Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) Tool

for Commercial Building Developments in Hong Kong

User Manual (Final Draft)

Electrical and Mechanical Services Department The Government of Hong Kong SAR August, 2005

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) Tool for Commercial Building Developments in Hong Kong User Manual

Contents
Chapter Page

Preface .......................................................................................................................................1 Conditions to be observed by users of the program ..................................................................5 Part I ..........................................................................................................................................6 1 Getting started.....................................................................................................................7 1.1 The required working environment ...........................................................................7 1.2 The zipped file for distribution of the program .........................................................7 1.3 Installing the program from the zipped file ...............................................................8 1.4 Basic components in the LCA and LCC program ...................................................10 1.5 Initialisation of the Program ....................................................................................11 1.6 Back up files accompanying the program................................................................12 Part II .......................................................................................................................................13 2 The building modelling method........................................................................................14 2.1 Breaking down a building into components and elements ......................................14 2.2 Elements in Foundation, Floor and Services Components ......................................18 2.2.1 Foundation Elements .......................................................................................18 2.2.2 Floor Elements .................................................................................................20 2.2.3 List of Foundation and Floor Elements in the libraries ...................................26 2.2.4 Services Elements ............................................................................................29 3 Data management structure ..............................................................................................37 3.1 User input data for impacts and cost calculations....................................................37 3.1.1 Input files for Objects ......................................................................................37 3.1.2 A convention on use of filename extensions ...................................................38 3.1.3 Hierarchy of the input files ..............................................................................38 3.1.4 Benefits of using the user input file management structure.............................39 3.1.5 User input for energy calculations ...................................................................40 3.2 Pre-determined data for LCA and LCC ...................................................................41 3.2.1 Impact profile, unit cost and embodied energy data ........................................41 3.2.2 Libraries and files of pre-determined data for LCA/LCC ...............................42 4 Calculations for different stages in the life cycle of a building........................................49 4.1 Stages of calculations...............................................................................................49 4.2 Convention for expressing life expectance of materials ..........................................51 Part III .....................................................................................................................................53 5 Features of the program ....................................................................................................54 5.1 General information about the program...................................................................54 5.2 The Main Form ........................................................................................................56 5.3 The Building and System (Portion) Form................................................................61 5.4 The Component Group Form...................................................................................63 5.5 The Component and Elements Form .......................................................................64 5.5.1 Elements in a Component ................................................................................64

5.5.2 Characteristics of an Element ..........................................................................66 5.6 Entering a Generic Element .....................................................................................69 5.7 Defining the construction of a fabric component ....................................................70 5.8 The user input files...................................................................................................73 6 Input for Energy Calculation ............................................................................................74 6.1 The Inputs for Energy Calculation Form .................................................................74 6.1.1 The meaning of a Zone and a Room................................................................75 6.1.2 Data entry for Zones, Rooms and Fabric Components....................................76 6.2 The Air-side Air-conditioning System Form...........................................................82 6.3 The Central BS Plants Form ....................................................................................84 6.3.1 Appearance of the Form...................................................................................84 6.3.2 Central air-conditioning plant and equipment .................................................85 6.3.3 Other services systems.....................................................................................91 7 LCA and LCC calculations and results ............................................................................93 7.1 Steps of LCA and LCC calculations........................................................................93 7.2 Operating energy use calculations ...........................................................................93 7.2.1 Calculation methods.........................................................................................93 7.2.2 Performing operating energy calculations .......................................................94 7.3 Life cycle cost calculations......................................................................................98 7.4 Performing life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations..................................99 7.5 LCA/LCC Results Form ........................................................................................102 7.6 Selective assessment ..............................................................................................105 7.7 Parameters used in life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations....................106 7.8 Space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use prediction ............................108 7.8.1 The modelling methods..................................................................................108 7.8.2 Comparison of predictions.............................................................................111 7.9 The accompanying Calculator program.................................................................115 7.10 The accompanying Slide Show program ...............................................................117 Part IV....................................................................................................................................119 8 Normalisation and weighting factors..............................................................................120 8.1 Selection of normalisation factors .........................................................................120 8.2 The weighting factors ............................................................................................121 8.2.1 Purpose of weighting .....................................................................................121 8.2.2 Derivation of the weighting factors ...............................................................121 9 Limitations of the LCA and LCC program.....................................................................123 9.1 On the methods ......................................................................................................123 9.2 On the data .............................................................................................................125 9.3 Points to note in interpretation of LCA and LCC results.......................................127 Appendices .............................................................................................................................128 Appendix A: Introduction to life cycle assessment (LCA) ........................................129 A.1 What is LCA? .......................................................................................................129 A.2 The four phases of LCA .....................................................................................130 A.2.1 Goal and scope definition ..............................................................................130 A.2.2 Inventory Analysis .........................................................................................130 A.2.3 Impact assessment..........................................................................................131 A.2.4 Interpretation..................................................................................................131 Appendix B: A note on the impact categories ...........................................................132 B.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................132 B.2 Descriptions on the impacts ..............................................................................132 B.2.1 Abiotic depletion............................................................................................132

B.2.2 Global warming .............................................................................................133 B.2.3 Ozone depletion .............................................................................................133 B.2.4 Human toxicity...............................................................................................134 B.2.5 Eco-toxicity....................................................................................................134 B.2.6 Photochemical oxidation................................................................................134 B.2.7 Acidification ..................................................................................................134 B.2.8 Eutrophication................................................................................................135 Appendix C: Bibliography .............................................................................................136 C.1 Relevant textbooks, handbooks and guides ...................................................136 C.2 Research articles and cited references ...........................................................136 C.2.1 LCA development..........................................................................................136 C.2.2 LCA methods .................................................................................................138 C.2.3 LCI data .........................................................................................................139 C.2.4 LCA tools.......................................................................................................140 C.2.5 LCA application.............................................................................................141 C.2.6 LCC................................................................................................................142 C.2.7 Local issues....................................................................................................142

Preface
Continuing with using the conventional design approach and construction methods to produce buildings to meet the development needs of mankind will exacerbate environmental problems like depletion of natural resources, global warming, ozone depletion, acidification etc., which is nowadays well understood to be unsustainable. In Hong Kong, whilst the stock of new buildings traded in the property market each year is perceived as a prosperity index of the city, this is at the price of consuming an enormous amount of resources for constructing the buildings. While in use, buildings continue to consume a huge amount of energy year after year until they are demolished, but this will be followed by new buildings being erected on the same sites. The large stock of existing buildings in conjunction with the high energy use intensity in buildings makes buildings the dominant energy consumer in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the solid wastes generated during construction and demolition of buildings is becoming a serious concern due to the limited capacity of existing landfills but suitable new landfill sites are increasingly difficult to find within the territory of Hong Kong. Attempts to mitigate the environmental impacts of buildings should start from conscientious design. However, designing more sustainable buildings requires evaluation of a wide range of design options, in respect of their environmental, technical and financial feasibilities. The evaluation work has to be rigorous and holistic, but this entails a wide range of complicated analyses. The complexity involved may compel building designers to use qualitative or subjective methods, conduct just partial studies ignoring aspects that are complicated to evaluate, or even avoid conducting any such studies. Therefore, attempts to improve sustainability of building developments will remain limited, or would fail to yield the intended results, unless there are adequate tools that can facilitate building designers to properly conduct the studies within reasonable time and effort. Lacking the required information, e.g. values of parameters essential to the studies, will be another hurdle. This highlights that making available effective enabling means to the building industry, including the required tools and data, is a crucial element of any policy instruments for the promotion of sustainable building development. A tool for life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) of buildings is one of the needed enabling means. With it, building designers can quantify and compare the environmental and financial performances of alternative building designs, to inform selection of the most sustainable options. A few LCA tools dedicated for assessing buildings have already been made available for use elsewhere, such as ATHENA for use in North America, ENVEST for use in the UK and EcoQuantum for use in the Netherlands. LCA of buildings, however, must be based on local context, as the climatic conditions, production and procurement of resources for building development and the way in which buildings are built and operated may differ from one geographical region to another. Therefore, the LCA tools developed elsewhere cannot be directly adopted for assessing building developments in Hong Kong, whereas one that can reflect the local construction practices needs to be developed. With the objective to promote more sustainable building development in Hong Kong, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) of the Hong Kong SAR Government commissioned in 2003 a consultancy study on Life Cycle Energy Analysis of Building Construction. A major deliverable of the consultancy study is a LCA and LCC program as well as the required data, which are suitable for applicable to local commercial building developments. This study focused on commercial buildings, as they exist in large quantity, are more resources intensive to build and are consuming the greatest amount of energy compared to other types of buildings.

