Abstract:
Global warming is an important problem today with its influence in causing the climate change and natural disaster. The increase of green house gases (GHGs) has a huge impact in causing global warming with the most prevalent GHGs substance being Carbon dioxide (CO2). The majority of CO2 emissions come from the combustion of fuel. An increase of CO2 emissions from places of residence plays an important role in global warming. The objective of this research is to evaluate energy consumption data of five life-cycle processes as extracting, raw materials processing, manufacturing, building construction, building usage and demolition. Opaque wall materials include common brick, cement block, autoclaved aerated concrete, EPS foam concrete block and Exterior Insulation Finished System (EIFS). Then, for environmental impact concern, data were analyzed and compared to provide the suggestion of opaque wall to designer. The building lifetime of two-story houses of 1 year, 15 years, 30 years and 50 years were compared. Embodied energy of five life-cycle stages were analyzed while cooling load calculations were used as the energy consumption in kWh of electricity during building operation as well as CO2 emissions respectively. It was found common brick has the most CO2 emission in the building construction and using process for 50 year lifetime. Considering greenhouse gas emission as the area to grow the tree, Common brick requires maximum green area in the forest while EPS foam concrete block and EIFS need minimum of green area. Then, the best opaque wall material for residential buildings is EPS foam concrete block and EIFS which can reduce the amount of CO2 emissions contributing to global warming.