Towards a more holistic approach to reducing the energy demand of dwellings

Stephan, André;Crawford, Robert H.;de Myttenaere, Kristel
(2011)

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Authors
  • Stephan, AndréUCLouvain
    Author
  • Crawford, Robert H.
    Author
  • de Myttenaere, Kristel
    Author
Abstract
Buildings consume around 40% of the final energy in most countries but are also responsible for a large part of theenergy use in the industrial and transport sectors. Today, most policies and market trends focus solely on the spaceheating and cooling demands often neglecting to consider indirect energy requirements such as the embodied energyof buildings or the transport energy of their users. This paper assesses different building scenarios located in twourban contexts by integrating the operational energy demand as well as the embodied energy of the dwellings and thetransport energy consumption of the users. Results show that space heating represents at most 23% of the total lifecycle energy demand over 50 years and 47% if the rest of operational energies, i.e. domestic hot water and appliances,is considered. Transport consumes 34-51% of the total life cycle energy consumption while the embodied energy ofbuildings was found to be of the same order of magnitude as their operational energy. Current energy assessment ofbuildings therefore often only analyses a small fraction of the total life cycle energy use. We should widen its scopeto account for so-called indirect energy consumption. This paper shows that a more holistic approach to theassessment of the energy demand associated with buildings is necessary if significant improvements in their energyefficiency are to be achieved.
Affiliations
  • Université Libre de BruxellesBATir - Building, Architecture and Town Planning
  • The University of MelbourneFaculty of Architecture, Building and Planning

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Stephan, A., Crawford, R. H., & de Myttenaere, K. (2011). Towards a more holistic approach to reducing the energy demand of dwellings. Procedia Engineering, 21, 1033-1041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.11.2109 (Original work published 2011)