The work undertaken for the development of the LCA and LCC program included: i) a review of the state-of-the-art LCA methods and tools available worldwide to inform selection of a LCA method for adoption, and formulation of the approaches and methods for the development of the program and the required databases; survey studies for identification of the dominant materials in commercial buildings in Hong Kong, the countries of origin from which the materials are imported for local building construction, the fuel mix for electricity generation in those countries of origin and the mode of transport used for delivering the materials to Hong Kong; and for obtaining relevant information about local construction practices; modification of data sourced from proprietary life cycle inventory (LCI) databases developed overseas such that the data can reflect also the impacts due to any differences in the fuel mix used for producing the electricity used in the production processes, the impacts incurred during transportation and the impacts incurred during the local construction processes; compilation of data libraries for materials commonly used in building construction in Hong Kong to provide a basis for realistic assessment of the impacts of consuming resources and energy for constructing, operating and demolishing commercial buildings in Hong Kong; a survey of subjective evaluations of stakeholders on the relative importance among environmental impacts in different categories, and between environmental impact and cost, which are needed for computing an overall index of the environmental and financial performance of a building development; and development of a computer program for LCA and LCC of building developments.

ii)

iii)

iv)

v)

vi)

The LCA and LCC program that this User Manual covers is the outcome of the abovementioned consultancy study. The program includes modules that facilitate users to input the required data for modelling a building and the building services systems; perform LCA and LCC calculations based on the user input and data retrieved from the accompanying libraries; and view the calculation results. The results are shown in both numerical and graphical formats to ease interpretation and comparison. The program includes also a detailed energy prediction model to allow the impacts of changes in building design features on the operating energy use and cost to be included in the LCA and LCC calculations. This User Manual provides readers with information about the functions and features of the LCA and LCC program to enable them to properly prepare and input the required data, to use the program to conduct LCA and LCC of building designs, as well as to interpret the calculated results. The main body of this Manual comprises nine chapters, which are organised into four parts. In addition, there are three appendices at the end of this Manual. Chapter 1 forms the first part of this User Manual. This chapter, entitled Getting Started, begins with an installation guide that describes the steps to be followed to install the program into a computer, and the folders and files that should appear in the computer upon successful installation of the program. A quick guide is also given to provide readers with an overview of the key features and control functions of the program. With reference to the information given, users should be able to start the program, to access different parts of the program, and to exit from the program. Part two, including Chapters 2 to 4, provides information about how the program handles the data and the calculation steps for modelling a building. Chapter 2 describes how a building is broken down into different parts for data input and for impact and cost evaluation, and the element models available from the relevant libraries for modelling components and equipments in a building. The file structure used to manage the libraries of pre-determined data and the user input data files, and the contents in
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the data libraries are described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes the staged calculations implemented in the program and the range of results that will be computed. There are three chapters in the third part of this Manual, which provide a complete guide about the functions and features of each user interface for data input for modelling the components and elements of a building and its services systems (Chapter 5), for predicting the operating energy use of the building (Chapter 6), for performing energy use, life cycle impacts and life cycle cost calculations and for displaying the calculation results (Chapter 7). The last part includes, in Chapter 8, descriptions on the default values used in the program, which will help the user interpret the meaning of the calculated results; and in Chapter 9, the limitations of the present version of the LCA and LCC program. The last chapter is intended to provide readers with an understanding that LCA is still a developing field with many aspects still awaiting better methods to be developed and more accurate and comprehensive data to be made available to allow complete, more accurate and reliable quantification to be made of life cycle impacts of products, including buildings. Additionally, this Manual includes three appendices that provide supplementary information for readers reference. Appendix A is a brief introduction to LCA, which is intended to provide readers new to the subject a basic understanding about LCA. Appendix B provides brief descriptions about the impact categories embraced by the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method implemented in the program. A bibliography for LCA and LCC is given in Appendix C to introduce to readers interested in exploring further into these subjects a number of references and sources of relevant information.

Conditions to be observed by users of the program

The LCA and LCC program is made available by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) of the Hong Kong SAR Government to facilitate building designers to assess the environmental and financial performance of commercial building developments in Hong Kong. EMSD reserves copyright of the program, including the accompanying data and documentation. The program is NOT FOR SALE; no one is permitted to derive any financial benefits from distribution of the program and the accompanying data files, in part or in whole, to others in whatever form without prior consent of EMSD. Any files associated with the program, including any computer codes, data, images etc. that reside in the files, shall not be copied for use for any other purposes. EMSD imposes no restrictions on the application of the program. Any one interested may use it for legitimate purposes, including personal, educational, research and commercial applications as long as such applications do not violate any relevant laws and regulations in force in Hong Kong. EMSD, however, accepts no responsibilities, whatsoever, for the functionality of the program, the applicability of the program to any specific problems, the accuracy of the programs outputs, the accuracy and validity of the contents in the accompanying documentation, and for any consequences arising from the use of the program or information given in the documentation, including any financial losses and damages. EMSD reserves the right to make changes to the program, including the accompanying data and documents, at any time without notifying any users of the program. EMSD does not guarantee continuity of availability of the program and may stop supplying the program to any one at any time without prior notice. EMSD appreciates feedbacks on experience with using the program that will help improve the functionality and user-friendliness of the program and the accuracy of its output. EMSD appreciates acknowledgement if the software is used. The appearances of any trade names and company products in the documentation accompanying the program do not imply recommendation or endorsement by EMSD.

Part I

1 Getting started
1.1 The required working environment

The life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) program described in this User Manual will work when it is properly installed into a personnel computer (PC) that operates with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. It may work with PCs that operate with other versions of Windows, but no tests have been conducted to verify if the program will work well with versions of Windows other than Windows XP. The program cannot work with computers that operate with any other types of operating systems. Before installing the program, the user should check if there are around 120 megabytes of free disk space in his computer system, which is not a lot relative to the storage capacity of hard drives in common use nowadays, which may be up to tens of gigabytes or more. When in use, the program will generate a considerable number of files, may be up to a few hundreds, for storing the user input and the output for a project, which may aggregate to a total size of several megabytes per project. The most demanding process, in terms of computing speed, is the space cooling load prediction process. The time the program will take to finish this calculation can be shortened by using a computer with a faster CPU (say above 1GHz). The use of the screen resolution of 1024 768 pixels is recommended for proper display of the Forms in the program. Furthermore, the hard drives in the PC must include one that is designated as the C: drive. Note that the program can work properly only if the folders that contain the libraries it will access during a simulation run are maintained as subfolders directly under the folder than holds the executable code of the program (see later descriptions for details). This folder structure should not be altered to avoid unexpected crashes during program execution.

1.2

The zipped file for distribution of the program

The LCA and LCC program and its accompanying data and image files are distributed in the form of a zipped file (filename: PACKAGE.ZIP). The zipped file can either be downloaded from the website of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) (web address: http://www.emsd.gov.hk) or retrieved from a compact diskette (CD) supplied by EMSD. The file PACKAGE.ZIP is an assembly of files packed together into a single file to ease distribution. The package includes a setup program and all the files that accompany the LCA and LCC program. Before the LCA and LCC program can be run, it has to be properly installed into a PC through the use of the setup program. The files that accompany the program include: i) Data files that are libraries from which the program will retrieve data needed for performing LCA and LCC calculations; ii) Image files for two sets of slides that can be viewed using the LCA and LCC program; iii) Input data files for an example application; and iv) Softcopies of documents (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format), including this User Manual and a document that describes an example application of the program.

1.3

Installing the program from the zipped file

Before unzipping the zipped file, a new folder is to be created in your computer system, which is to be assigned as the destination folder into which the files retrieved by unzipping the zipped file are to be lodged. The folder name used in this Manual to denote this folder is LCA_HK, but you may use another folder name of your choice. Assuming the folder is under the root directory within the C: drive of your PC, the full name of the folder will be C:\LCA_HK. After unzipping the zipped file, you should find the following subfolders and files within the folder into which the unzip program lodged the unzipped files (and you should check that they do exist in the folder): Subfolders in C:\LCA_HK: Folder name Ch1 Contents Image files for the slide show on an introduction to LCA. Names of files inside this folder should include: Ch1Slides.txt, MyNotes.txt and Slide1.EMF to Slide71.EMF. Image files for the slide show about the LCA and LCC program. Names of files inside this folder should include: Ch2Slides.txt, MyNotes.txt and Slide1.EMF to Slide164.EMF. Data library files. Names of files inside this folder should include: CONTENTS.ELB, E1.IMP to E33.IMP and E1.CST to E33.CST. Data library files. Names of files inside this folder should include: ELECTSER.ELB, E1.IMP to E134.IMP and E1.CST to E134.CST. Data library files. Names of files inside this folder should include: FABRIC.ELB, E1.IMP to E42.IMP and E1.CST to E42.CST. Data library files. Names of files inside this folder should include: FOUND.ELB, E1.IMP to E22.IMP and E1.CST to E22.CST. Data library files. Names of files inside this folder should include: MECHASER.ELB, E1.IMP to E196.IMP and E1.CST to E196.CST. Example application files. Names of files inside this folder are listed in Section 7 in the Application Example document. The setup program and related files, including: LCA_HK.CAB Readme.txt Packed data file used by the setup program to install the LCA and LCC program Useful information about the program, which may include latest information that the users should be aware of The setup program for installing the LCA and LCC program Information file used by the setup program

