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Carbon footprint of thermal insulation materials in building envelopes

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Abstract

With increasing world population and economic development, the strain on resources is increasing. Energy consumption during construction and use of building is enormous. In this study, a quantitative comparison of various thermal insulation materials used in construction, from most commonly used to new, highly efficient insulation materials, was performed. It was demonstrated that the evaluation and consideration of environmental impact per unit weight of thermal insulation materials are inappropriate and can lead to misleading decisions, since it is imperative that the analysis considers the difference in the density of each thermal insulation material, as well as differences in their thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the environmental neutrality, i.e. the time needed to offset the carbon footprint of the manufacturing and the installation of thermal insulation materials in the building envelope with the difference between the carbon footprint of the heat losses in the heating season through a currently averagely insulated external envelope and a well-insulated external envelope, is achieved in very short-time periods. For the thermal insulation materials with the lowest environmental impact, it is reached in less than one heating season and soon after tenth heating seasons for the insulation with the highest environmental impact.

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Abbreviations

CFC:

Chloro-fluoro-hydrocarbons

EPS:

Expanded polystyrene

GWP:

Global warming potential

LCA :

Life cycle assessment/analysis

LCCA:

Life cycle cost assessment

LCI:

Life cycle inventory

PU:

Polyurethane

VIP :

Vacuum insulation panel

XPS:

Extruded polystyrene

CO2-eq:

CO2 equivalent

U :

Thermal transmittance W/(m2 K)

AHDD:

Annual heating degree days K day = 86,400 K sec

R :

Thermal resistance (m2 K)/W

ρ :

Density kg/m3

λ :

Thermal conductivity W/(m K)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (Programme P2-0158), and by the European Regional Development Found, Research and development programmes (TRL 3-6), sustainable and innovative construction of smart buildings (smart buildings and home, including wood chain: TIGR4smart) (Programme C3330-16-529003).

Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their assistance in improving the quality and originality of the manuscript.

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  1. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Jamova 2, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Roman Kunič

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Kunič, R. Carbon footprint of thermal insulation materials in building envelopes. Energy Efficiency 10, 1511–1528 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-017-9536-1

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