Life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas analysis of three building types in a resi...

• Author(s): Bastos, Joana ; Batterman, Stuart A. ; Freire, Fausto
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/27159
• Origin: Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra
• Subject(s): Life-cycle assessment (LCA); Residential buildings; Primary energy; Greenhouse gas (GHG)
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Residential buildings consume a large fraction of energy and thus represent a major opportunity for reducing energy requirements and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article presents a life-cycle energy and GHG analysis of three representative residential building types in a well-known area in Lisbon (Bairro de Alvalade). The life-cycle model focused on building construction, retrofit and use phases, applied an econometric model to estimate energy use in Portuguese households, and considered two functional units: per square meter per year and per person per year. Over the buildings’ 75-year lifespan, the use phase accounted for most (69–83%) of the primary energy requirements and GHG emissions. Larger buildings have lower life-cycle energy requirements and GHG emissions on a square meter basis. On a per person basis, however, this pattern is reversed and larger buildings are associated with higher energy requirements and GHG emissions. Due to the considerable variability and uncertainty associated with life-cycle analyses of buildings, the use of both occupancy- and area-based functional units is recommended.