The exploration of the life-cycle energy saving potential for using prefabrication in residential buildings in China

Zhu, Han; Hong, Jiman; Shen, Geoffrey Qiping; Mao, Chao; Zhang, Hejia; Li, Zhengrong

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.12.045

Cited by 77 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…However, several barriers affecting the development of prefabricated buildings are often mentioned, including a higher total cost [9], impaired aesthetics [10], additional risks [11], a lack of professional expertise [12], and the absence of management experience [13]. Nevertheless, prefabricated buildings are still favored by the government of China due to their many advantages, including their faster construction speed [14], less required on-site labor [15], higher construction quality [16], sustainable development [17], and superior occupational health and safety [18]. With the development of prefabricated buildings, some new issues are beginning to emerge and become increasingly prominent, especially the design changes of prefabricated buildings.…”

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confidence: 99%

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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As a sustainable and cleaner type of facility, prefabricated buildings face more design barriers than traditional non-prefabricated buildings. Identifying and managing these barriers is key to improving the success rate of prefabricated building design. However, direct studies on these design barriers are extremely rare. The present study solved this problem by combining multiple methods, including grounded theory (GT), structured self-intersection matrix (SSIM), analytic network process (ANP), and the linear weighted sum method (LWSM). GT was adopted to identify the barriers to prefabricated building design and then SSIM was used to analyze the interactions among them. The eight design barriers were finally identified and classified into three clusters: technical barriers, economic barriers, and management barriers. A further analysis found that there is dependence and feedback among these clusters. The technical barrier cluster and management barrier cluster experience self-feedback. A network model based on ANP was next established to calculate the weights of the barrier elements and then this model was combined with LWSM to evaluate the overall design barrier strength of a project case. The results showed that architectural individualization has the greatest impact on prefabricated building design, followed by the collaborative issues among multiple units and professional designer issues. The overall design barrier strength of the project case was larger. Therefore, the first suggestion provided to the facility management sector is to establish a library for standard house types to achieve architectural design through multihouse combinations.Sustainability 2020, 12, 2994 2 of 16 construction [7], and off-site construction [8]. Whether emergency-driven or market-driven, prefabricated buildings are becoming increasingly popular. However, several barriers affecting the development of prefabricated buildings are often mentioned, including a higher total cost [9], impaired aesthetics [10], additional risks [11], a lack of professional expertise [12], and the absence of management experience [13]. Nevertheless, prefabricated buildings are still favored by the government of China due to their many advantages, including their faster construction speed [14], less required on-site labor [15], higher construction quality [16], sustainable development [17], and superior occupational health and safety [18]. With the development of prefabricated buildings, some new issues are beginning to emerge and become increasingly prominent, especially the design changes of prefabricated buildings. Bogenstatter noted that the design stage determines up to 80% of operational costs, as well as the environment impacts [19,20]. Hence, design changes can waste a great deal of time and money and even affect the quality of buildings. Overcoming this issue remains a troubling prospect for industry insiders and researchers.Design changes are common not just for ordinary buildings but also for prefabricated buildings. However, the design of a p...

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confidence: 99%

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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“…Similarly, Devi and Palaniappan [37] added an amount equal to 3% of the total building life cycle energy use to help consider energy usage at the EOL stage. In addition, 'replacement and maintenance' (recurrent embodied energy) has been a subject of exclusion for 27% of the reviewed studies [27,31,[37][38][39][40][41] despite the significant effects that this phase may have on the total building life cycle energy use. Studies reported the recurrent embodied energy may represent up to 31% of a total building's embodied energy [30].…”

Section: Stages Excludedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this method may become overwhelmingly complicated when inputs and outputs are numerous [43]. Moreover, it is prone to errors induced by the subjective removal of the iterative effect from the upstream production system [41]. Alternatively, the economic I-O approach follows a top-down approach and treats the whole economy as the boundary of analysis in order to arrive at consistent boundary definitions between studies.…”

