LCA of different concepts for Leisure Home Buildings with frost safe sanitary installations

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to perform a life cycle analysis and life cycle cost analysis for several building constructions with different frost-safe sanitary installations and methods for energy supply. The deduction is limited to an uninhabited leisure home, but a typical use of the building was evaluated to see how it affected the conclusions of the LCA. The reductions of environmental impacts from buildings are important, comprehensive and require multidisciplinary competence. It demands that environmental impacts throughout the whole life cycle perspective are evaluated and that the discussion is focused on individual materials. Tree, concrete and steel are materials that all have an important and natural place in future Norwegian buildings. The challenge is to make the materials work together in the most efficient way as possible, to reduce energy use and environmental impacts from all building phases. The operation phase is clearly the most energy demanding phase for a building. The simulations in this report show that this phase also has one of the largest global warming potential. This demonstrates the importance of choosing the best suited material for each building structure for reducing the overall energy required, as simulations shows that choice of building materials is directly linked with energy requirements. The life cycle cost analysis shows that the investment costs are higher than the operation costs. Sadly, the investment cost has the largest influence on a leisure home builder, instead of considerations toward the environment. It is the log building on stilts that has the lowest life cycle costs, while the log building on concrete foundation has the highest. The framework building on heavy concrete foundation has lower life cycle cost than the log building on concrete foundation due to lower operation costs. The simulations regarding use phase and life time of the buildings influence on global warming potential showed interesting results. Higher rate of visits at the leisure home decreases the total global warming potential of the building. Annual accumulated environmental emissions show what lifetime that is best suited for each building and when other concepts should be favored. For a time period less than 23 years the light construction of the log building on stilts are favored. For the time span of 23 to 60 years the heavier construction of the framework building on heavy concrete foundation is preferred in an environmental point of view.