Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost as Collaborative Tools in Residential Heating System Selection

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Glick ◽  
Angela A Guggemos
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Hybrid System ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Residential Heating ◽  
Air System ◽  
Forced Air

Typically the selection of a residential heating system focuses on first costs rather than the economic or environmental life cycle consequences. The use of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost methodologies in the design phase provide additional criteria for consideration when selecting a residential heating system. A comparative case study of a gas forced air and radiant solar heating system was conducted for a 3,000 square foot house located in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.A. The initial results of an analysis of the life cycle assessment and the life cycle cost data indicated the gas forced air system was superior, both environmentally and economically. Further data analysis pinpointed solar radiant system components for replacement in an effort to reduce both life cycle environmental emissions and costs. This analysis resulted in a hybrid radiant system using a high-efficiency gas-fired boiler, a choice that lowered both the solar radiant system's costs and emissions. This new system had slightly lower environmental impacts than both the gas forced air system and solar radiant system. Unfortunately the hybrid system had less impact on the life cycle cost with the hybrid system substantially more expensive then the gas-forced air alternative.

scholarly journals Sustainable Ventilation Strategies for a Medium-Sized Space with Regional Effect

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4651
Author(s):  
Ming-Lun Alan Fong
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Co2 Emission ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Regional Effect ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Ventilation Strategies ◽  
Set Up

The analysis of ventilation strategies is fundamentally affected by regional climate conditions and local cost databases, in terms of energy consumption, CO2 emission and cost-effective analysis. A systematic approach is covered in this paper to estimate a local economic and environmental impact on a medium-sized space located in two regions during supply-and-installation and operation phases. Three ventilation strategies, including mixing ventilation (MV), displacement ventilation (DV) and stratum ventilation (SV) were applied to medium-sized air-conditioned space with this approach. The trend of the results for three ventilation systems in the life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis is SV < DV < MV. The result of CO2 emission and regional LCC shows that SV is the lowest one in both regional studies. In comparison with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) during 20 Service years, the case analysis demonstrates that the percentage differences in LCC analysis of MV, DV & SV in Guangdong are less than 20.5%, 19.4% and 18.82% respectively. Their CO2 emission of MV, DV and SV in Guangdong are more than HKSAR in 10.69%, 11.22% and 12.05%, respectively. The present study could provide information about regional effects in the LCA and LCC analysis of three ventilation strategies emissions, and thereby help set up models for decision-making on high efficiency and cost-effective ventilation strategy plans.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Magnesia Spinel Brick Production

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysun Özkan ◽  
Zerrin Günkaya ◽  
Gülden Tok ◽  
Levent Karacasulu ◽  
Melike Metesoy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Life Cycle Cost Analysis ◽  
Magnesia Spinel

Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of a High-Rise Mass Timber Building: A Case Study in Pacific Northwestern United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7831
Author(s):  
Shaobo Liang ◽  
Hongmei Gu ◽  
Richard Bergman
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Impact Category ◽  
Life Cycle Cost Analysis ◽  
Floor Area ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Concrete Building ◽  
Mass Timber

Global construction industry has a huge influence on world primary energy consumption, spending, and greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. To better understand these factors for mass timber construction, this work quantified the life cycle environmental and economic performances of a high-rise mass timber building in U.S. Pacific Northwest region through the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Using the TRACI impact category method, the cradle-to-grave LCA results showed better environmental performances for the mass timber building relative to conventional concrete building, with 3153 kg CO2-eq per m2 floor area compared to 3203 CO2-eq per m2 floor area, respectively. Over 90% of GHGs emissions occur at the operational stage with a 60-year study period. The end-of-life recycling of mass timber could provide carbon offset of 364 kg CO2-eq per m2 floor that lowers the GHG emissions of the mass timber building to a total 12% lower GHGs emissions than concrete building. The LCCA results showed that mass timber building had total life cycle cost of $3976 per m2 floor area that was 9.6% higher than concrete building, driven mainly by upfront construction costs related to the mass timber material. Uncertainty analysis of mass timber product pricing provided a pathway for builders to make mass timber buildings cost competitive. The integration of LCA and LCCA on mass timber building study can contribute more information to the decision makers such as building developers and policymakers.

scholarly journals Thermal system-specific and net-zero carbon least-cost design of new houses in Canadian cold climates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Wilbur
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Heat Pump ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Zero Carbon

Whole-building model optimizations have been performed for a single-detached house in 5 locations with varying climates, electricity emissions factors, and energy costs. The multi-objective optimizations determine the life-cycle cost vs. operational greenhouse gas emissions Pareto front to discover the 30-year life-cycle least-cost building design heated 1) with natural gas, and 2) electrically using a) central air-source heat pump, b) ductless mini-split heat pump c)ground-source heat pump, and d) electric baseboard, accounting for both initial and operational energy-related costs. A net-zero carbon design with grid-tied photovoltaics is also optimized. Results indicate that heating system type influences the optimal enclosure design, and that neither building total energy use, nor space heating demand correspond to GHG emissions across heating system types. In each location, at least one type of all-electric design has a lower life-cycle cost than the optimized gas-heated model, and such designs can mitigate the majority of operational GHG emissions from new housing in locations with a low carbon intensity electricity supply.

scholarly journals Decision to paving solutions in road infrastructures based on life-cycle assessment

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria de Lurdes Antunes ◽  
Vânia Marecos ◽  
José Neves ◽  
João Morgado
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Road Network ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Road Pavement ◽  
Pavement Structures ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Term Performance

The construction and maintenance of a road network involve the expenditure of large budgets. In order to optimize the investments in road infrastructures, designers and decision makers should have the instruments to make the most suitable decision of paving solutions for each particular situation. The life-cycle assessment is an important tool of different road pavement solutions with this purpose. This paper presents a study concerning the life-cycle cost analysis of different flexible and semi-rigid paving alternatives, with the objective to contribute for a better support in the decision process when designing new pavement structures. The analysis was carried out using data on construction costs of certain typical pavement structures and taking into consideration appropriate performance models for each type of structure being selected. The models were calibrated using results from long term performance studies across Europe and the maintenance strategies considered have taken into account the current practice also found in the European context. Besides the life-cycle administration costs, the proposed methodology also deals with user and environmental costs through its inclusion in the decision process using multi-criteria analysis. It was demonstrated that this methodology could be a simple and useful tool in order to achieve the most adequate paving solutions of a road network, in terms of construction and maintenance activities, based simultaneously on technical, economic and environmental criteria.

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