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Energy saving buildings in Africa

  • With the increasing rate of urbanization in Africa, the need for sustainable building solutions have become more paramount. More so, the tropical weather condition in Africa, means that building requirement for cooling activities would equally increase. Thus, resulting in growing energy consumption in Buildings. Therefore, it is based on these concerns, that the proposed herbarium building in the Okavango Research Institutes (ORI), in Maun Botswana, seeks to examine environmentally sustainable solution for the proposed herbarium building. This research study, therefore, focuses on evaluating the environmental impact and energy saving potential from the use of commonly available construction materials used for façade units of a building using life cycle assessment methodologies. Thus, clay bricks and hollow concrete blocks were considered for analysis. The life cycle assessment professional software tool, SimaPro 8.4.0 was used in performing a life cycle assessment of the considered building components (clay bricks, hollow concreteWith the increasing rate of urbanization in Africa, the need for sustainable building solutions have become more paramount. More so, the tropical weather condition in Africa, means that building requirement for cooling activities would equally increase. Thus, resulting in growing energy consumption in Buildings. Therefore, it is based on these concerns, that the proposed herbarium building in the Okavango Research Institutes (ORI), in Maun Botswana, seeks to examine environmentally sustainable solution for the proposed herbarium building. This research study, therefore, focuses on evaluating the environmental impact and energy saving potential from the use of commonly available construction materials used for façade units of a building using life cycle assessment methodologies. Thus, clay bricks and hollow concrete blocks were considered for analysis. The life cycle assessment professional software tool, SimaPro 8.4.0 was used in performing a life cycle assessment of the considered building components (clay bricks, hollow concrete blocks, reinforce concrete, window units and PV system). Hence, using this assessment tool, environmental impact assessment on the considered building components was carried out, and the evaluation of the impact category using two environmental indicators, namely: global warming potential and cumulative energy demand, was performed. Furthermore, a comparative study between the considered façade materials (clay brick and hollow concrete block) was performed in order to evaluate the contribution of the different façade unit to the ecological sink of the building system. Also, a comparative study between the façade unit and the other building components was performed to understand the significance of the façade unit in the overall ecological sink of the building. In addition, a CO2 mitigation potential from the use of a PV system for the supply of energy for cooling activities in the proposed herbarium was evaluated against the use of electricity for supply from the Botswana national grid. Consequently, the results obtained showed that hollow concrete block offers a more environmentally friendly solution than clay bricks when used as façade unit in a building system. This because, it contributes twice as less GHG emission to the building ecological sink when compared with clay bricks. Although, clay bricks has a slightly better energy savings potential during the use-phase than hollow concrete block, the environmental impact associated with the production of clay bricks in form of embodied energy, outweighs the energy saving gained during the use-phase for a reference lifetime of 50 years when compared with hollow concrete block. Also, the PV system’s CO2 mitigation potential when used for cooling activities during the reference lifetime of the building (50 years), resulted in a CO2 saving potential of 2.03E+06 CO2 Kg-eq. This finding showed that the PV system has a more significant impact on the reduction in the environmental impact of the building system than the environmental impact associated to the façade unit of the proposed herbarium building in Botswana.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Ibrahim Balarabe Ndanusa
Language:English
Document Type:Master's Thesis
Reviewer(s) at THI:Tobias Schrag, Daniel Navarro Gevers
Publishing Institution:Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
Date of first Publication:2020/10/19
Year of first Publication:2020
Place of publication:Ingolstadt
Pages:146
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-8384
Faculties / Institutes / Organizations:Fakultät Maschinenbau
Degree Programmes:Renewable Energy Systems (M. Sc.)
Licence (German):License Logo Urheberrechtsschutz
Release Date:2021/03/23