The construction and building process depends on substantial consumption of natural resources with far-reaching impacts beyond their development area. In general, a significant portion of annual ...resource consumption by the building and construction industry is a result of applying traditional building strategies and practices such as designing and selecting types of development (e.g. multi-unit condo and single-family house, etc.), building materials and structure, heating/cooling systems, and planning renovation and maintenance practices. On the other hand, apart from structural suitability, building developers mostly consider the basic requirements of public owners or private occupants of the buildings, where the main criteria for selecting building strategies are costs, and long-term environmental and socio-economic impacts are generally ignored. The main purpose of this paper is to develop an improved building sustainability assessment framework to measure and integrate different sustainability factors, i.e. long-term environmental upstream and downstream impacts and associated socio-economic costs, in a unified and quantitative basis. The application of the proposed framework has been explained through a case study of single-family houses and multi-unit residential buildings in Canada. A comprehensive framework based on the integration of emergy synthesis and life cycle assessment (LCA) has been developed and applied. The results of this research prove that the proposed emergy-based life cycle assessment (Em-LCA) framework offers a practical sustainability assessment tool by providing quantitative and transparent results for informed decision-making.
•Comprehensive thermal diagnostics of renovated detached house was performed.•Measurement method and instrumentation are presented.•Efficiencies of heating and DHW systems are evaluated.•Energy use ...for heating and ventilation before and after renovation are assessed.•Achievable level of house thermal renovation is analyzed.
This paper presents test methods and results of assessment data necessary for determination of building energy consumption, based on measurements in an occupied typical single-family house in Poland. Comprehensive on-site measurements included the building envelope, heating system, domestic hot water system, ventilation system with heat recovery and indoor environment quality. A new wireless measurement system was used. The results obtained from the thermal diagnostics were used to analyze the energy consumption of the house in four different successive building modernization stages. The steps undertaken included improvement of wall and window insulation, installation of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, improvement of house airtightness and replacement of the boiler and the hot water storage vessel with more efficient ones. Such steps are typical activities undertaken without a prior energy analysis by owners of single-family houses. Before thermal renovation the indicator of non-renewable primary energy was 243kWh/(m2y) and after renovation this decreased to 147kWh/(m2y). Proper selection of thermo-modernization measures would allow to reach the lower value of this indicator. However, it still would be higher than the required for newly built single-family houses in Poland. The execution of thermal diagnostics both before and after thermal renovation of the house enable the correct performance of that process and the achievement of greater energy savings.
Exterior images of real estate contain a large number of visual clues which allow conclusions about the heating energy demand (HED) of a building. Up to now, HED has been determined by specially ...trained experts such as architects, civil engineers, etc. either on the basis of consumption data or estimated demand values. In this article, we present a novel approach to determine the HED of detached houses. Our suggested approach is based solely on the visual appearance and assumes that exterior images of a building contain a variety of information that allows inferences about the HED of a building. For this, we use the powerful techniques of image analysis and computer vision which are already successfully used in different domains like surveillance, image search, and robotics. The results show that our approach works well and in addition to the HED, the construction period of a building can also be determined. Our algorithm achieves a classification accuracy of 62% for HED and 57% for construction age epoch.
The Nordic countries have shown great interest in using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the building sector compared to the past years. Sweden has set up an objective to be carbon neutral (no ...greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere) by 2045. This paper presents a case study of a single-family house “Dalarnas Villa” in the region Dalarna, Sweden within a 100-year perspective. The assessment is implemented using a new software based on hard data agreed by Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). It focuses on building materials, transport distances of the materials, and replacement of essential construction materials. The LCA in this study demonstrates the environmental impact related to building materials from production and construction phase including transport, replacement and deconstruction phase. The study does not cover energy use and water consumption. The results show that the building slab made by concrete is the part of the construction most contributing to CO2e, while the wood frame and cellulose insulation have low environmental impact. Replacement of materials takes nearly half of total environmental impact over 100 years. Having a large share of wood-based products, make greenhouse gas emissions remains low.
This paper develops estimates of the relationship between local density and single-family home values using 2017 transactions for five U.S. metropolitan regions: Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, ...Philadelphia, Seattle. Proposals to build new commercial and residential development projects that would increase local density commonly face opposition from local homeowners. Academic literature links the response from homeowners to concerns that higher density is associated with lower property values but there is limited empirical evidence establishing this relationship at the local level. We find a positive and significant relationship between density and house value in the core area of the five metropolitan regions we analyze. Within 7.5 miles of the center of these metropolitan regions, a 10% increase in surrounding built area density is associated with a 1.1–1.9% increase in house prices per square foot. For outlying areas, the estimates are smaller and even negative in several cases. We instrument density based on topographic and soil characteristics and find similar results. These findings point to the need for a more nuanced discussion of the relationship between local density and housing values.