Ch2

CONTENTS ELECTSER FABRIC FOUND MECHASER MODBLD PACKAGE

Setup.exe Setup.lst

Files in C:\LCA_HK: Filename Calculator.exe EXAMPLE.PDF FrontPic.emf hkw1989.TXT LCA.TXT MATLCIA.IDB MATLCIA.ILF MANUAL.PDF SlideShows.exe Remark A numeric calculator program that can perform general arithmetic as well as present worth calculations Application Example document An image file used by the program The weather data file used by the program for space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use predictions Control data for the two slide shows A library of impacts and unit cost data for materials A library of impacts data for landfill of materials This User Manual A program for viewing the two slide shows in an enlarged screen

Your attention is once again drawn to the condition that the LCA and LCC program will work properly only if the subfolders listed above (except the subfolder MODBLD) stay as subfolders directly under the folder than holds the executable code of the program (assumed here to be the folder named LCA_HK). This folder structure, as well as all the files in the folder LCA_HK and all its subfolders, should not be altered to avoid unexpected crashes during program execution. After all the subfolders and files have been retrieved from the zipped file, you can proceed to install the LCA and LCC program into your PC, by running the setup program (with the filename Setup.exe), which is inside the subfolder PACKAGE under the folder LCA_HK. This can be done by double clicking the filename or icon of the setup program as it appears in the Windows Explorer. When the setup program asks you to select a folder for installing the program, choose the folder LCA_HK (or the folder you assigned to hold the unzipped folders and files) by using the browser provided. The rest of the installation process is basically automatic.

Figure 1.3.1

The Form that will appear when the program is loaded for the first time

When the setup process is complete, you will find the file LCA_HK.exe in the folder, which is the executable code of the LCA and LCC program. The logo of EMSD is used as the icon of the program, which can be found in the folder. The program can now be loaded by double clicking the filename or icon of the executable code file or by using the Start bar of Windows, as for loading other types of Windows based software. Figure 1.3.1 shows the appearance of the program when it is first loaded.

1.4

Basic components in the LCA and LCC program

The LCA and LCC program was developed using the program development software Microsoft (MS) Visual Basic (VB), which can be used to produce application programs that possess objects and controls familiar to Windows users. The LCA and LCC program comprises a series of Forms, e.g. the one shown in Figure 1.3.1 is referred to as the Main Form of the program. In each Form, there are objects that facilitate the user to interact with the program through the use of the keyboard and the mouse. For instance, a Form may have a menu bar that includes a number of menu captions. The menu bar in the Main Form includes the menu captions File, Edit, Write, Run, View and SlideShow (Figure 1.3.1). By clicking on anyone of the Menu Captions, a dropdown menu will appear to allow you to select from the menu the action that you want the program to carry out. For example, if you click on the File menu caption, the dropdown menu that will show up contains following six options: Open LCIA/LCC Database Create New Project Open Project Save Project Close Project Exit You may exit from the program by clicking the File and then the Exit menu options. Other types of objects that may appear in various Forms in the program include labels, buttons, textboxes, lists, dropdown lists, option buttons, check buttons, tables (made up of rows and columns of cells), and picture and image boxes. The functions served by these objects include, for example, allowing the user to: issue a command (e.g. by clicking on a menu option or a button to call up another Form or to close a Form) enter data (e.g. by clicking on a textbox followed by entering the data by typing with the keyboard) make a selection (e.g. by clicking on a list, a dropdown list or an option button the option to be selected) save the data entered (e.g. by clicking on the menu option File and then Save Project in the menu bar in the Main Form)

Information and results generated by the program will also be displayed in objects like labels, textboxes, tables, and picture and image boxes. A series of Forms has been incorporated into the LCA and LCC program for the user to input data for modelling different parts of a complex building and to perform evaluation of the building. Detailed descriptions about these Forms and the functions of the control, data input and result display objects in these Forms are given in Chapters 5 to 7. The descriptions make reference to the terminologies used to describe different sub-divisions of a building, which are explained in Chapters 2 to 4. These chapters, collectively, give the reader a comprehensive guide to the proper use of the LCA and LCC

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program. Additionally, a document that outlines an example application is included in the package to help new users of the program to get familiarised with the procedures for entering data and performing LCA and LCC calculations with the program. However, before proceeding to use the program, the user should initialise the program according to the steps described in the following section.

1.5

Initialisation of the Program

The LCA and LCC program relies on the action of opening the file MATLCIA.IDB, which is called the Main Library in the program, to locate where this file is located within the computer system into which the program has been installed. This allows the program to obtain data not only from the Main Library, but also from other files in the correct folders within the computer system. When the program is first installed and loaded, the program has no record of where the Main Library is located, but will be able to maintain such a record after the user has opened the Main Library for the first time (with the information written into a file placed at the root directory of the C: drive). In subsequent use of the program, it would retrieve the information from the record rather than having to ask the user to repeat the action of opening the Main Library. Therefore, when the program has just been installed, the user should open the Main Library using the menu options File and then Open LCIA/LCC Database to open the Main Library (by moving the mouse pointer to the relevant menu caption followed by clicking the left button of the mouse). The common dialog box that will then appear, which is a Windows object for browsing file folders and files in the disk drives, will first display folders and files in the root directory of the C drive (i.e. C:\). The user should locate the folder LCA_HK (or the folder the user assigned for installation of the program), by clicking the folder name in the dialog box and then the Open button, followed by locating and opening the file with the filename MATLCIA.IDB, by clicking on the filename and then the Open button in the common dialog box. Figure 1.5.1 shows the common dialog box when the user has located the folder which allowed the dialog box to display the filename.

The Main Library File; click on the file and then the open button below opens this file.

Figure 1.5.1

The common dialog box for selecting the Main Library file to open

After the above process has been performed, the program will, when it is loaded next time, automatically locate the Main Library and open it. The appearance of the Main Form will, as a result, be as shown in Figure 1.5.2, which is slightly different from that shown in Figure 1.3.1. This time, the run time message displayed will include the message that the LCIA profile file has already been

11

loaded. At this stage, the user may proceed to create a new project or load a previously defined project for data entry, editing or performing assessment according to procedures described in Chapters 5 to 7.

Figure 1.5.2

Appearance of the Main Form when loaded after the Program has been initialised

If, for some reasons, the program is removed from a PC and reinstalled into the same PC but at a folder that differs from the original one in the folder name and/or location, the program will fail to load the record made during the initialisation process, which will lead to an execution error that will terminate the program. In this case, look for a file with the filename LCA_HK_Str.TXT in the root directory of the C: drive and delete it before loading the program. After this, the program can be loaded but needs to be initialised once again.

1.6

Back up files accompanying the program

We strongly recommend that you save back up copies for all the files, including those in the subfolders, that you have retrieved from the zipped file into another folder in your PC (or write them to a CD) such that in the event that any of the files get corrupted, the back up copies can be retrieved to replace the corrupted files. This is particularly important to the example input files that reside in the folder named MODBLD, as you may use the files as input while practising using the program and make changes to them. Similarly, files that you prepare for a project may have taken you considerable time and effort to prepare and thus should also be backed up to avoid any loss of data.

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Part II

13

2 The building modelling method

2.1 Breaking down a building into components and elements

As evaluation of the life cycle impacts and life cycle cost of a building may involve a large quantity of data and many calculation steps, a method had to be devised to enable the LCA and LCC program to systematically organise the data and the calculation processes. The program development work also aimed at limiting the amount of required user input data to the essential minimum. The way in which a building is modelled determines what kinds of input data are required and how use of data in calculations is to be coordinated. The method used in the program to model a building involves disaggregating the building into smaller and smaller parts by several levels. At the first level, a building is broken down into a number of Portions, and in the next, each Portion is broken down into a number of Component Groups. Decomposition of the building goes further with dividing the Component Groups into Components and further subdividing the Components into Elements. As a result, a hierarchy of objects is defined, with an object at one level being made of a number of objects at the level below, but the collection of objects at each level within the hierarchy is a complete representation of the building, though to different level of details. The following elaborates on the way that a building is decomposed for LCA and LCC calculations: 1. A building is regarded as comprising three Portions; one representing a group of Foundations, another one a stack of Floors (Figures 2.1.1 & 2.1.2) and the third a collection of Services.

