Effect of Climate Change and Occupant Behaviour on the Environmental Impact of the Heating and Cooling Systems of a Real Apartment. A Parametric Study through Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Climate change has a strong influence on the energy consumption of buildings, affecting both the heating and cooling demand in the actual and future scenario. In this paper, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the influence of both the occupant behaviour and the climate change on the environmental impact of the heating and cooling systems of an apartment located in southern Italy. The analysis was conducted using IPCC GWP and ReCiPe indicators as well as the Ecoinvent database. The influence of occupant behaviour was included in the analysis considering different usage profiles during the operational phase, while the effect of climate change was considered by varying the weather file every thirty years. The adoption of the real usage profiles showed that the impact of the systems was highly influenced by the occupant behaviour. In particular, the environmental impact of the heating system appeared more influenced by the operation hours, while that of the cooling system was more affected by the natural ventilation schedules. Furthermore, the influence of climate change demonstrated that more attention has to be dedicated to the cooling demand that in the future years will play an ever-greater role in the energy consumption of buildings.

Predicting climate change and occupants’ behaviour impact on thermal-energy performance of global south housing: Case study in Brazil

“…Therefore, the influence of climate change has demonstrated that in the future cooling techniques will play an ever-greater role in the buildings' thermal-energy performance. 77,78 Occupants' behaviour inside buildings. Modelling the occupants' behaviour is a challenging task because it is related to several factors involving random, diverse and complex aspects.…”

“…Therefore, the influence of climate change has demonstrated that in the future cooling techniques will play an ever-greater role in the buildings’ thermal-energy performance. 77,78…”

A Simultaneous Usage Ratio Based on Occupant Behavior: A Case Study of Intermittent Heating in an Apartment Building in Japan

“…Next, regarding research on building retrofits, Fajilla et al [10] conducted a lifecycle assessment to evaluate the impact of climate change and occupant behavior on the environmental performance of heating and cooling systems in an Italian apartment, emphasizing the need for attention to be paid to occupant behavior for future energy strategies. Qi et al [11] investigated the energy-saving potential of lowering heating setpoints in eight cities, discovering significant energy savings even in warm-winter cities, with the mechanism dominated by temperature-difference saving and behavioral saving hours.…”