Analysis of the sensitivity of the ecological effects for the investment based on the thermal insulation of the building: A Polish case study

Abstract The improvement of the energy efficiency is one of the strategic goals in Poland as well as in the other European countries. The main aim of this article is to present a method of the assessment of the ecological effects for the investment based on the thermal insulation of the external building walls with the inclusion of the sensitiveness of the chosen variables. The Life Cycle Assessment methodology was used for the assessment of the environmental impact. The increased damage on the environment connected to the production of thermal insulation materials and the decrease of the influence on the environment connected with the decrease of the use of energy in the use phase of the building were taken into consideration. The research also encompasses the variability which is a result of the type of the external building wall, the applied heating source, the type of the thermal insulation material and also the climatic zone in which the building is located. Each examined variant brought positive ecological effects such as the reduction of the environmental load as a result of the thermal insulation of the building. In addition, the sensitivity to different factors that influence the examined ecological effects were also researched. The changes of the environmental load that took place during the production of the heat energy in the building and the changes of the demand for heat energy have the most significant impact on the changes of the ecological effects.

[1]  Ö. Altan Dombaycı,et al.  The environmental impact of optimum insulation thickness for external walls of buildings , 2007 .

[2]  P Buttol,et al.  LCA of integrated MSW management systems: case study of the Bologna District. , 2007, Waste management.

[3]  Agis M. Papadopoulos,et al.  An assessment tool for the energy, economic and environmental evaluation of thermal insulation solutions , 2009 .

[4]  Charlotte Scheutz,et al.  Comparison of the organic waste management systems in the Danish-German border region using life cycle assessment (LCA). , 2016, Waste management.

[5]  Harold Wilhite,et al.  An analysis of the household energy rebound effect from a practice perspective: spatial and temporal dimensions , 2015 .

[6]  Thomas Olofsson,et al.  Assessment of renovation measures for a dwelling area - Impacts on energy efficiency and building certification , 2016 .

[7]  Janusz Adamczyk,et al.  Study on ecological cost-effectiveness for the thermal insulation of building external vertical walls in Poland , 2016 .

[8]  Arkadiusz Piwowar,et al.  Ecological and economic aspects of electric energy production using the biomass co-firing method: The case of Poland , 2016 .

[9]  Giovanni Andrea Blengini,et al.  Life cycle of buildings, demolition and recycling potential: A case study in Turin, Italy , 2009 .

[10]  Agata Lo Giudice,et al.  Energy and environmental assessment of industrial hemp for building applications: A review , 2015 .

[11]  Carlo Ingrao,et al.  An energy and carbon footprint assessment upon the usage of hemp-lime concrete and recycled-PET façades for office facilities in France and Italy , 2018 .

[12]  Afif Hasan,et al.  Optimizing insulation thickness for buildings using life cycle cost , 1999 .

[13]  Jonathan Pryshlakivsky,et al.  Fifteen years of ISO 14040: a review , 2013 .

[14]  Oscar Ortiz,et al.  Sustainability based on LCM of residential dwellings: A case study in Catalonia, Spain , 2009 .

[15]  Carlo Ingrao,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment for highlighting environmental hotspots in Sicilian peach production systems , 2015 .

[16]  Genovaitė Liobikienė,et al.  Drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in the Baltic states: decomposition analysis related to the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy , 2016 .

[17]  Carolien Kroeze,et al.  Comparison of different methods to include recycling in LCAs of aluminium cans and disposable polystyrene cups. , 2016, Waste management.

[18]  Ana Brás,et al.  LCA implementation in the selection of thermal enhanced mortars for energetic rehabilitation of school buildings , 2015 .

[19]  Carlo Ingrao,et al.  A comparative Life Cycle Assessment of external wall-compositions for cleaner construction solutions in buildings , 2016 .

[20]  Meral Ozel,et al.  Cost analysis for optimum thicknesses and environmental impacts of different insulation materials , 2012 .

[21]  Dionysios I. Kolaitis,et al.  Comparative assessment of internal and external thermal insulation systems for energy efficient retrofitting of residential buildings , 2013 .

[22]  Andrzej Gajewski,et al.  Carbon dioxide emission while heating in selected European countries , 2013 .

[23]  Omer Kaynakli,et al.  A review of the economical and optimum thermal insulation thickness for building applications , 2012 .

[24]  Ignacio Zabalza Bribián,et al.  Life cycle assessment in buildings: State-of-the-art and simplified LCA methodology as a complement for building certification , 2009 .

[25]  Ignacio Zabalza Bribián,et al.  Life cycle assessment of building materials: Comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of the eco-efficiency improvement potential , 2011 .

[26]  Wei Liang,et al.  MPC control for improving energy efficiency of a building air handler for multi-zone VAVs , 2015 .

[27]  J. Adamczyk,et al.  12 – Life cycle assessment (LCA) of building thermal insulation materials , 2014 .

[28]  Sean N. Murray,et al.  Multi-variable optimization of thermal energy efficiency retrofitting of buildings using static modelling and genetic algorithms – A case study , 2014 .

[29]  Audrey Kinsella,et al.  Indoor air quality and occupant comfort in homes with deep versus conventional energy efficiency renovations , 2015 .

[30]  Antonio Gagliano,et al.  Environmental impacts and thermal insulation performance of innovative composite solutions for building applications , 2014 .

[31]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  Heating and cooling energy trends and drivers in buildings , 2015 .

[32]  Charles Mbohwa,et al.  Recycled-PET fibre based panels for building thermal insulation: environmental impact and improvement potential assessment for a greener production. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[33]  César R. Chamorro,et al.  Experimental analysis of performance, greenhouse gas emissions and economic parameters for two cooling systems in a public administration building , 2015 .

[34]  Anne Grete Hestnes,et al.  Energy use in the life cycle of conventional and low-energy buildings: A review article , 2007 .

[35]  Carla Pieragostini,et al.  On process optimization considering LCA methodology. , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[36]  Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi,et al.  Optimum insulation thickness determination of a building wall using exergetic life cycle assessment , 2016 .

[37]  Janusz Adamczyk,et al.  The comparison of thermal insulation types of plaster with cement plaster , 2014 .

[38]  Phillip Frank Gower Banfill,et al.  Energy‐led retrofitting of solid wall dwellings: technical and user perspectives on airtightness , 2011 .