Energy Costs of Energy Savings in Buildings: A Review

Abstract

Abstract:It is often claimed that the cheapest energy is the one you do not need to produce. Nevertheless, this claim could somehow be unsubstantiated. In this article, the authors try to shed some light on this issue by using the concept of energy return on investment (EROI) as a yardstick. This choice brings semantic issues because in this paper the EROI is used in a different context than that of energy production. Indeed, while watts and negawatts share the same physical unit, they are not the same object, which brings some ambiguities in the interpretation of EROI. These are cleared by a refined definition of EROI and an adapted nomenclature. This review studies the research in the energy efficiency of building operation, which is one of the most investigated topics in energy efficiency. This study focuses on the impact of insulation and high efficiency windows as means to exemplify the concepts that are introduced. These results were normalized for climate, life time of the building, and construction material. In many cases, energy efficiency measures imply a very high EROI. Nevertheless, in some circumstances, this is not the case and it might be more profitable to produce the required energy than to try to save it.

Energy and environmental assessment of industrial hemp for building applications: A review

“…For instance, Cabeza et al [1] carried out a detailed and complete review in order to summarise and organise the literature on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Energy Analysis (LCEA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) studies for estimation of the energy efficiency and of the environmental and economic sustainability related to buildings. Furthermore, with regard to building energy issues, Dutil and Rousse [8] introduced the concept of Energy Returned On Investment (EROI) in buildings as a yardstick to try to shed some light on the claim that the cheapest energy is the one that is not needed. In agreement with Huijbregts et al [9], they observed that values of estimated EROI in energy saving strategies are high if compared to most of the energy production strategies, thereby highlighting the positive environmental impact of energy conservation.…”

Selecting Building Façade Materials by Integrating Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment into Value Engineering

“…Some researchers have limited themselves to evaluating the alternative materials according to the cost and environmental criteria [24][25][26]. Other studies have focused on evaluating the energy versus cost criterion in comparing alternatives [27].…”

Effect of Laminated Core Body Size on Motor Magnetic Properties

“…Motor has industrial, commercial, and household applications owing to their high efficiency and convenience. Therefore, an increase in motor efficiency leads to huge electrical energy savings realized in Negawatts [8][9][10]. To improve the efficiency of the motor, it is therefore necessary to understand the magnetic characteristics of the motor close to the actual driving environment [10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Therefore, an increase in motor efficiency leads to huge electrical energy savings realized in Negawatts [8][9][10]. To improve the efficiency of the motor, it is therefore necessary to understand the magnetic characteristics of the motor close to the actual driving environment [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Universally, power electronics accomplish power conversions involving the bidirectional flow of energy between sources, storage, and distribution grids.…”