Services

Floors

Foundations

Figure 2.1.1

Decomposition of a building into Foundations, Floors and Services

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Building

Portions: Foundations

Component Groups:

Foundation 1

Foundation N Floors Floor 1

Floor N Services HVAC Electrical Lighting Fire services

Figure 2.1.2

A Building, its three Portions and Component Groups in each Portion

Foundation I Floor slabs Floor beams Underground beams Piles Pile caps

Figure 2.1.3 2.

A Foundation Component Group and its Components

The Foundations Portion may include a number of foundation constructions (Figure 2.1.2) that contain collectively all the construction elements on and below the floor constructions of the lowest floor level (e.g. floor slabs, beams, piles, pile caps, underground beams, etc., Figure 2.1.3). Each Floor is a Component Group in the Floors Portion of the Building (Figure 2.1.2). A Floor may be a basement floor or one of the above-ground floors in the building (Figure 2.1.4). For floors with identical design, e.g. the typical floors in a high-rise building, only one of the identical floors needs to be modelled as a Floor. The total environmental impacts and cost of the identical floors will be determined by multiplying the impacts and cost of the Floor by the number of floors identical to it.
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3.

Roof*

Component Group: Floor I

Components:

Envelope: Walls Envelope: Windows/Skylights

A Floor

Envelope: Faade features

Frame: Load bearing walls

A stack of Floors

Frame: Columns Frame: Slabs Frame: Beams

Ground Soil A Floor Basement Foundation Soil

Contents: Partitions Contents: False ceilings Contents: Staircases Contents: Doors

* The Roof is a component of the Frame of the Floor immediately below the roof.

(a) Figure 2.1.4

(b)

(a) Floors in a building; and (b) A Floor Component Group and its Components in three Classes: Envelope, Frame & Contents

4. 5.

Each Floor is broken down into a list of Components, categorised under three Classes, namely the Envelope, Frame and Contents Classes (Figure 2.1.4(b)). The Envelope Components in a Floor may include external walls, windows and skylights, and any external faade features like overhangs and side-fins, or the vision and spandrel portions of a curtain walling system. The Frame Components in a Floor may include various structural components such as load bearing/core walls, columns, ceiling slabs and beams supporting the ceiling slabs. Note that since the ceiling slabs and beams will also be the floor slabs and beams of the floor above, the Frame Components for an intermediate floor will only have ceiling slabs and beams but no floor slabs and beams. The topmost floor would have ceiling slabs that form a part of the Roof (Figure 2.1.4). Note also that for convenience in data handling, the finishes above and below a floor slab are regarded as parts of the ceiling slab for a floor (storey). The Contents Components of a Floor includes various other building components on the floor, such as partitions, false ceilings, staircases, doors, etc. which are present in the building but do not belong to the Envelope or Frame Classes (Figure 2.1.4).

6.

7.

16

8.

The slabs, beams, piles, external walls/roofs, windows/skylights, faade features, load bearing walls, partitions, false ceilings, staircases, etc. are Components that are parts of the Building. Each Component is made up of a number of Elements made of different materials. For instance, a wall may be composed of a reinforced concrete core Element with a layer of finishing Element at each side. The Services Portion of a Building embraces all types of building services installations in the building, including heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical and lighting, fire services, vertical transportation, and plumbing and drainage installations, each being regarded as a Component Group (Figure 2.1.2). Each services installation (a Component Group) is subdivided into Components. For instance, for an HVAC installation, it will comprise chillers, pumps, air-handling units, fan coil units, fans, water pipes, air ducts, etc. (Figure 2.1.5). Each Component is made up of a number of Elements. For example, a water pipe assembly includes the metal pipe, fittings, insulations, etc.
HVAC Chillers Ch. W. Pumps Ch. W. Pipes Air-handling Units

9.

10.

Figure 2.1.5 11.

A Services Component Group (here HVAC) and its Components

The Elements are the basic building blocks of Components that make up a building. Each Element is associated with a set of data that describe the types and quantities of materials from which the element is made, and any auxiliary materials used, and wastes produced, during its construction, which are the major inputs for LCA and LCC calculations. Some of the data (e.g. the types of composing materials) are already pre-assigned with default values, with the data lodged in a number of Element Libraries, but the complete set of data includes the user input data (e.g. size of the element) stored in separate user input files. Each material is associated with a record of impacts data in a library. Each data record in the library includes also other information relevant to the specific material, including the thermal properties and unit cost of the material. Chapter 3 provides detailed descriptions about the data libraries accompanying the LCA and LCC program. Obviously, the LCA model can only cater for elements made of materials within the range of materials for which data are available in the library.

The decomposition of the foundation of a building into Foundation Component Groups, Foundation Components and Foundation Elements is generally finer than required for modelling the Foundations Portion of a building but is done for uniformity with the way in which Floors and Services are decomposed, such that all of them can be handled in the LCA and LCC program using the same data input structure and the same set of calculation routines.

17

2.2

Elements in Foundation, Floor and Services Components

To ease preparation of input data and entry of the data into the program for modelling a building, models for a range of Elements have been prepared and lodged into a set of data libraries (see Section 2.2.3 and 2.2.4). This allows the user to select appropriate Element models from the libraries such that a building model can be conveniently assembled for LCA and LCC evaluation. For each Element model, the types of materials that make up the Element, the types of auxiliary materials that would also be used in construction of the Element, the portions of the materials that would become wastes during the construction stage, and the life expectance of the Element are assigned with default values in the model (which may be altered by the user see Chapter 5). The user, however, has to provide data for parameters (e.g. dimensions) that determine the quantity of each type of material that would be consumed. Since there can be many different types of Elements in a building and each may involve a different set of parameters for which user input data are required, a standardised data input format is defined for each type of Element, to guide users to input the necessary data. The following describes the range and types of input parameters required for various types of Elements embraced by the Libraries accompanying the LCA and LCC program. 2.2.1 Foundation Elements

The types of elements included in the Element Library for Foundation Elements include: Description 1. Rectangular reinforced concrete pile
Concrete Steel reinforcement

Required input data W: D: L: mS: Width of pile cross-section (m) Depth of pile cross-section (m) Length of pile (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

W Cross Section

2. Circular reinforced concrete pile

Concrete Steel reinforcement

D: Diameter of pile cross-section (m) L: Length of pile (m) mS: Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

D Cross Section

18

Description 3. Reinforced concrete underground beam

Concrete Steel reinforcement

Required input data W: D: L: mS: Width of beam (m) Depth of beam (m) Length (span) of beam (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

D W W Cross Section

4. Reinforced concrete slab/plate

Concrete T Steel reinforcement

T: W: D: mS:

Cross Section

Thickness of slab/plate (m) Width of slab/plate (m) Depth of slab/plate (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

T W

5. Steel H-piles

m: Mass per metre (kg/m) L: Length (m)

6. Steel sheet piles

m: Mass per metre (kg/m) L: Length (m)

7. Others (generic)

User to select material from materials library and specify quantity

19

2.2.2

Floor Elements

The types of elements included in the Element Library for Floor Elements include: Description 1. Rectangular reinforced concrete column
Concrete Steel reinforcement

Required input data W: D: H: mS: Width of column cross-section (m) Depth of column cross-section (m) Height of column (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

W Cross Section

2. Circular reinforced concrete column

Concrete Steel reinforcement

D: Diameter of column cross-section (m) H: Height of column (m) mS: Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

D Cross Section

3. Reinforced concrete beam

Concrete Steel reinforcement

W: D: L: mS:

Width of beam (m) Depth of beam (m) Length (span) of beam (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

D W W Cross Section

20

Description 4. Universal beams/Steel structure elements

Required input data m: Mass per metre (kg/m) L: Length (m)

5. Reinforced concrete wall and partition

W w h Opening (if any) T
Steel reinforcement Concrete

T: W: H: w: h: mS:

Thickness of wall (m) Width of wall (m) Height of wall (m) Width of opening (m) Height of opening (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

T Cross Section

6. Brick/block wall
W

Brick/block
w h Opening (if any) T

T: W: H: w: h:

Thickness of wall (m) Width of wall (m) Height of wall (m) Width of opening (m) Height of opening (m)

T Cross Section

21

Description 7. Dry wall

W Wall material w h Opening (if any) T

Required input data T: W: H: w: h: Thickness of layer (m) Width of wall (m) Height of wall (m) Width of opening (m) Height of opening (m)

Different models for dry walls made from different materials are available.

T Cross Section

8. Insulation
W Insulation w h Opening (if any) T

W: H: w: h: T:

Width of wall (m) Height of wall (m) Width of opening (m) Height of opening (m) Thickness of insulation (m)

Different models for insulation layers made from different materials are available.

