Integrated life cycle assessment of a southern European house addressing different design, construction solutions, operational patterns, and heating systems

Abstract

The construction industry is responsible for a substantial fraction of materials and energy consumption, waste generation, CO2 and other pollutant emissions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to study and compare the environmental impacts of buildings under different scenarios. This study comparatively assesses the impact of several design options, envelope solutions and operational conditions on the energy life cycle (LC) of a single-family house in southern Europe (Portugal) taken as case-study. The following parameters are evaluated: location, orientation, building shape, windows placement and sizing, insulation level, exterior wall construction, operational pattern, ventilation level, heating system, and end-of-life (EoL) scenarios. The non-renewable primary energy (NRPE) results are presented for the total LC of the house. Afterward, the overall embodied energy is analyzed and the results are presented per component and LC process of the house, in order to assess the contribution of each component. Finally, different circular economy EoL scenarios are analyzed to assess their potential benefits. As buildings are typically unique, complex, and difficult to compare with each other, the results of this paper will contribute for future comparison purposes, in order to foster LCA studies devoted to Mediterranean houses.