Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• operation, which covers all the processes occurring during the building service,
such as heating, cooling, water supply, electrical appliance usage, and renewable
energy generation.
• material and component replacement. A 70-year life service is assumed for the
building. Thus, the replacement of those components with shorter life span is
considered. In detail, production and installation processes of the replaced
components are taken into account. End-of-life of the removed components is
assessed within the end-of-life phase of the building.
• end-of-life of the building, which includes all the process from the demolition/
dismantling to the disposal/recycling.
• transports, including all the transport steps occurring during the whole life cycle
of the building: the transportation of materials and components from the man-
ufacturing gate to the construction site; the transportation of the replaced
components from the factory gate to the building site; the transportation of C&D
wastes to recycling plants and/or disposal sites, when the end-of-waste state is
reached.
The environmental impacts caused by the infrastructures are neglected.
Therefore, the impacts of the construction of roads, trucks used to carry the
construction materials are not taken into account.
With regard to the exported energy, in Scenario 1 (nearly Net ZEB), the on-site
energy production is delivered to the building to integrate the imported energy
from the grid. All the environmental impacts arisen from production, transport,
installation, use, maintenance, and end-of-life of the energy production system are
fully allocated to the building, as well as the environmental impacts related to the
operational energy use (both the on-site produced and the imported).
In the Refurbishment scenario, the surplus of electricity is exported to the grid.
No electricity is imported. Only energy for auxiliary thermal needs is imported.
All the environmental impacts arisen from production, transport, installation, use,
maintenance and end-of-life of the energy production system are fully allocated to
the building.
The benefits of the exported electricity, which replaces electricity beyond the
building boundary, are assessed in terms of primary energy saving and avoided
environmental impacts.
3.3 Data Quality and Life Cycle Inventory
The inventory analysis is carried out in order to quantify the environmentally
relevant inputs and outputs of the studied system, by means of a mass and energy
balance of the selected functional unit. To this aim, site-specific data are integrated
with literature data. In particular, data related to the existing building are derived
from Loccioni Group and from some producers of building materials and plant
components. Data about the production and installation of the retrofit options are