T Cross Section

9. Wall finish
W w h Opening (if any) T
Finishing material

W: H: w: h: T:

Width of wall (m) Height of wall (m) Width of opening (m) Height of opening (m) Thickness of material (m)

Different models for finish layers made from different materials are available.

T Cross Section

22

Description 10. Reinforced concrete slab

Concrete T Steel reinforcement

Required input data W: D: T: mS: Width of slab (m) Depth of slab (m) Thickness of slab (m) Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

Cross Section

T W

11. Metal decking sheets

m: Average mass per square metre (kg/m) A: Area (m) W: Width of floor (m) D: Depth of floor (m) T: Thickness of finish (m)
D

12. Floor finish

T W

Different models for finishes made from different materials are available.

13. Roof finish

W: Width of floor (m) D: Depth of floor (m) T: Thickness of finish (m)

D W

Different models for finishes made from different materials are available.

14. Concrete stair

Width, W

A: Cross-sectional area (m) W: Width (m) mS: Mass of steel per unit volume of component (kg/m)

Cross-sectional Area, A

23

Description 15. Window glazing

W Glass pane

Required input data W: Width of window (m) H: Height of window (m) T: Thickness of glass (m) Different models for different types of glass are available.

H T Cross Section T

16. Window/curtain wall frame

W

m: Mass of aluminium frame per unit length (kg/m) L: Total length of frame element (e.g. for the frame shown, L = 2 (W + H)) Af: Surface area of frame per unit length (m/m) (anodized area)

17. Ceiling tile

W: Width of tile (m) D: Depth of tile (m) T: Thickness of material (m)

D W

Different models for ceiling tiles made from different materials are available.

18. Ceiling grid

m: Mass per unit length (kg/m) L: Length of grid (m) Models for aluminium and steel ceiling grids are available.

24

Description 19. Door

W Door leaf

Required input data W: Width of door (m) H: Height of door (m) T: Thickness of door (m) Different models for doors made from different materials are available.

H T T Cross Section

20. Door frame

W

m: Mass of frame material per unit length (kg/m) L: Total length of frame element (e.g. for the frame shown, L = 2 H + W) Different models for door frames made from different materials are available.

21. Others (generic)

User to select material from materials library and specify quantity

25

2.2.3

List of Foundation and Floor Elements in the libraries

The parameters requiring user input for the Foundation Element models are defined in the Foundation Element Library (Filename: FOUND.ELB). Two Element Libraries have been defined for the Floor Elements, including the one with the filename FABRIC.ELB, which embraces all the Floor Elements under the Envelope and the Frame Classes; and the file named CONTENTS.ELB, for Floor Elements under the Contents Class. Tables 2.2.1 to 2.2.3 summarises the range of Elements embraced by the three Element Libraries: FOUND.ELB, FABRIC.ELB and CONTENTS.ELB, and the default life expectance of the Elements (in years). Following these tables is a list of points regarding the Foundation and Floor Elements that requires attention.
No. Foundation Elements Life Expectance (yrs) (user input) 0 Generic 1 RC 35 Pile (Round) 50 2 RC 40 Pile (Round) 50 3 RC 45 Pile (Round) 50 4 RC 50 Pile (Round) 50 5 RC 60 Pile (Round) 50 6 RC 35 Pile (Rect.) 50 7 RC 40 Pile (Rect.) 50 8 RC 45 Pile (Rect.) 50 9 RC 50 Pile (Rect.) 50 10 RC 60 Pile (Rect.) 50 11 RC 35 Beam 50 12 RC 40 Beam 50 13 RC 45 Beam 50 14 RC 50 Beam 50 15 RC 60 Beam 50 16 RC 35 Slab/Plate 50 17 RC 40 Slab/Plate 50 18 RC 45 Slab/Plate 50 19 RC 50 Slab/Plate 50 20 RC 60 Slab/Plate 50 21 Steel H-Pile 50 22 Steel Sheet Pile 50 Note: RC ## denotes reinforced concrete with concrete of Grade ##

Table 2.2.1

Elements in the Foundation Element Library (Filename: FOUND.ELB)

26

No. Envelope & Frame Elements Life Expectance (yrs) (user input) 0 Generic 1 RC 35 Column (Rect.) 50 2 RC 40 Column (Rect.) 50 3 RC 45 Column (Rect.) 50 4 RC 50 Column (Rect.) 50 50 5 RC 60 Column (Rect.) 6 RC 35 Column (Round) 50 7 RC 40 Column (Round) 50 8 RC 45 Column (Round) 50 9 RC 50 Column (Round) 50 50 10 RC 60 Column (Round) 11 Steel Column/Beam 50 12 RC 35 Beam 50 13 RC 40 Beam 50 14 RC 45 Beam 50 50 15 RC 50 Beam 16 RC 60 Beam 50 17 RC 35 Wall 50 18 RC 40 Wall 50 19 RC 45 Wall 50 50 20 RC 50 Wall 21 RC 60 Wall 50 22 RC 35 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 23 RC 40 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 24 RC 45 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 50 25 RC 50 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 26 RC 60 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 27 Brick Wall 50 28 RC 35 Slab 50 29 RC 40 Slab 50 50 30 RC 45 Slab 31 RC 50 Slab 50 32 RC 60 Slab 50 33 Steel Decking 50 34 Granite Finish 20 20 35 Cement Plaster 36 Window Glass 30 37 Aluminium Window Frame 30 38 Rock Wool Insulation 20 39 Fibre Glass Insulation 20 20 40 Sand Screeding 41 Tiles on Cement Screeding 20 42 Asphalt Water Proofing 50 Note: RC ## denotes reinforced concrete with concrete of Grade ##

Table 2.2.2

Elements in the Fabric Element Library (Filename: FABRIC.ELB)

27

No. Contents Elements Life Expectance (yrs) (user input) 0 Generic 1 Ceiling T-bars (Aluminum) 20 2 Ceiling T-bars (GI Painted) 15 3 Ceiling Tiles (Aluminum) 20 4 Ceiling Tiles (Fibre Glass) 20 20 5 Ceiling Tiles (Gypsum) 6 Ceiling Tiles (Plywood) 20 7 Ceiling Tiles (Steel Painted) 15 8 Door Frame (Aluminum) 30 9 Door Frame (Hardwood) 15 15 10 Door Frame (Steel) 11 Door Leaf (Aluminum) 30 12 Door Leaf (Glass) 30 13 Door Leaf (Hardwood) 30 14 Door Leaf (Steel) 30 20 15 Granite Finish 16 Insulation (Fibre Glass) 20 17 Insulation (Rock Wool) 20 18 Partition (Brick) 50 19 Partition (Concrete Block) 50 50 20 Partition (Gypsum) 21 Plastering (Cement) 20 22 RC 35 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 23 RC 40 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 24 RC 45 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 50 25 RC 50 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 26 RC 60 Wall (Non-load Bearing) 50 27 Sand Screeding 20 28 Stairs (Concrete) 50 29 Tiles (Ceramic) 20 15 30 Wallpaint (Acrylic) 31 Wallpaint (Natural) 15 32 Window Frame (Aluminum) 40 33 Window Pane (Glass) 40 Note: RC ## denotes reinforced concrete with concrete of Grade ##

Table 2.2.3

Elements in the Contents Library (Filename: CONTENTS.ELB)

28

The user should take note of the following which apply to models for Elements in the Foundation and Floors in a building: 1. 2. Where elements can be made from different materials (e.g. wall and floor finishes), elements made from different combinations of material types are each regarded as a different Element. For reinforced concrete elements (e.g. slabs, beams and columns), element models have been made available for each element type to cover elements made from concrete of different grades (denoted by RC ## where ## is the concrete grade). If an element is outside the coverage of the element models in the libraries, the generic model may be used to model such elements, provided all the composing materials of the element are available from the materials library. The user can select the types of materials and specify the quantity, wastage rate and life expectance of each material using the generic element model to build a model for the element concerned (see Section 4.2 for the convention adopted to express life expectance in the input). The user can also make changes to the default values in an element model, including the materials from which the element is made, and the wastage rate, life expectance of each material and the unit cost of each material, to adapt the model to the specific element being modelled (see Section 5.2.4.2). For instance, if the formwork used for a reinforced concrete element is made from aluminium or steel rather than timber, the material for the formwork, the thickness of the formwork and the times of use before the formwork is disposed of may be changed to model the metal formwork. Such changes will apply only to those Elements for which user input values are defined, but will not affect other Elements that are modelled by the default element model. In order that the energy calculation part of the program can share the use of the user input data for the impacts and cost assessment, data for Elements that form an external wall or roof must be entered according to the sequence that data for the outermost element (e.g. external finish) must be entered first, followed by other elements in the same order as the elements would appear in the constructed Component, from outside to inside (see also Chapter 5). Services Elements

3.

4.

5.

