Chosen economic and environmental aspects of material resources in construction in the view of sustainability - Tools to assess capability to reduce primary energy demand in housing

Abstract

Energy use in European housing comprises the greatest part of total energy consumption and is above industry and transport figures. The growing trend in building energy use has made energy efficiency strategy the main concern for energy policies which then involve developing new building regulations and certification processes. The main objectives of the thesis is the estimation of financial funds required to motivate the efficient energy use in housing construction in each EU state, and the definition of the most efficient ways of the investment into energy demand reduction in housing. The objectives were reached by means of the following methods: generalization of existing knowledge, experience and requirements, analysis of foreign practice, mathematical-statistical methods of data evaluation, comparative analysis, value engineering. First of all, the required amount of funds for support programs which would motivate the energy efficiency increase in dwelling houses was estimated on a national scale for different EU countries. After that different direction of the required investment into energy efficiency increasing steps were chosen and assessed within the research taking into account not only environmental but also economic aspect. In the thesis were described the following tools to assess the capability to reduce energy demand of buildings: certification systems, thermal energy balance, embodied energy assessment, quantification of energy savings. None of these tools involves both economic and environmental assessment of energy performance of building. The developed tool (total efficiency assessment) is based on the thermal energy balance, discriminant analysis, and the required investment evaluation. The tool was demonstrated on the basis of fifteen case studies with the following approach: the input data (decrease in final energy demand, in primary energy demand and in CO2 emissions) were derived from each option's energy balance of the building; the options were evaluated in accordance with the ratio between the gained utility and required investment; after that the total efficiency of the options was assessed in a short time period.

Energy use in European housing comprises the greatest part of total energy consumption and is above industry and transport figures. The growing trend in building energy use has made energy efficiency strategy the main concern for energy policies which then involve developing new building regulations and certification processes. The main objectives of the thesis is the estimation of financial funds required to motivate the efficient energy use in housing construction in each EU state, and the definition of the most efficient ways of the investment into energy demand reduction in housing. The objectives were reached by means of the following methods: generalization of existing knowledge, experience and requirements, analysis of foreign practice, mathematical-statistical methods of data evaluation, comparative analysis, value engineering. First of all, the required amount of funds for support programs which would motivate the energy efficiency increase in dwelling houses was estimated on a national scale for different EU countries. After that different direction of the required investment into energy efficiency increasing steps were chosen and assessed within the research taking into account not only environmental but also economic aspect. In the thesis were described the following tools to assess the capability to reduce energy demand of buildings: certification systems, thermal energy balance, embodied energy assessment, quantification of energy savings. None of these tools involves both economic and environmental assessment of energy performance of building. The developed tool (total efficiency assessment) is based on the thermal energy balance, discriminant analysis, and the required investment evaluation. The tool was demonstrated on the basis of fifteen case studies with the following approach: the input data (decrease in final energy demand, in primary energy demand and in CO2 emissions) were derived from each option's energy balance of the building; the options were evaluated in accordance with the ratio between the gained utility and required investment; after that the total efficiency of the options was assessed in a short time period.