Post-occupancy life cycle energy assessment of a residential building in Australia

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of the energy demand of a building over its entire life, based on actual operational energy data and a comprehensive analysis of both initial and recurring embodied energy, is extremely rare. To address this, the aim of this study was to analyse the total energy demand associated with a case study house located in Australia, based on post-occupancy building energy data. An input–output-based hybrid embodied energy assessment approach was used to quantify initial and recurring embodied energy over a 50-year period, providing the most comprehensive assessment of embodied energy possible. The study showed that the total life cycle energy demand of the case study house was 10,612GJ or 36.4GJ/m². Of this, operational energy was shown to account for 40%, initial embodied energy 37% and recurring embodied energy 22% of the total. This demonstrates that the energy embodied in buildings is much more significant than previously thought. With on-going building operational energy efficiency improvements this component of a building's energy demand is likely to become even more important as is the need to utilize best-practice approaches for quantifying embodied energy.

Keywords:

• energy
• life cycle assessment
• embodied energy
• residential building
• Australia

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Australian Research Council under the Linkage Project LP120200306.