Abstract
High-performance building envelopes are designed to achieve target reductions in operational energy (OE). However, these wall assemblies often require initial, upfront investments in material cost and manufacturing energy. To this end, this study assessed the total life cycle energy (LCE) and life cycle cost (LCC) of five Passive House–inspired building envelopes in the United States via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), respectively, across four US climate zones. The results indicate that, regardless of climate, wood-framed wall systems were most cost-effective and exhibited lower LCE and LCC compared with the other wall assemblies investigated herein. Double-stud walls in particular were found most environmentally and economically cost-effective in all climates. In addition, the results specifically highlight the law of diminishing returns in terms of OE reduction through more insulative envelopes, as the impacts of embodied energy (EE) outweighed the benefits of a reduced OE in some cases. Finally, depending on climate and building archetype, the total EE of the residential buildings accounted for 22%–91% of the total LCE over a 60-year period—a result that highlights a grand opportunity to reduce the EE and, thus, total LCE of high-performance residential construction in the US.
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Acknowledgments
This research was made possible by the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering; the College of Engineering and Applied Science; and the Living Materials Laboratory (LMLab) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 2 • June 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2018
Accepted: Nov 26, 2019
Published online: Apr 3, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 3, 2020
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Benefit cost ratios
- Building design
- Building envelope
- Building systems
- Buildings
- Business management
- Climates
- Design (by type)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Financial management
- Life cycles
- Practice and Profession
- Residential buildings
- Structural engineering
- Structural members
- Structural systems
- Structures (by type)
- Walls
Authors
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