Cites, and the buildings of which they are comprised, consume a large proportion of the total energy produced within developed countries such as Australia. Much of this energy, particularly in Australia, is derived from fossil fuels and its consumption results in the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to an enhanced greenhouse effect causing global warming. The need to reduce the energy consumed by residential and commercial buildings is now widely recognised. This has been acknowledged by state and federal governments within Australia and has resulted in strategies intended to increase the efficiency of building construction and operation. The focus of this research has been the place where most Australians live - suburban residential buildings.Residential buildings consume energy in their operation, for space heating and cooling, water heating, refrigeration, cooking, lighting, appliance, and equipment use. However, energy, known as embodied energy, is also expended in the production of basic building materials, the manufacture of building components, the construction of buildings and their maintenance. Described as life cycle energy, the operational energy and the embodied energy accumulating throughout the lifetime of buildings, account for the total energy attributable to them. Previous studies have indicated that the embodied energy of buildings may be a significant component of their lifetime energy. Therefore, a focus solely on their operational energy efficiency may not necessarily result in lifetime energy reductions.The aim of this research, therefore, was to identify and rank the critical factors influencing the lifetime energy of typical low and medium density suburban residential buildings within temperate regions of Australia. To achieve this, several buildings, representative of the dwelling types currently constructed in the suburbs of Melbourne, were selected for study. Factors influencing operational energy and embodied energy were identified. Thermal simulations were conducted for all dwellings to determine their space heating and cooling requirements as each of the factors was varied from base case values. Residential non space heating and cooling energy was determined from Australian statistics. The embodied energy of the dwellings was calculated using methods adapted from the work of other researchers. As for space conditioning energy simulations, the embodied energy was determined for the base case and then for versions in which factors previously identified were varied. Finally, the life cycle energy requirements of the dwellings were determined for a number of low, base case and high energy scenarios. Statistical analyses of operational energy, embodied energy and life cycle energy results were used to determine and then rank the critical factors influencing each. It has been demonstrated that both user behaviour and building design and construction factors critically influence the life cycle energy requirements of the selected residential dwellings in Melbourne, Australia. As an indicator of the importance of building lifetime, factors found to be critical at one stage of the life cycle of a dwelling have been shown to become less critical at another stage. The results also demonstrate that the life cycle energy requirements of dwellings can be reduced significantly through the synergistic operation of a number of the factors identified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/245184 |
| Creators | Fay, Mark Roger |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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