Life cycle cost analysis of sustainable energy conservation in Lebanese construction industry

Abstract

Nowadays, the usage of renewable energies remains the main concern of people principally in the construction industry in order to save money and contribute to a healthy environment. In this project a life cycle cost analysis for sustainable energy conservation in a residential house, located in Koura District, is conducted. For that purpose a non-insulated house is taken with minimal thermal insulation properties (single glazed, single wall without extruded polystyrene used for thermal insulation) as a baseline, then is compared with an insulated house (double glazed, double wall with extruded polystyrene in the middle) in terms of the heat loss load. Energy (U) values for the building envelopes are calculated and set in order to be able find the associated heat needs and losses (Q) quantities which are converted in terms of money amounts saving by calculating the diesel oil gain, CO2 reduction and electricity gain costs used for the heat compensation. The calculations are done manually by hand and through a heat simulation software called "Uponor HSE" then their results are compared. The heat loss results in the insulated house are less than the non-insulated one which is an obvious result. These results are the same in both methods (by hand and simulation). Finally, a payback period analysis is performed in order to evaluate the project feasibility. The results by hand calculations is 5 years and the one with the simulation program is 9 years.