Analysis of the Environmental Impact in the Life Cycle of a Single-Family House in Poland

Abstract

Buildings consume energy, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In order to reduce their environmental impact, it is important to choose suitable building materials and energy source. The paper presents the results of a multi-variant analysis of five environmental impact categories (global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, and total use of primary energy) for a single-family house located in Poland in a 25-year life cycle. The tests were carried out for two different types of building structures (brick and wooden), two variants of external partition insulation, and four heat sources. The following computer programs were used for the calculations: OpenStudio and EnergyPlus, and One Click LCA. The analysis took into account the erection of the building in its shell and the energy consumption for heating in a 25-year life cycle. Studies have shown that when an electric heat source is used, the use stage has the greatest environmental impact, accounting for up to 80% of the total emissions over the life cycle. This ratio can be reduced by half in the case of a house with thicker external wall insulation and an eco-biomass boiler.

Assessment of the Greenery Content in Suburban Multi-Family Housing Models in Poland: A Case Study of the Poznań Metropolitan Area

“…The abundant academic literature studied the net-zero concept in the framework of specific energy sectors (e.g., electricity generation) [14][15][16] or for a specific RES technology (e.g., solar or ocean energy) [11,17], as well as their cost-competitivity [18], emissivity [19], and other parameters [20]. Life cycle analysis and multi-criteria methods gained popularity in assessing the effectiveness of diverse solutions [16,[21][22][23][24]. The necessity to reduce waste, emissions, energy consumption, and the use of raw materials required by the construction sector has contributed to the applications of CE in the AEC industry [25,26].…”

Energy and Environmental Analysis of Renewable Energy Systems Focused on Biomass Technologies for Residential Applications: The Life Cycle Energy Analysis Approach

“…Grygierek, Krzysztof and Ferdyn-Grygierek, Joanna [21] investigated the environmental impact of a residential building in Warsaw, with a building surface of 153 m 2 . In more detail, two different construction materials, two different external thermal insulation scenarios, as well as four different heating systems, including a biomass boiler, were evaluated.…”

“…The operational unit used in this analysis is defined as "twenty years of operation of the systems", in order to calculate the total environmental load over the entire lifetime of the systems. Twenty years is the typical lifetime for heating systems [21,23]. In terms of system boundaries, it should be mentioned that the final disposal stage of the infrastructure is not taken into consideration.…”

Sustainability in Food Production: A High-Efficiency Offshore Greenhouse

“…For example, vapour compression requires large amounts of energy and generally utilises refrigerants that contribute to global warming. Evaporative cooling is efficient under dry weather conditions but produces wet indoor conditions under which plants could develop diseases [19]. In recent years, research has been directed at developing novel advanced cooling systems or incorporating different renewable energy sources into established cooling systems.…”