Whole Life Sustainability Assessment at the Building Industry and Constructed Assets, through the Whole Life Costing Assessment and Life Cycle Costing Assessment evaluating the economic and financial aspects

Identifier:  TDX:3319

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX3319

Authors:  Ximenes Naves, Alex

Abstract:
Net-zero energy buildings can be understood as buildings, that for a given time, generate as much energy as they consume. Either, from the point of view of supply or consumption, energy availability is related to some basic issues such as source (s), conversion, distribution, utilization, waste, optimization, efficiency and autonomy. These issues reveal the complexity of the subject of energy and justify the special attention given to it by the academic community. To obtain tangible results in the analysis of these systems, in our study we focus on the modelling and optimization of energy solutions applied to buildings or similar systems. On the other hand, the time frame of the analysed objects was extended to their expected life cycle period. The main objectives were stablished as: - Verify and analyse the state-of-the-art of renewable energy solutions for buildings and constructed assets and the applicability of life cycle costing analysis to these issues; - Configure reproducible models of buildings and their main electrical loads, via Computer Aided Process Engineering tools, to proceed simulations and optimization, considering as primary energy source solar energy; - Quantify, using real-life and hypothetical case studies, the benefits of the proposed solutions, aiming the whole life sustainability assessment through the reduction of the whole life cycle costing; and - Guarantee the reproducibility of the models and main general results of this study and make them public, to contribute with their applicability and further researches.