| dc.description.abstract | Energy efficiency of heating and cooling (operational) energy use in buildings is currently a major global policy subject. But, the reduction potential of this energy use is decreasing, which leads to the shifting focus to material manufacturing (embodied) energy use. Therefore, this thesis investigates the relationship between this energy efficiency and embodied energy use, using Dutch residential buildings as a case study. The analysis is performed using three scenarios from an already existing building energy analysis model: the 3SCEP HEB (Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy High Efficiency Buildings) model. Also, an Embodied Energy Database Management System (EEDMS) was created to analyse the embodied energy use, using 23 materials most common in Dutch residential construction; including material volumes and material energy intensities, for 25 Dutch building representatives. The building representatives are defined using the five types that occur most in the Netherlands: mid-terrace, end-of-terrace, detached, semi-detached and apartments. For every type representatives are chosen for five energy performance categories (low to high energy performance), based on construction period of the building type. The relevant parts of the 3SCEP HEB model are integrated in the EEDMS to model total embodied and operational energy use from 2015 to 2050 and create embodied-to-operational energy ratios.
The resulting embodied energy use in the 25 building representatives varies from 47 to 106 MJ/m2/y, and the operational energy use from 124 to 682 MJ/m2/y. The scenario analysis showed that a total energy use reduction potential of 40% can be reached in 2050, unfortunately this is accompanied by a 15% increase in embodied energy use. This increase is mainly caused by increasing use of insulation materials and aluminium in residential buildings. This research shows that the Dutch building representatives with the lowest embodied and operational energy - and therefore the most desired outcome - are buildings renovated into a home that is in line with the guidelines of a passive home and/or nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB). The embodied to operational energy ratio range of this type is 0.39-0.55. This research shows that the relative importance of embodied energy use in total residential building energy use is increasing. Particularly in light of the goal to reach a maximum temperature increase of 2˚C by 2050 - taking into account the relative increase in passive homes and nZEB’s in the future - it is important to include embodied energy use in future policy objectives. | |
