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The potential of hemp buildings in different climates : A comparison between a common passive house and the hempcrete building system

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to study the potential of hemp buildings in different climates. The report examines and models two different energy efficient building concepts – the more common passive house and the environmental friendly hempcrete building system. These two buildings thermal performances were then simulated and compared in different climates followed by a brief discussion about their economic and environmental impact. The simulation was performed with the energy calculating program VIP-energy v 2.1.1 with the two models located in Kiruna, Sundsvall, Malmo, Berlin and Rome to represent the different climates. Simulations for different wall sizes and a sensitivity analysis of some significant parameters were also made. The hempcrete building system showed to have a thermal performance similar to that of passive houses in more southern climates. In the north of Sweden however the hempcrete building required up to 20 % more energy than the passive house to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures. This deficit could be compensated for with hemp fibre insulation to augment the building envelope and U-value. Furthermore the hygrothermal material properties that were not included in the simulation can be expected to have a significant positive impact on hemp buildings relative thermal performance. With a passive house thermal performance, a healthy indoor environment and an economically viable and environmental friendly production process hemp building demonstrated great potential in all the fields studied.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-225793
Date January 2014
CreatorsAhlberg, Johan, Georges, Elza, Norlén, Mikael
PublisherUppsala universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskaper, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskaper, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskaper
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationTVE ; 14 016

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