Life-Cycle Assessment of Construction Methods for Building Envelope Renovation of Row Houses in Taiwan

Abstract

In terms of building life cycle carbon emission and economic cost account for the largest proportion of the life cycle during the use stage Generally speaking the carbon emission in the use stage is very important when calculating the life cycle of a new building while the influence of the use stage is rarely considered when replacing some constructions or materials Nowadays many studies pointed out that the improvement of the shell of existing buildings was effective strategy to achieve carbon reduction but difficult to promote through the laws The purpose of this study is to put forward various carbon reduction benefits assessments of shell renovation methods through the analysis of life cycle carbon emissions and costs In addition to provide a reference amount of policy subsidies through the relative relationship between carbon emissions and cost In this research a RC row house was selected to study on the impact of the replacement of the exterior walls glasses and roofs The calculation of carbon emissions used the database of the Low Carbon Building Alliance and SimaPro The energy consumption during use stage was analyzed by the EnergyPlus and the cost was calculated by the actual market price First the sensitivity analysis of the single construction method was performed to confirm the carbon emission and cost changes of the shell construction method in different climatic regions and building orientations Then the combined construction methods were conducted As a result the carbon emission of the roof construction method was greatly affected by the climate zone Costs and carbon emissions can reduce about 4% to 8% at the same time when choosing a suitable strategy and the reduction rate of the central and southern climate zones were greater than that of the northern In addition the reduction ratio of the central and southern climate regions was significantly greater than that of the northern climate regions The reduction coefficient is to reduce the cost proportion of carbon emission cost evaluation method highlight the importance of carbon reduction and calculate the proportion of cost adjustment In all cases the best way to reduce carbon is to use ice paint roof external wall with thermal insulation material and transparent off-line reflective glass

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Yaw-Shyan Tsay (Supervisor)