze the first two parts as the third part of transportation energy vary from location to location, however it has been emphasized in the literature that 1MJ/ tonne /km (diesel) for transporting materials can be integrated for location specific analysis. Besides, Energy estimates given in the literature for various materials such as the Cement 5.85MJ/kg, lime 5.62MJ/kg, LP 2.33MJ/kg (lime 30%, Pozzolana 60% and 10%calcined gypsum), steel 42MJ/kg, Al 236.8MJ/kg, Glass 25.8Mj/kg, Burnt clay brick 4.25MJ, Hollow block 12.3-15MJ, etc have been considered for energy appraisal. It is focused on some issues pertaining to Embodied Energy savings by identifying a few appropriate options for important building components and a comparison of energy in different types of roof and terracing has been made. Energy in different options of alternative systems have been discussed and compared with the energy consumed in conventional specifications to appreciate the consumption of energy in various materials for selection of appropriate materials with reference to energy savings and sustainable development.

Towards a more holistic approach to reducing the energy demand of dwellings

Buildings consume around 40% of the final energy in most countries but are also responsible for a large part of theenergy use in the industrial and transport sectors. Today, most policies and market trends focus solely on the spaceheating and cooling demands often neglecting to consider indirect energy requirements such as the embodied energyof buildings or the transport energy of their users. This paper assesses different building scenarios located in twourban contexts by integrating the operational energy demand as well as the embodied energy of the dwellings and thetransport energy consumption of the users. Results show that space heating represents at most 23% of the total lifecycle energy demand over 50 years and 47% if the rest of operational energies, i.e. domestic hot water and appliances,is considered. Transport consumes 34-51% of the total life cycle energy consumption while the embodied energy ofbuildings was found to be of the same order of magnitude as their operational energy. Current energy assessment ofbuildings therefore often only analyses a small fraction of the total life cycle energy use. We should widen its scopeto account for so-called indirect energy consumption. This paper shows that a more holistic approach to theassessment of the energy demand associated with buildings is necessary if significant improvements in their energyefficiency are to be achieved.