Open AccessSelecting Insulating Materials for Building Envelope: A Life Cycle Approach
Author(s) -
Surnam Sonia Longo,
Maurizio Cellura,
Maria Anna Cusenza,
Francesco Guarino,
Ilaria Marotta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
tecnica italiana
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0040-1846
DOI - 10.18280/ti-ijes.652-426
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , embodied energy , building envelope , life cycle assessment , roof , environmental science , envelope (radar) , efficient energy use , architectural engineering , materials science , civil engineering , engineering , thermal , telecommunications , geology , radar , oceanography , physics , electrical engineering , macroeconomics , production (economics) , meteorology , economics , thermodynamics
This paper aims at assessing the embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) of two building envelopes, designed for a two floors semi-detached house located in the Central Italy. The analysis is performed by applying the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, following a from cradle-to-gate approach. Fixtures (windows and doors), external and internal opaque walls, roof and floors (including interstorey floors) make the building envelopes. Their stratigraphy allows for achieving the thermal transmittance values established in the Italian Decree on energy performance of buildings. The two examined envelopes differ only for the insulation material: extruded expanded polystyrene (XPS) or cellulose fibers. The results shows that the envelope using cellulose fibers has better performance than that using XPS: it allows for reducing the embodied energy and the GHGs of about 13% and 9.3%, respectively. A dominance analysis allows to identify the envelope components responsible of the higher impacts and the contribution of the insulating material to the impacts. The study is part of the Italian research “Analysis of the energy impacts and greenhouse gas emissions of technologies and components for the energy efficiency of buildings from a life cycle perspective” funded by the Three-year Research Plan within the National Electricity System 2019-2021.