Life cycle primary energy use of nearly-zero energy building and low-energy building

• Energy legislations are increasingly driving towards buildings with very low operation final energy use as part of efforts to reduce energy use and climate impact of the built environment. In this study we analyse the life cycle primary energy use of a recently constructed Swedish conventional 6-storey apartment building and compare it to variants designed as nearly-zero energy building or as low-energy building with a combination of improved thermal envelope and passive design strategies. We maintain the architectural design of the constructed building and improve the thermal properties of the envelope to achieve a low-energy building and also nearly-zero energy building including solar thermal collectors. We consider scenarios where the building variants are heated with renewable energy using cogenerated district heating, also complemented with solar heating system. We follow the life cycle of the building versions and analyse their total primary energy use, considering the production, operation and end-of-life phases. The results show that the relative significance of the production phase increases as buildings are made to achieve very low operational energy use. The production phase accounts for 17 % of the total primary energy use for production, operation and demolition of the constructed building for a 50-year lifespan. The corresponding values for the nearly-zero energy and low-energy building variants ranges between 30 to 31 %. Overall, the life cycle primary energy use for the nearly-zero energy and low-energy building variants are about 30–35 % lower compared to the constructed building.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Husbyggnad (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Building Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

zero-carbon technologies

life cycle analysis

primary energy

optimisation

Byggteknik

Civil engineering

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)