Sustainability 2014, 6(2), 602-614; doi:10.3390/su6020602
A Multi-Objective (Energy, Economic and Environmental Performance) Life Cycle Analysis for Better Building Design
Faculty of Architectural, Civil Engineering and Environment, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Received: 24 November 2013 / Revised: 20 January 2014 / Accepted: 23 January 2014 / Published: 27 January 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Building)
Abstract
Design improvement is critical for achieving a low-cost and high energy-efficient building with low carbon emissions. Thus, designers need to consider many factors (such as energy, economic and environmental performance) in the early design stage. This paper presents a multi-objective analysis for better building design and compares the EDH-based design improvements (introduced by the author in a previous work, EDH means energy difference between households) with seven potential improvement measures commonly used in achieving a better overall performance for the energy, economy and environment. A typical residential building in China was modeled for a number of simulations, and the simulation results were used to carry out a life cycle-based performance analysis. Seven potential improvement options that are commonly used are compared, and the results show that it is difficult to identify an option that has a better performance in all these three aspects. On the other hand, EDH-based design improvement achieves relatively high energy, economic and environmental performance compared to the former seven options. Moreover, EDH-based design improvement can provide designers with flexible options to select from in order to address diverse demands for building aesthetics, function, and so on, or to avoid potential difficulties when some kinds of materials or measures that are planned to be used are unavailable locally.Keywords:
building design improvement; energy; economy; environment; multi-objective life cycle analysis
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0).
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Yao, J. A Multi-Objective (Energy, Economic and Environmental Performance) Life Cycle Analysis for Better Building Design. Sustainability 2014, 6, 602-614.
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