Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 32759
Analyzing the Effect of Materials’ Selection on Energy Saving and Carbon Footprint: A Case Study Simulation of Concrete Structure Building

Authors: M. Kouhirostamkolaei, M. Kouhirostami, M. Sam, J. Woo, A. T. Asutosh, J. Li, C. Kibert

Abstract:

Construction is one of the most energy consumed activities in the urban environment that results in a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions around the world. Thus, the impact of the construction industry on global warming is undeniable. Thus, reducing building energy consumption and mitigating carbon production can slow the rate of global warming. The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of energy consumption and carbon dioxide production during the operation phase and the impact of using new shells on energy saving and carbon footprint. Therefore, a residential building with a re-enforced concrete structure is selected in Babolsar, Iran. DesignBuilder software has been used for one year of building operation to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide production and energy consumption in the operation phase of the building. The primary results show the building use 61750 kWh of energy each year. Computer simulation analyzes the effect of changing building shells -using XPS polystyrene and new electrochromic windows- as well as changing the type of lighting on energy consumption reduction and subsequent carbon dioxide production. The results show that the amount of energy and carbon production during building operation has been reduced by approximately 70% by applying the proposed changes. The changes reduce CO2e to 11345 kg CO2/yr. The result of this study helps designers and engineers to consider material selection’s process as one of the most important stages of design for improving energy performance of buildings.

Keywords: Construction materials, green construction, energy simulation, carbon footprint, energy saving, concrete structure, DesignBuilder.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 895

References:


