Eco-costs evaluation for the optimal design of buildings with lower environmental impact

Carreras, Joan; Boer, Dieter; Cabeza, Luisa F.; Jiménez, Laureano; Guillén‐Gosálbez, Gonzalo

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.03.034

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In the literature, the application of life cycle assessment to the OTWRB is becoming more and more popular [16,21,62]. Based on this theory, three indicators in the paper, which are life cycle cost (LCC), life cycle primary energy demand (LPED) and life cycle global warming potential (LGWP), are selected to present the impacts of the ITEWB on these three aspects.…”

Section: Calculation Of Operational Energy Consumption Of the Hypothementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Insulation thickness is an important parameter to consider when applying thermal insulation, thus, there is considerable research about the optimal insulation thickness of the external walls for residential buildings (OTWRB) [14][15][16][17][18]. Since the climate is one of the most important factors in determining the OTWRB [19][20][21], it is necessary to cut down the scope of the contest to the HSCW zone of China for the OTWRB recommended in this certain area. However, until recently, a few researchers began to pay attention to the OTWRB in this special part of China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimization of Insulation Thickness of External Walls of Residential Buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone of China

2020

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It is important to reduce primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) zone of China. Changing the insulation thickness of the external walls of residential buildings (ITEWB) is regarded as an effective way to manage such problems within a budget. This paper aims at developing an innovative way to select the optimal insulation thickness of external walls for residential buildings (OTWRB) in the HSCW zone of China, considering economic, energy and greenhouse gas emissions issues associated with the ITEWB. Four different cities and two different operation modes of the air conditioners (continuous and intermittent) are considered in this study. To explain the selection process, typical hypothetical buildings are simulated in Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou and Chengdu. Expanded polystyrene is chosen as the material of the insulation layer while split air conditioners are selected as the equipment for space heating and cooling. Integrated Environmental Solutions-Virtual Environment is used for the dynamic operational energy consumption of buildings. Life cycle cost method is adopted to calculate the economic impact of ITEWB on building performance. The Chinese life cycle database is used to quantize the impacts of ITEWB on building performance in the aspect of energy and greenhouse gas emissions based on the life cycle theory. The most appreciated insulation thickness is chosen from the thickness range of 30 mm to 150 mm. We find that for continuous operation mode of air conditioners in Wuhan, the optimal economic insulation thickness is 70 mm, whereas when considering only energy and environmental aspects, the OTWRB is 150 mm. These are all larger than the current insulation thickness which is 30 mm. When the weighting efficiencies of the economy, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions are different, the OTWRB varies from 70 mm to 150 mm for continuous operation mode. The different cities have little influence on the OTWRB while the different operation modes of air conditioners have some influence on the OTWRB.

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Section: Calculation Of Operational Energy Consumption Of the Hypothementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Insulation Thickness of External Walls of Residential Buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone of China

2020

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“…Also it is noticeable to mention that in many simulation-based studies the parametric analysis is unfairly referred as optimization; however, to the best of authors knowledge, no report was found so far using optimization algorithms to optimize the e.g. PCM melting point temperature, and very few literature is available on the multi-dimensional analysis [74] and until now little importance has been given to single-and multi-objective mathematical optimizations [101] and there few cases of multi-objectives optimization of PCM-enhanced passive buildings, however, recently more attention has been paid to simulation-based optimization of passive PCM buildings to increase the thermal comfort and energy performance of building [106], to optimization the thickness of insulation and PCM layers [121], and to investigate the life cycle and environmental impact of building with PCM [123][124][125]. Parametric analysis may help to find the best solution among the available options but not always the optimum solution and it is time consuming.…”

Section: Technical Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive cooling of buildings with phase change materials using whole-building energy simulation tools: A review

Saffari

Gracia

Ushak

et al. 2017

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Self Cite

179

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Buildings contribute to climate change by consuming a considerable amount of energy to provide thermal comfort for occupants. Cooling energy demands are expected to increase substantially in the world. On this basis, technologies and techniques providing high energy efficiency in buildings such as passive cooling are highly appreciated. Passive cooling by means of phase change materials (PCM) offers high potential to decrease the cooling energy demand and to improve the indoor comfort condition. However, in order to be appropriately characterized and implemented into the building envelope, the PCM use should be numerically analyzed. Whole-building energy simulation tools can enhance the capability of the engineers and designers to analyze the thermal behavior of PCM-enhanced buildings. In this paper, an extensive review has been made, with regard to whole-building energy simulation for passive cooling, addressing the possibilities of applying different PCM-enhanced components into the building envelope and also the feasibility of PCM passive cooling system under different climate conditions. The application of PCM has not always been as energy beneficial as expected, and actually its effectiveness is highly dependent on the climatic condition, on the PCM melting temperature and on the occupants behavior. Therefore, energy simulation of passive PCM systems is found to be a single-objective or multi-objective optimization problem which requires appropriate mathematical models for energy and comfort assessment which should be further investigated. Moreover, further research is required to analyze the influence of natural night ventilation on the cooling performance of PCM.

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“…The results show that, among all stages, the environmental cost of the material production stage is higher than that of any other stages. A method translating the environmental impact into monetary units was composed by Carreras et al [17]. The approach used eco-cost indicators to quantify the cost to prevent a given amount of environmental burden.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Environmental Costs of Buildings

et al. 2020

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Energy consumption and pollutant emissions from buildings have caused serious impacts on the environment. Currently, research on building environmental costs is quite insufficient. Based on life cycle inventory of building materials, fossil fuel and electricity power, a calculating model for environmental costs during different stages is presented. A single-objective optimization model is generated by converting environmental impact into environmental cost, with the same unit with direct cost. Two residential buildings, one located in Beijing and another in Xiamen, China, are taken as the case studies and analyzed to test the proposed model. Moreover, data uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of key parameters, including the discount rate and the unit virtual abatement costs of pollutants, are also conducted. The analysis results show that the environmental cost accounts for about 16% of direct cost. The environmental degradation cost accounts for about 70% of the total environmental cost. According to the probabilistic uncertainty analysis results, the coefficient of variation of material production stage is the largest. The sensitivity analysis results indicate that the unit virtual abatement cost of CO2 has the largest influence on the final environmental cost.

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Eco-costs evaluation for the optimal design of buildings with lower environmental impact

Cited by 22 publications

References 31 publications

Optimization of Insulation Thickness of External Walls of Residential Buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone of China

Optimization of Insulation Thickness of External Walls of Residential Buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone of China

Passive cooling of buildings with phase change materials using whole-building energy simulation tools: A review

Life Cycle Environmental Costs of Buildings

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