•This paper estimates relationship between density and single family home values.•Similar houses with higher density fetch higher prices in core areas.•Relationship mixed in outlying areas.•Depending on context homebuyers pay more for houses in higher density areas.•Uses instruments for density: slopes and soil characteristics around property.
With pollution negatively affecting the world today, we have been seeking techniques and methods that will do less harm to the environment and to future generations. The constructive container method ...appears as an option for those who look for a clean and dry work, a flexible architecture, the reuse of materials that would be discarded, the preservation of natural resources and the reduction of constructive stages. This way, the objective of this work is to study the constructive method with the container material, its main stages of construction and the elaboration of a project. The applied methodology consists of bibliographical and documentary research, photographic exhibition and project development. The concept of sustainable construction was approached by analyzing its influence in the national and world scenario, aiming to reinforce the importance and the environmental responsibility in the project of residential dwellings. Finally, the project resulted in the design of a single-family residence with container, in which the projected space proved to be a viable solution for the metropolitan area of João Pessoa and also a functional for the users.
Sustainable design, which aims to reduce energy consumption and mitigate climate change, is a primary concern of developing countries. Hence, it reduces CO2 emissions. Residential buildings in North ...Iraq account for approximately 69% of all electricity consumed. To mitigate this issue, this article investigates the design of a sustainable model by considering the local climate, building design occupant behaviour, and sociocultural needs in the region and their impact on energy use. This study used mixed research methods to develop a sustainable single-family house model in semi-arid climates, specifically Erbil (North Iraq), the process consisted of three phases. Phase One saw the collection of all data from analysed literature, observation, worship, case study simulations of the base, and an improved model. Phase Two defined the guidelines for creating sustainable model dwellings based on the main findings in Phase One. Phase Three created a prototype to evaluate the sustainable model, primarily focusing on meeting people’s design preferences while avoiding privacy concerns. In addition, DesignBuilder Software simulation was used to examine the impact of occupancy behaviour (based on local culture and traditions) on the building’s energy performance throughout two phases. In the first step, three occupancy profile types are compared with real-life study bills. These profiles were the base case, which came from an actual case; the statistical profile from surveys; and the international standard ASHRAE 90.1, which was used as the default. The second phase compared the base model with an improved model and developed a sustainable prototype that satisfies local climate and sociocultural needs. The result indicated that the standard occupant profile significantly differs from the actual bill by 40%, whereas the statistical profile and base case reduce the gap to 11% and 4%, respectively. The sustainable prototype model can enhance operative temperature by 4 °C and decrease total energy use by 50% compared to the base case model. Data also showed that occupants keep lights on even when rooms are unoccupied. Therefore, when designing sustainable dwellings, it is crucial to consider occupant behaviour and their sociocultural needs, as they have a significant impact on energy use as a result of their activity patterns and schedules. These factors should be considered in the local code.
The typological transformation of single-family houses in Riyadh from attached courtyards to detached setback houses has affected the inhabitants' outdoor experiences. Several studies have criticized ...the detached setback typology in Saudi society for lacking privacy between neighbors, creating outdoor spaces with poor usability, and increasing thermal stress between houses. Other studies have highlighted the importance of outdoor thermal comfort in improving inhabitants' quality of life. In the desert climate of Riyadh, 49.02% of the year is classified uncomfortable heat period. Thus, the importance of maintaining thermally comfortable outdoor spaces and recognizing families' privacy as a significant cultural desire motivated this study, which evaluated the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) temperatures in outdoor in the setback, courtyard, and multiple yards typologies. The findings highlighted lower UTCI temperatures in multiple yards cases compared with that in courtyard cases, whereas higher UTCI temperatures in setback cases in the daytime. UTCI temperatures in multiple yards were lower by 1.72–2.14 °C than in setback cases during the morning, by 0.73–0.76 °C at noon, and by 1.17–1.6 °C in the afternoon. These findings support the argument for revising setback regulations to increase thermal comfort and the quality of life for inhabitants.
•Outdoor thermal comfort of single-family houses in Riyadh was studied during summer.•UTCI temperatures in setback, courtyard, and multiyard typologies were evaluated.•Numerical evaluation was conducted by integrating precise climate data.•Findings show that better thermal comfort is provided by multiyard typologies.
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