Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Comparative life-cycle assessment of constant air volume, variable air volume and active climate beam systems for a Swedish office building

Hassan, Nadeen and Javed, Saqib LU (2019) 40th AIVC - 8th TightVent - 6th venticool Conference p.627-636
Abstract
Energy use in buildings has a significant influence on the global energy demand and environmental impacts. Among all building systems, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most energy-intensive in terms of their total energy requirements. The production and operation of HVAC systems have a significant impact on the environment. These systems are also among the largest consumers of natural resources and materials in the building sector. With an ever-increasing focus on energy and material use, the question remains, which HVAC system has a better environmental performance. This paper presents a comparison between the life cycle impacts of three different HVAC systems — Constant Air Volume (CAV), Variable Air... (More)
Energy use in buildings has a significant influence on the global energy demand and environmental impacts. Among all building systems, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most energy-intensive in terms of their total energy requirements. The production and operation of HVAC systems have a significant impact on the environment. These systems are also among the largest consumers of natural resources and materials in the building sector. With an ever-increasing focus on energy and material use, the question remains, which HVAC system has a better environmental performance. This paper presents a comparison between the life cycle impacts of three different HVAC systems — Constant Air Volume (CAV), Variable Air Volume (VAV) and Active Climate Beams (ACB) — designed for a Swedish modern office building. The system boundary of the life cycle assessment is cradle-to-grave with options, over a 20-year period. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of the three systems has been performed using SimaPro software. The CML IA (baseline) method has been used for the impact assessment. The life cycle impacts have been weighted using the Dutch shadow cost method. The results show that from a life cycle perspective, the ACB and VAV systems have comparable environmental performance. The CAV system is shown to have the worst overall environmental performance. The manufacturing phase of the ACB system exhibits the highest environmental impacts among the three systems, reflecting its high use of copper. The operational phase is the main contributor to the environmental burden for all three systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Life cycle assessment, Energy, HVAC systems, Environmental impact., Impact Assessment
host publication
Proceedings of the 40th AIVC Conference : From energy crisis to sustainable indoor climate – 40 years of AIVC - From energy crisis to sustainable indoor climate – 40 years of AIVC
article number
D1_S4C-13
pages
10 pages
publisher
Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre - AIVC
conference name
40th AIVC - 8th TightVent - 6th venticool Conference
conference location
Ghent, Belgium
conference dates
2019-10-15 - 2019-10-16
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
14893431-d14c-4f91-bd7a-af5bbf2711a7
alternative location
https://www.aivc.org/sites/default/files/D1_S4C-13.pdf
date added to LUP
2020-06-11 19:39:46
date last changed
2020-06-12 11:40:23
@inproceedings{14893431-d14c-4f91-bd7a-af5bbf2711a7,
  abstract     = {{Energy use in buildings has a significant influence on the global energy demand and environmental impacts. Among all building systems, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most energy-intensive in terms of their total energy requirements. The production and operation of HVAC systems have a significant impact on the environment. These systems are also among the largest consumers of natural resources and materials in the building sector. With an ever-increasing focus on energy and material use, the question remains, which HVAC system has a better environmental performance. This paper presents a comparison between the life cycle impacts of three different HVAC systems — Constant Air Volume (CAV), Variable Air Volume (VAV) and Active Climate Beams (ACB) — designed for a Swedish modern office building. The system boundary of the life cycle assessment is cradle-to-grave with options, over a 20-year period. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of the three systems has been performed using SimaPro software. The CML IA (baseline) method has been used for the impact assessment. The life cycle impacts have been weighted using the Dutch shadow cost method. The results show that from a life cycle perspective, the ACB and VAV systems have comparable environmental performance. The CAV system is shown to have the worst overall environmental performance. The manufacturing phase of the ACB system exhibits the highest environmental impacts among the three systems, reflecting its high use of copper. The operational phase is the main contributor to the environmental burden for all three systems.}},
  author       = {{Hassan, Nadeen and Javed, Saqib}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 40th AIVC Conference : From energy crisis to sustainable indoor climate – 40 years of AIVC}},
  keywords     = {{Life cycle assessment; Energy; HVAC systems; Environmental impact.; Impact Assessment}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{627--636}},
  publisher    = {{Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre - AIVC}},
  title        = {{Comparative life-cycle assessment of constant air volume, variable air volume and active climate beam systems for a Swedish office building}},
  url          = {{https://www.aivc.org/sites/default/files/D1_S4C-13.pdf}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}