Environmental Impact Analysis of Typical Exterior Windows for Residential Construction

Abstract

The energy consumption due to heat loss from exterior windows plays an important part in that of the whole building. Therefore, the environmental impact of exterior windows couldn’t be neglected. In this study, the energy consumption and environmental impact were quantified and analyzed based on life cycle assessment methodology. The results showed that both energy consumption and environmental impact of aluminum alloy windows and wood-plastic (WPC) windows mainly occurred at the production stage of aluminum alloy profile and flat glass respectively. At the stage of aluminum alloy profile production, the energy consumption and environment impact were 73.06% and 86% of whole life cycle, and for WPC windows they were 32.95% and 48% at the stage of flat glass production. In addition, the energy consumption and comprehensive environmental impact of aluminum alloy windows during the whole life cycle were 1.26 and 4.59 times more than that of WPC windows.