Section: The Assessment Of Embodied Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The findings indicate that 50% of the studies used generic international databases, namely ICE, Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), SimaPro, and Ecoinvent. Other process-based databases such as the Chinese Life Cycle Database (CLCD) and Australian National Life Cycle Inventory Database (AusLCI) were also used by the reviewed studies to acquire process specific data in order to form I-O hybrid databases [27,30,36,41].…”

Section: The Assessment Of Embodied Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of Life Cycle Energy Assessment in Residential Buildings: A Critical Review of Recent Trends

et al. 2020

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Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Correspondingly, many attempts have been made across the world to minimize energy consumption in this sector via regulations and building codes. The focus of these regulations has mainly been on reducing operational energy use, whereas the impacts of buildings’ embodied energy are frequently excluded. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the energy performance of buildings via a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. The increasing amount of research has however caused the issue of a variation in results presented by LCEA studies, in which apparently similar case studies exhibited different results. This paper aims to identify the main sources of variation in LCEA studies by critically analyzing 26 studies representing 86 cases in 12 countries. The findings indicate that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracy accruing from incomplete definitions of the system boundary, in tandem with the lack of consensus on measurements of operational and embodied energies. The findings call for a comprehensive framework through which system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized.

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“…Normally, the method includes the control of manufacturing building components, the transportation of entire or partial components to the construction site, and the installation of pre-assembled components to create new constructions [23]. Prefabrication can be divided into three types: semi-prefabricated (some parts are fabricated in situ); fully prefabricated (all buildings components prefabricated and assembled in situ); and modular building, which is fully build in factory [24].…”

Section: Prefabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Link between Low Carbon Reductions Strategies and Its Performance in the Context of Climate Change: A Carbon Footprint of a Wood-Frame Residential Building in Quebec, Canada

2018

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Abstract:The design and study of low carbon buildings is a major concern in a modern economy due to high carbon emissions produced by buildings and its effects on climate change. Studies have investigated (CFP) Carbon Footprint of buildings, but there remains a need for a strong analysis that measure and quantify the overall degree of GHG emissions reductions and its relationship with the effect on climate change mitigation. This study evaluates the potential of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector by evaluating the (CFP) of four hotpots approaches defined in line with commonly carbon reduction strategies, also known as mitigation strategies. CFP framework is applied to compare the (CC) climate change impact of mitigation strategies. A multi-story timber residential construction in Quebec City (Canada) was chosen as a baseline scenario. This building has been designed with the idea of being a reference of sustainable development application in the building sector. In this scenario, the production of materials and construction (assembly, waste management and transportation) were evaluated. A CFP that covers eight actions divided in four low carbon strategies, including: low carbon materials, material minimization, reuse and recycle materials and adoption of local sources and use of biofuels were evaluated. The results of this study shows that the used of prefabricated technique in buildings is an alternative to reduce the CFP of buildings in the context of Quebec. The CC decreases per m 2 floor area in baseline scenario is up to 25% than current buildings. If the benefits of low carbon strategies are included, the timber structures can generate 38% lower CC than the original baseline scenario. The investigation recommends that CO 2 eq emissions reduction in the design and implementation of residential constructions as climate change mitigation is perfectly feasible by following different working strategies. It is concluded that if the four strategies were implemented in current buildings they would have environmental benefits by reducing its CFP. The reuse wood wastes into production of particleboard has the greatest environmental benefit due to temporary carbon storage.

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The exploration of the life-cycle energy saving potential for using prefabrication in residential buildings in China

Cited by 77 publications

References 29 publications

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Application of Life Cycle Energy Assessment in Residential Buildings: A Critical Review of Recent Trends

Evaluating the Link between Low Carbon Reductions Strategies and Its Performance in the Context of Climate Change: A Carbon Footprint of a Wood-Frame Residential Building in Quebec, Canada

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