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Primary energy implications for low-energy buildings with different construction systems under varying climate scenarios

Panel: 8. Buildings: technologies and systems beyond energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Uniben Yao Ayikoe Tettey, Linnaeus University - Built Environment and Energy Technology, Sweden
Leif Gustavsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden

Abstract

The building sector contributes largely to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions from building related energy use. In 2015 about 43% of the primary energy production in the European Union (EU) came from fossil fuels and the building sector accounted for 39% of the total final energy. Average EU temperature rise was 1.3 °C from 2002–2011 compared to 1850-1899, while projections for Sweden show average temperature rise of 2-6 °C by year 2100, compared to 1961-1990.

Climate change may thus affect thermal performance and energy use profiles of buildings in the long term. In this study, a 6 storey prefab concrete building in Sweden is used as reference to explore life cycle primary energy implications of different construction systems under various climate scenarios. The building was redesigned as low-energy building to the Swedish passive house criteria with construction systems in cross laminated timber, prefab timber modules or concrete.

With a system perspective approach, we account for relevant energy and material flows linked to production, construction, operation and end-of-life phases of the building alternatives, including thermal mass dynamics under current (1996-2005) and future (2090-2099) climates based on representative concentration pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. Results show that the buildings’ heating and cooling demands as well as overheating risks vary significantly under the climate scenarios. The timber systems give lower production primary energy and higher biomass residues than the concrete alternative.

The concrete system gives slightly lower operation energy due to thermal mass benefits but still, the timber systems give overall lower life cycle primary energy balance. This study shows that low-energy wood buildings with efficient energy supply can play an important role in mitigating climate change for a resource-efficient and sustainable built environment under current and future climate with small overheating risk.

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