[1] C. J. Kibert, Sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
[2] C. J. Kibert, M. C. Monroe, A. L. Peterson, R. R. Plate, and L. P. Thiele, Working toward sustainability: Ethical decision-making in a technological world, vol. 35. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
[3] A. Seyrfar, H. Ataei, and S. Derrible, “A Review of Building Energy Benchmarking Policies Across the U.S. Cities,” Proceedings of Applied Energy Symposium: MIT A+B, United States, 2020, no. 2, 2020, (Online). Available: http://www.energy-proceedings.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/aeab2020_paper_325.pdf.
[4] DOE, “U.S.,” EnergyPlus Engineering Reference.US Department of Energy, 2013.
[5] G. Globes, “ANSI/GBI 01–2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings,” Green Building Initiative, Jessup, MD, USA, 2010.
[6] T. Wang, S. Seo, P.-C. Liao, and D. Fang, “GHG emission reduction performance of state-of-the-art green buildings: Review of two case studies,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 56, pp. 484–493, 2016.
[7] ASHRAE, Handbook 1985 Fundamentals. American Society Heating, Refrigerating &, 1996.
[8] M. Y. Khan, A. Baqi, and A. Talib, “Energy Efficiency Analysis of a Building Envelope,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research, 2021, pp. 1691–1702.
[9] D. Bienvenido-Huertas and C. Rubio-Bellido, “The Influence of the Envelope Thermal Properties on Building Energy Performance,” in Optimization of the Characterization of the Thermal Properties of the Building Envelope: Analysis of the Characterization of the Façades using Artificial Intelligence, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021, pp. 1–12.
[10] A. Fenner et al., “Embodied, operation, and commuting emissions: A case study comparing the carbon hotspots of an educational building,” Cleaner Production, 2021.
[11] A. E. Fenner et al., “The carbon footprint of buildings: A review of methodologies and applications,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 94. pp. 1142–1152, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.07.012.
[12] C. Prager, M. Köhl, M. Heck, and S. Herkel, “The influence of the IR reflection of painted facades on the energy balance of a building,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 38, no. 12, pp. 1369–1379, 2006, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2005.02.012.
[13] M. Ozel and K. Pihtili, “Optimum location and distribution of insulation layers on building walls with various orientations,” Building and Environment, vol. 42, no. 8, pp. 3051–3059, 2007, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.025.
[14] A. Ucar and F. Balo, “Effect of fuel type on the optimum thickness of selected insulation materials for the four different climatic regions of Turkey,” Applied Energy, vol. 86, no. 5, pp. 730–736, 2009, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2008.09.015.
[15] M. Ozel, “Thermal performance and optimum insulation thickness of building walls with different structure materials,” in Applied Thermal Engineering, 2011, vol. 31, no. 17–18, doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.07.033.
[16] Y. Yildiz and Z. D. Arsan, “Identification of the building parameters that influence heating and cooling energy loads for apartment buildings in hot-humid climates,” Energy, vol. 36, no. 7, 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2011.04.013.
[17] G. Lobaccaro, F. Fiorito, G. Masera, and T. Poli, “District geometry simulation: A study for the optimization of solar façades in urban canopy layers,” in Energy Procedia, 2012, vol. 30, doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2012.11.129.
[18] I. Susorova, M. Angulo, P. Bahrami, and Brent Stephens, “A model of vegetated exterior facades for evaluation of wall thermal performance,” Building and Environment, vol. 67, 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.04.027.
[19] M. L. Wu, X. Q. Qian, and Y. T. Zhu, “Numerical study on energy consumption characteristics for wall insulation structure in hot summer and cold winter zone,” in Applied Mechanics and Materials, 2013, vol. 361–363, doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.361-363.300.
[20] E. Moslehi, Hamed; Niazmand, Hamid; Saadat, Mehran; Nourouzian Jajarm, “The effect of using phase change materials in the outer shell of the building on reducing annual energy consumption using Energy Plus simulator software,” 2014.
[21] E. A. McCullough, B. W. Jones, and J. Huck, “A comprehensive data base for estimating clothing insulation,” Ashrae Trans, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 29–47, 1985.
[22] M. Kouhirostami, “Natural Ventilation through Windows in a Classroom (CFD Analysis Cross-Ventilation of Asymmetric Openings: Impact of Wind Direction and Louvers Design,” Texas Tech University Dissertation, 2018.
[23] R. J. de Dear and G. S. Brager, “Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings: revisions to ASHRAE Standard 55,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 549–561, 2002.
[24] A. Vukadinović, J. Radosavljević, and A. Đorđević, “Energy performance impact of using phase-change materials in thermal storage walls of detached residential buildings with a sunspace,” Solar Energy, vol. 206, pp. 228–244, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.solener.2020.06.008.
[25] V. Sharma and A. C. Rai, “Performance assessment of residential building envelopes enhanced with phase change materials,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 208, p. 109664, Feb. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109664.
[26] Y. Z. Tian and Y. Yu, “Analysis of Anshan existing residential building exterior wall energy saving reconstruction,” in Advanced Materials Research, 2014, vol. 1004–1005, doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1004-1005.1565.
[27] I. Axaopoulos, P. Axaopoulos, G. Panayiotou, S. Kalogirou, and J. Gelegenis, “Optimal economic thickness of various insulation materials for different orientations of external walls considering the wind characteristics,” Energy, vol. 90, no. Part 1, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.07.125.
[28] S. Esbati, M. A. Amooie, M. Sadeghzadeh, M. H. Ahmadi, F. Pourfayaz, and T. Ming, “Investigating the effect of using PCM in building materials for energy saving: Case study of Sharif Energy Research Institute,” Energy Science and Engineering, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 959–972, 2020, doi: 10.1002/ese3.328.