2.2.4

Unlike the Foundation and Floor elements for which standardised models can be established to allow the program users to input detailed descriptions about the physical dimensions of the element and the proportions of materials used to construct the element, few services components and elements of services systems can be handled in the same manner. Many Services components are in fact equipments that are complex assemblies of a vast amount of different materials. For such Services elements, impacts and cost data were established on the basis of typical designs of the respective types of equipment. This means that each equipment model is assumed to be made of a pre-assigned set of materials, which cannot be altered by the user, and the entire piece of equipment is modelled as if it is a material. Nonetheless, a few services elements, such as light troughs, duct and pipe insulations, etc. are modelled by predefined Elements, which would require user input data about their dimensions. The Services Element models are available from two Services Libraries, stored in the files with the filenames ELECTSER.ELB and MECHASER.ELB. The former library contains data for elements in electrical services installations (including lighting and lifts and escalators) while the latter are for various other types of services equipments and components (in HVAC, fire services and plumbing and drainage installations). The types and size/capacity ranges of major services equipment available in these element libraries are summarised in Tables 2.2.4 and 2.2.5.

29

No. 0 4 6 8 1 2 3 5 7 11 12 13 14 17 9 10 15 16 22 20 24 18 19 21 23 25 26 29 31 27 28 30 32 33 34 37 38 40 41 35 36 39 42 46 47 48 43 44 45 50 49 53 51 52 55 54 56 57

Electrical Services Elements Generic Busbar Aluminium (225A) Busbar Aluminium (400-600A) Busbar Aluminium (800-1000A) Busbar Aluminium (1200-1350A) Busbar Aluminium (1600A) Busbar Aluminium (2000-2500A) Busbar Aluminium (3000A) Busbar Aluminium (4000A) Busbar Copper (225A) Busbar Copper (2500A) Busbar Copper (3000A) Busway Copper (400-600A) Busbar Copper (800-1000A) Busbar Copper (1200-1350A) Busbar Copper (1600-2000A) Busbar Copper (4000A) Busbar Copper (5000A) Cable Armoured 4/C (4-6mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (25-50mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (70-95mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (120-150mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (185mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (300mm2) Cable Armoured 4/C (400mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (1.5-6mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (10-16mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (25-35mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (50-95mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (120-150mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (240mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (300mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (500mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (630mm2) Cable PVC Copper 1/C (800mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (2-35mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (4-16mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (50-70mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (95-120mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (185mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (240mm2) Cable PVC Copper 4/C (400mm2) Diesel generator set 100kW Diesel generator set 300kW Diesel generator set 400kW Diesel generator set 600kW Diesel generator set 1000kW Diesel generator set 1500kW Diesel generator set 2000kW ACB 800-1600A ACB 2000-2500A Isolator Switch TPN 63-125A Isolator Switch TPN 160-315A Isolator Switch TPN 400-630A MCB Dist. Board 4/6 way 32-200A MCB Dist. Board 14/16/18 way 32-300A MCB Dist. Board 8/10/12 way 32-250A MCB SP 10-50A

ife Expectance (yrs) L (user input) 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 25 30 30 30 30 30 30 25 25 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 25 25 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 20 30 30 20 20 20 20

30

No. 58 59 61 60 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 72 70 71 74 73 79 81 75 76 77 78 80 84 87 82 83 85 86 133 134 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115

Electrical Services Elements MCB SP 63-100A MCB TPN 15-50A MCB TPN 63-160A MCB TPN 200A MCCB Dist. Board 14/16 way 200-400A MCCB Dist. Board 14/16 way 630A MCCB Dist. Board 2/4/6 way 100-300A MCCB Dist. Board 2/4/6 way 400-630A MCCB Dist. Board 8/10/12 way 100-300A MCCB Dist. Board 8/10/12 way 400-630A MCCB SP 16/32A MCCB TPN < 200A MCCB TPN 250-800A MCCB TPN 1000-1200A MCCB TPN 1600-2500A TPN Fuseswitch 32-250A TPN Fuseswitch 315-630A Pipe G.I. 15mm dia. Pipe G.I. 20mm dia. Pipe G.I. 25mm dia. Pipe G.I. 32mm dia. Pipe G.I. 40mm dia. Pipe G.I. 50mm dia. Pipe G.I. 65mm dia. Pipe PVC 13mm dia. Pipe PVC 20mm dia. Pipe PVC 25mm dia. Pipe PVC 32mm dia. Pipe PVC 40mm dia. Pipe PVC 50mm dia. Cable Trunking Cable Tray T5 Fluorescent Tube 4W T5 Fluorescent Tube 6W T5 Fluorescent Tube 8W T5 Fluorescent Tube 14W T5 Fluorescent Tube 21W T5 Fluorescent Tube 28W T5 Fluorescent Tube 35W T8 Fluorescent Tube 14W T8 Fluorescent Tube 15W T8 Fluorescent Tube 18W T8 Fluorescent Tube 30W T8 Fluorescent Tube 36W T8 Fluorescent Tube 58W T12 Fluorescent Tube 20W T12 Fluorescent Tube 40W T12 Fluorescent Tube 65W Incandescent E27 25 - 100W Compact Fluorescent Lamp 10W Compact Fluorescent Lamp 13W Compact Fluorescent Lamp 18W Compact Fluorescent Lamp 26W T5 Electronic Ballast T8 Electronic Ballast T12 Electronic Ballast T8/T12 Magnetic Ballast Light Trough w/Alum. Para. Diffuser Light Trough w/Acrylic Diffuser

Life Expectance (yrs) 20 20 20 20 30 30 20 30 20 30 20 20 30 30 30 20 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 5 5 5 18 15 15

31

No. 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 88

Electrical Services Elements Downlight Casing (Alum. Cylindrical) Downlight Casing (Steel Cylindrical) Lift 10 Persons - 750kg Lift 12 Persons - 900kg Lift 13 Persons - 1000kg Lift 15 Persons - 1150kg Lift 18 Persons - 1350kg Lift 21 Persons - 1600kg Escalator 0.6m S.Steel Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 0.6m Glass Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 0.6m Glass Rail Glass Case Escalator 0.8m S.Steel Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 0.8m Glass Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 0.8m Glass Rail Glass Case Escalator 1.0m S.Steel Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 1.0m Glass Rail S.Steel Case Escalator 1.0m Glass Rail Glass Case Photovoltaic Panel

Life Expectance (yrs) 15 15 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 10

Note:

The sequential order that the Elements will appear in the list that can be called up for the user to select an Element from it will follow the order as shown in the above Table. The Element numbers shown above, however, are not in consecutive order, which was the result of several rounds of addition and modification of elements in the library. The program will be able to correctly identify individual Elements by these numbers as long as each element is associated with a unique number that falls within the maximum allowable number, but their order of appearance does not matter. This is a feature of the program design to give flexibility to maintenance of the Libraries.

Table 2.2.4

Elements in the Electrical Services Library (Filename: ELECTSER.ELB)

32

No. 0 1 3 4 5 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 29 21 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 161 162 163 42 164 44 165 166 38 167 39 40 41 168 43 169 170 171

Mechanical Services Elements Generic AHU Horizontal (0.47-1.95 m3/s) AHU Horizontal (2.60-4.77 m3/s) AHU Horizontal (5.30-7.94 m3/s) AHU Horizontal (8.42-9.98 m3/s) AHU Horizontal (11.58-14.78 m3/s) AHU Vertical (0.47-0.82 m3/s) AHU Vertical (1.42-1.95 m3/s) AHU Vertical (2.60-2.77 m3/s) AHU Vertical (3.15-3.68 m3/s) AHU Vertical (4.45-4.77 m3/s) AHU Vertical (5.30-5.77 m3/s) Chiller Aircooled Centri. <=327TR Chiller Aircooled Recip. <= 130TR Chiller Aircooled Recip. 131-150TR Chiller Aircooled Recip. 151-210TR Chiller Aircooled Recip. 211-220TR Chiller Aircooled Screw <= 25TR Chiller Aircooled Screw 26-50TR Chiller Aircooled Screw 51-80TR Chiller Aircooled Screw 81-115TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 120-180TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. <= 250TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 250-400TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 401-500TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 501-600TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 601-700TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 750TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 1000TR Chiller Watercooled Cent. 1600TR FCU Ceiling Concealed 0.09-0.19m3/s FCU Ceiling Concealed 0.24-0.38m3/s FCU Ceiling Concealed 0.47-0.57m3/s FCU Ceiling Concealed 0.76m3/s FCU Ceiling Exposed 0.09-0.19m3/s FCU Ceiling Exposed 0.28-0.38m3/s FCU Ceiling Exposed 0.47-0.57m3/s FCU Ceiling Exposed 0.76m3/s Pipe Black Steel 15mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 20mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 25mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 32mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 40mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 50mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 65mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 80mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 100mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 125mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 150mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 200mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 250mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 300mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 350mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 400mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 450mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 500mm dia.

