Chapter 8: An Exploratory Model on Greenhouse-Gas Emissions and Costing Assessment in Building Operation Stage
One of the several reasons that lead to global warming appears to be the large contributions of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. International researchers are trying to simulate life-cycle GHG emissions and cost by using a variety of building optimization models. A simple automated model which can be run in a friendly and popular software such as Microsoft Excel is needed in the industry.
This chapter presents a comprehensive energy consumption-optimization model, analyzing different types of buildings, which comply with the energy-efficiency requirements of the National Construction Building Code of Australia. This model has been developed in Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic in order to determine GHG emissions associated with energy usage in building operations for 50 years of building life as well as energy costs. In conjunction with this, one of the five points in the GHG emission reduction Credit 15A of Green Star Design & As Built rating system assesses project sustainability at all life-cycle stages by selecting 13 roof types, 16 wall types and 3 floor types according to Australia and New Zealand’s Insulation Handbook, Part I: Thermal Performance. By considering eight climate zones in Australia, developers and designers may use this model to choose the optimum building types with the highest total R-value including roof, wall and floor for their design.