[29] A. Nasimsobhan, Leila; Yazdanfar, “Investigating the effect of different materials on reducing energy consumption in residential complexes using design-builder software,” 2016.
[30] V. Shabunko, C. M. Lim, and S. Mathew, “EnergyPlus models for the benchmarking of residential buildings in Brunei Darussalam,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 169, pp. 507–516, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.03.039.
[31] A. A. Chowdhury, M. G. Rasul, and M. M. K. Khan, “Parametric Analysis of Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency in Building in Subtropical Climate,” in Thermofluid Modeling for Energy Efficiency Applications, 2016.
[32] L. Rocchi et al., “Sustainability evaluation of retrofitting solutions for rural buildings through life cycle approach and multi-criteria analysis,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 173, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.05.032.
[33] A. Seyrfar, H. Ataei, A. Movahedi, and S. Derrible, “Data-Driven Approach for Evaluating the Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Residential Buildings,” Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 04020074, 2021, doi: 10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000555.
[34] S. Samadi, E. Noorzai, L. O. Beltrán, and S. Abbasi, “A computational approach for achieving optimum daylight inside buildings through automated kinetic shading systems,” Frontiers of Architectural Research, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 335–349, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.foar.2019.10.004.
[35] M. Afkhamiaghda, A. Mahdaviparsa, K. Afsari, and T. McCuen, “Occupants Behavior-Based Design Study Using BIM-GIS Integration: An Alternative Design Approach for Architects,” in Advances in Informatics and Computing in Civil and Construction Engineering, 2019, pp. 765–772.
[36] T. Kumar and M. Mani, “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to Assess Energy Neutrality in Occupancy Sensors,” in International Conference on Research into Design, 2017, pp. 105–116.
[37] A. Ghaseminejad and V. Uddameri, “Physics-inspired integrated space–time artificial neural networks for regional groundwater flow modeling,” Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24, no. 12, pp. 5759–5779, 2020.
[38] A. T. Asutosh et al., “Renewable Energy Industry Trends and Its Contributions to the Development of Energy Resilience in an Era of Accelerating Climate Change,” International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, vol. 14, no. 8, pp. 233–240, 2020.
[39] B. S. Pawar and G. N. Kanade, “Energy Optimization of Building Using Design Builder Software,” International Journal of New Technology and Research, vol. 4, no. 1, 2018.
[40] L. Jankovic, Designing zero carbon buildings using dynamic simulation methods. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
[41] J. M. Rey-Hernández, C. Yousif, D. Gatt, E. Velasco-Gómez, J. San José-Alonso, and F. J. Rey-Martínez, “Modelling the long-term effect of climate change on a zero energy and carbon dioxide building through energy efficiency and renewables,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 174, pp. 85–96, 2018.
[42] G. Roshan, M. Arab, and V. Klimenko, “Modeling the impact of climate change on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of buildings in Iran,” Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering, pp. 1–18, 2019.
[43] A. E. Fenner, “Towards Hyper-Efficiency and Carbon Neutrality in Industrialized Residential Construction. (electronic resource).” University of Florida, 2019, (Online). Available: http://lp.hscl.ufl.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=cat04364a&AN=ufl.037051501&site=eds-live http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UFE0055622/00001.
[44] X. Zhang and F. Wang, “Assessment of embodied carbon emissions for building construction in China: Comparative case studies using alternative methods,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 130. pp. 330–340, 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.08.080.
[45] T. Wang, S. Seo, P.-C. Liao, and D. Fang, “GHG emission reduction performance of state-of-the-art green buildings: Review of two case studies,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 56, pp. 484–493, 2016.
[46] J. E. Janssen, “The history of ventilation and temperature control: The first century of air conditioning,” ASHRAE Journal, vol. 41, no. 10, p. 48, 1999.
[47] A. Heydari, S. E. Sadati, and M. R. Gharib, “Effects of different window configurations on energy consumption in building: Optimization and economic analysis,” Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 35, p. 102099, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.jobe.2020.102099.
[48] M. Mustafa, S. Ali, J. R. Snape, and B. Vand, “Investigations towards lower cooling load in a typical residential building in Kurdistan (Iraq),” Energy Reports, vol. 6, pp. 571–580, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.egyr.2020.11.011.
[49] T. Pekdogan and T. Basaran, “Thermal performance of different exterior wall structures based on wall orientation,” Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 112, pp. 15–24, 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.10.068.
[50] P. Jie, F. Zhang, Z. Fang, H. Wang, and Y. Zhao, “Optimizing the insulation thickness of walls and roofs of existing buildings based on primary energy consumption, global cost and pollutant emissions,” Energy, vol. 159, pp. 1132–1147, Sep. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.06.179.
[51] A. H. A. Dehwah and M. Krarti, “Impact of switchable roof insulation on energy performance of US residential buildings,” Building and Environment, vol. 177, p. 106882, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106882.
[52] R. Tällberg, B. P. Jelle, R. Loonen, T. Gao, and M. Hamdy, “Comparison of the energy saving potential of adaptive and controllable smart windows: A state-of-the-art review and simulation studies of thermochromic, photochromic and electrochromic technologies,” Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 200, p. 109828, Sep. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.solmat.2019.02.041.
[53] C. Dacquay, H. Fujii, E. Lohrenz, and H. M. Holländer, “Feasibility of thermal load control from electrochromic windows for ground coupled heat pump optimization,” Journal of Building Engineering, p. 102339, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102339.