A multi-scale life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions analysis model for residential buildings

Abstract

Current assessments of residential building energy demand focus mainly on their operational aspect, notably in terms of space heating and cooling. The embodied energy of buildings and the transport energy consumption of their occupants are typically overlooked. Recent studies have shown that these two energy demands can represent more than half of the life-cycle energy of a building over 50 years. This study presents a holistic model and software tool which take into account energy requirements at the building scale, i.e. the embodied and operational energy of the building and its refurbishment, and at the urban scale, i.e. the embodied energy of nearby infrastructures (roads, power lines, e..