Assessment of Alternative Building Materials in the Exterior Walls for Reduction of Operational Energy and CO2 Emissions (Case study: A typical residential building in Tehran)

The increase in energy demand which leads to global warming is one of the main environmental issues that drive to detrimental ecological, social and economic impacts. Recently, these impacts are being exposed faster than expected. Since buildings and their materials are one of the major sources of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, environmental assessment of building materials and replacing them with the more environmentally friendly alternatives are increasingly needed to address environmental performance issues. In this study, the operational energy consumption (thermal energy) and carbon dioxide production in a typical building in Tehran is calculated by applying computer simulation –Design Builder software in two cases of using conventional building materials and alternative ones. The results show a considerable reduction in the operational energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in case of applying the alternativeenvironmentally friendlybuilding materials.