Life Expectance (yrs) (user input) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

33

No. 172 173 49 50 45 46 47 48 174 52 175 54 55 56 51 53 62 57 58 59 60 61 176 177 178 67 179 69 180 181 63 182 64 65 66 183 68 184 72 185 186 187 75 188 70 71 73 74 189 190 76 191 78 192 79 80 193

Mechanical Services Elements Pipe Black Steel 550mm dia. Pipe Black Steel 600mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 80mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 100mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 150mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 200mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 250mm dia. Pipe Cast Iron 300mm dia. Pipe Copper 10mm dia. Pipe Copper 15mm dia. Pipe Copper 22mm dia. Pipe Copper 35mm dia. Pipe Copper 54mm dia. Pipe Copper 76mm dia. Pipe Copper 108mm dia. Pipe Copper 159mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 100mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 150mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 200mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 300mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 400mm dia. Pipe Ductile Iron 600mm dia. Pipe G.I. 15mm dia. Pipe G.I. 20mm dia. Pipe G.I. 25mm dia. Pipe G.I. 32mm dia. Pipe G.I. 40mm dia. Pipe G.I. 50mm dia. Pipe G.I. 65mm dia. Pipe G.I. 80mm dia. Pipe G.I. 100mm dia. Pipe G.I. 125mm dia. Pipe G.I. 150mm dia. Pipe G.I. 200mm dia. Pipe G.I. 250mm dia. Pipe G.I. 300mm dia. Pipe G.I. 350mm dia. Pipe PVC 13mm dia. Pipe PVC 20mm dia. Pipe PVC 25mm dia. Pipe PVC 32mm dia. Pipe PVC 40mm dia. Pipe PVC 50mm dia. Pipe PVC 80mm dia. Pipe PVC 100mm dia. Pipe PVC 150mm dia. Pipe PVC 200mm dia. Pipe PVC 250mm dia. Pipe PVC 300mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 13mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 20mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 25mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 32mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 40mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 50mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 80mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 100mm dia.

Life Expectance (yrs) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

34

No. 194 77 195 196 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 89 91 92 93 94 88 90 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 125 127 124 126 150 151 152 153 154 155

Mechanical Services Elements Pipe Stainless Steel 150mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 200mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 250mm dia. Pipe Stainless Steel 300mm dia. Pump Cent. multistage <=0.3L/s Pump Cent. multistage 0.4-0.6L/s Pump Cent. multistage 0.7-1.6L/s Pump Cent. multistage 1.7-2.0L/s Pump Cent. multistage 2.1-4.0L/s Pump Cent. multistage 4.1-8.0L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage <=15L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 15-20L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 20-30L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 30-40L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 40-80L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 80-120L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 120-180L/s Pump Cent. 1-stage 180-260L/s Bathtub Cast iron Bidet Fire Clay Shower Tray Fire Clay Sink Fire Clay Squat Pan Fire Clay Urinal Fire Clay Washbasin Fire Clay Water Closet Fire Clay Kitchen Sink Single Kitchen Sink Twin VAV Box <=0.2m3/s VAV Box 0.25-0.405m3/s VAV Box 0.405-0.615m3/s VAV Box 0.615-1.025m3/s VAV Box 1.025-1.680m3/s Fan Axial 100-250Pa; 0.21-0.70m3/s Fan Axial 300-350Pa; 0.75-2.55m3/s Fan Axial 400Pa; 2.82-4.15m3/s Fan Axial 400Pa; 4.87-9.60m3/s Fan Axial 500Pa; 4.15-5.44m3/s Fan Axial 500Pa; 5.82-9.42m3/s Fan Cent. 250Pa; 0.25m3/s Fan Cent. 400-450Pa; 0.95m3/s Fan Cent. 500Pa; 2.5-3.0m3/s Fan Cent. 500Pa; 5.5-7.5m3/s Fan Propeller 30Pa; 0.55m3/s Fan Propeller 70Pa; 0.4-1.375m3/s Water Heater Instantaneous 0.3L 24kW Water Heater 10L (3 kW) Water Heater 15L (3 kW) Water Heater 30L (3 kW) Water Heater 50L (3 kW) Water Heater 250L (18 kW) Water Heater 450L (30 kW) Water Heater 700L (45 kW) Water Heater 1250L (54 kW) Water Heater 2000L (54 kW) Water Heater 3000L (54 kW) Water Heater 567L (144 kW)

Life Expectance (yrs) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

35

No. 156 157 158 159 160 128 129 130 131 132 134 133 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149

Mechanical Services Elements Water Heater 945L (216 kW) Water Heater 1512L (360 kW) Water Heater 2268L (540 kW) Water Heater 3024L (720 kW) Water Heater 9450L (900 kW) Cable Trunking Cable Tray Pipe Aluminium Cladding on Insulation Pipe G.I. Cladding on Insulation Pipe Plastering Pipe Insulation Fibreglass Insulation Fibreglass Blanket Insulation Fibreglass on Rect. Duct Insulation Fibreglass on Oval Duct Insulation Fibreglass on Circular Duct A/C Ductwork G.I. Sheet A/C Ductwork Stainless Steel Sheet A/C Ductwork Aluminium Sheet A/C Ductwork Rect. G.I. A/C Ductwork Rect. Stainless Steel A/C Ductwork Rect. Aluminium A/C Ductwork Oval G.I. A/C Ductwork Oval Stainless Steel A/C Ductwork Oval Aluminium A/C Ductwork Circular G.I. A/C Ductwork Circular Stainless Steel A/C Ductwork Circular Aluminium

Life Expectance (yrs) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

Note:

The sequential order that the Elements will appear in the list that can be called up for the user to select an Element from it will follow the order as shown in the above Table. The Element numbers shown above, however, are not in consecutive order, which was the result of several rounds of addition and modification of elements in the library. The program will be able to correctly identify individual Elements by these numbers as long as each element is associated with a unique number that falls within the maximum allowable number, but their order of appearance does not matter. This is a feature of the program design to give flexibility to maintenance of the Libraries.

Table 2.2.5

Elements in the Mechanical Services Library (Filename: MECHASER.ELB)

36

3 Data management structure

3.1
3.1.1

User input data for impacts and cost calculations

Input files for Objects

The way in which a Building is broken down into Portions, Component Groups, Components and Elements as described in the preceding Chapter allows a building to be modelled by a structured set of user input data. This structure also defines the sequence that LCA and LCC calculations are performed, and the way that the user input data and the data available in the libraries accompanying the program are retrieved for the calculations. In the design of the LCA and LCC program, a Building, its Foundations and Floors, the Envelope, Frame and Contents Components, the Services, and the Components of each type of services, etc., are each regarded as an Object. Each Object has a set of attributes, which are to be assigned with information (text or numerical data) input by the user. For instance, a Building may have several Foundations, a number of Floors and a number of Services. A Floor may have a variety of Components in the Envelope, Frame and Contents Classes. The input data for the attributes may be a physical quantity, e.g. number, area, thickness, etc., or a pointer or filename that links the Object to other information (e.g. material type and its properties). The input data for each Object will be stored in a separate file with a unique filename. This allows the same data file for an Element (e.g. external wall finish) to be used to build up the input for different Components (e.g. external walls of the same external finish and of the same width and height but differ only in the concrete thickness), by reference to the same filename. Likewise, the same data file for a Component (e.g. an external wall) can be used to build up different Component Groups (e.g. Floors which differ only in the structural frame but have identical envelope construction). With the data for each Object stored in a separate file, previously prepared input files may also be conveniently loaded and modified. For instance, element data files developed for other Components can be loaded and modified to become Element data files specific to the Component under concern (e.g. for walls comprising similar range of materials and with different dimensions). Similarly, a Component data file for another Component Group can be loaded and modified to become a Component data file specific to the Component Group under concern (e.g. the same material layers that make up walls of different surface areas). Note that the input files for a project must all reside in the same folder, the Project Folder created specifically for the project. The program will only read files from and write files to the Project Folder. The Project Folder may have just been created by the program when the user starts a new project or is the one from which the main input file (the Project File) for an existing project was loaded (when the user used the common dialog box to open the file). This file organisation method helps avoid accidental modification of files belonging to other projects. When previously defined files for other projects are to be brought-in for use in a project, do not load those files direct from their original project folders. Rather, copies of those files should be made and lodged into the Project Folder for the current project (through the use of the Windows Explorer or other methods) before loading those files into the program for direct use or editing. Furthermore, keeping all user input and program output files pertaining to a project in one single folder also facilitates exchanges of project data among users. A project can be passed on from one user to another (or transported from one PC to another) by simply copying an entire folder, including
37

all the files inside it to a portable storage medium (e.g. a flask drive or a diskette), or packed and transmitted through email as an attachment. The user at the receiving end can simply copy the folder with its contents to his PC and treat the project as an exiting project. Further editing and analysis can be done by simply using the program to open the project file in the folder. 3.1.2 A convention on use of filename extensions

Since the data for each Object is stored in a separate file, many such data files may be created for a building. To facilitate proper management of these files, the files should be assigned with easily distinguishable filenames. For this purpose, the LCA and LCC program adopts a convention for the use of filename extensions (a filename extension includes a dot and three alpha-numeric characters that follows a filename), such that files for a specific type of Objects can be easily distinguished from files for another type of Objects. The convention for filename extensions is as shown in Box 3.1.1. Whilst the filename for each file (the part shown in italic in Box 3.1.1) is to be assigned by the user at the time a set of newly entered data is saved, the program will automatically append an appropriate filename extension to the file, according to the type of Object the file is for.

Top Level: 2nd Level:

Project (Building) File: Foundations Files: Floors Files Services Files Foundation Component Files: Floor Component Files: Services Component Files: Foundation Elements Files: Floor Elements Files: Services Elements Files:

ProjName.PRJ FdnName.FDN FloorName.FLR SerName.SER FdnCompName.FDC FlrCompName.FLC SerCompName.SRC FdnElmName.FDE FlrElmName.FLE SerElmName.SRE

3rd Level:

4th Level:

Box 3.1.1

Filename extensions for user-input files

3.1.3

Hierarchy of the input files

As shown in Box 3.1.1, the input data files are organised into four Levels, with the Project (Building) File (the main input file) at the top. This file includes information about the number of Foundations, Floors and Services Component Groups in the Building, and the filenames of the data files that provide data for the attributes of each of these Component Groups. The following lists the lines of input data that a Project File (ProjName.PRJ) will contain: The filename of the file itself (as saved by the LCA and LCC program) The name of the Project and the total construction floor area (CFA, m) of the building Total number of Foundations in the Project Filename for the 1st Foundation, its name, and the number of Foundations identical to it Filename for the 2nd Foundation, name (similar to above) :

38

Filename of the Nth Foundation, name (similar to above) Total number of Floors in the Project Filename for the 1st Floor, its name, and the number of Floors identical to it Filename for the 2nd Floor, name (similar to above) : Filename of the Nth Floor, name (similar to above) Total number of Services Installations in the Project Filename for the 1st Services, its name, and the number of Services identical to it Filename for the 2nd Services, name (similar to above) : Filename for the Nth Services, name (similar to above) Knowing the names of those 2nd Level files that contain information about the Component Groups (Foundations, Floors and Services), the program can load those files to obtain the information. The same structure is maintained to allow the program to access information in files at a particular Level (e.g. 4th Level) based on their filenames given in a file one Level up (a 3rd Level file for a 4th Level file). 3.1.4 Benefits of using the user input file management structure

The file management method described above encourages the user to breakdown a building into as many identical Components and Elements as possible, such that only the unique Components and Elements would need to be modelled by separate inputs. Each unique Component or Element can then be used to represent all the Components and Elements that are identical to it, together with the number of identical Components or Elements that it represents (including itself). The following examples help illustrate clearer this point. Example 1 Faade of a floor made of identical parts
Beam Window Wall Basic faade component that can represent the entire facade

39

Example 2 Frame component of a floor made up of identical parts

Beams Columns Ceiling slab

Column, beams and slab in a generic bay that can represent all identical bays Ceiling slab Beams Columns

With this data file management method, the amount of user input data can be drastically reduced, minimising the effort required for data preparation. Furthermore, as more building components have been prepared, preparation of input for a new project can take advantage of the existing input files, as the inputs required can be prepared quickly through editing (copies of) the existing files. 3.1.5 User input for energy calculations

In addition to the above-mentioned files for modelling a building, the operating energy simulation part of the LCA and LCC program requires a separate set of input data for it to perform the cooling load and plant energy use predictions. Data entry forms are provided to facilitate the user to key-in the data and the program will store the data in the following files for use in the energy calculations. Filename ProjFName.ECI ProjFName.CON ProjFName.ASS ProjFName.WSS ProjFName.NAC Contents Characteristics of air-conditioned zones Construction characteristics of fabric elements Characteristics of air-side air-conditioning systems Characteristics of central air-conditioning plant Characteristics of non-air-conditioning services systems

Note that the program will use the Project Filename (ProjFName) assigned by the user as the names of these files; they are distinguished from one another through the different filename extensions. These files will be written to the Project Folder and may be retrieved for editing later.

40

3.2

Pre-determined data for LCA and LCC

In addition to the user input data for a specific building, the LCA and LCC program needs to be fed with a range of pre-determined data for it to perform LCA and LCC calculations. Such data include the life cycle impact profile (referred to here as LCIA profile), unit cost, embodied energy content and physical properties (density, specific heat and heat capacity) for a range of composing materials of building and services components and elements. Details about these input data for LCA and LCC calculations are described in the following parts of this Section. The pre-determined data are lodged into a database (referred to here as the Main Library), which accompanies the LCA and LCC program and from which the program can retrieve the data needed in the LCA and LCC calculations. Apart from the Main Library, there are other libraries and data files that will feed the program with information about which data in the user input files and in the Main Library are to be retrieved, as well as the data about the wastage rates incurred in the construction processes, the life expectances, and the steps of calculation to be performed with these data to determine the life cycle impact and cost for the type of element under concern. 3.2.1 Impact profile, unit cost and embodied energy data

The LCA calculations are performed in the program based on the LCIA profiles for various types of materials, which were pre-calculated according to the CML2 Baseline 2000 life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. LCIA done according to this method yields an impact indicator for each of the 10 impact categories embraced by the method, as shown in Box 3.2.1. A LCIA profile for a material is made up of the 10 impact values per each unit quantity of the material. Readers may refer to Appendix B for descriptions on each of these 10 impact categories.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

abiotic depletion global warming ozone layer depletion human toxicity fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

marine aquatic ecotoxicity terrestrial ecotoxicity photochemical oxidation acidification eutrophication

Box 3.2.1

The ten impact categories embraced by the CML2 Baseline 2000 life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method

The file with the filename MATLCIA.IDB is the Main Library that stores the LCIA profile data for various types of materials, which were determined from life cycle inventory (LCI) data. The LCI data for a building material (a product) are the quantities of various types of natural materials consumed and emissions generated for producing a unit quantity of the building material. Prior to implementing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) to generate the 10 impact values for each material (a step called characterisation in the LCIA process see Appendix A), appropriate adjustments had been made to the raw LCI data sourced from detailed LCI databases, to account for the different fuel mixes used in various countries of origin for electricity generation and for production of the materials, transportation of the materials to Hong Kong, and typical local construction practices. This adjustment of the impact data make the LCIA profile data representative of the impacts that would be incurred by consuming materials for constructing buildings and services installations in Hong Kong. In addition to the 10 impact categories, which are regarded as must include in LCA studies, the program will compute two supplementary impact indicators: the life cycle energy use and the life

41

cycle solid waste. The life cycle energy use includes embodied energy of materials consumed and operating energy use of the building. Embodied energy refers to the energy used for the production of the material, starting from extraction of natural materials and including energy use in all the intermediate processes involved, and in transportation of the materials. The operating energy use refers to the energy use in the building for operating the building services systems, such as airconditioning, ventilation, lighting, vertical transportation, etc. The life cycle solid waste is simply the total weight of various materials used in the building and the services systems, including the excessive quantities of the materials and any auxiliary materials used during the construction of the components which would become wastes, and all the materials that would be sent to landfill when the building is ultimately demolished. The LCIA profiles for the impacts incurred due to landfill of the wastes are contained in a separate library, referred to here as the Landfill Impact Library (filename: MATLCIA.ILF). Note that the Main Library (filename: MATLCIA.IDB) covers the specific (per unit quantity) impact profiles (10 impact figures per profile) due to consumption of materials in the Cradle-to-As-built stage whilst the Landfill Impact Library (filename: MATLCIA.ILF) covers the impact profiles due to landfill of materials. Separating the impact profiles for landfill from those for the other processes in the life cycle of the materials allows the impacts incurred by a building in differential stages of its life cycle to be presented separately. The Main Library contains also data of the physical properties (density, thermal conductivity and specific heat), embodied energy and unit cost of the materials. Normalisation of the impact indicators (which, according to ISO Standard 14042, is an optional LCIA step following characterisation see Appendix A) was omitted in generating the LCIA profiles in the Main Library and the waste impact data in the Landfill Impact Library, but will be done in one go as one of the calculation steps in the LCA and LCC program, after the impacts of different components of the building and the services systems have been calculated. The set of normalisation factors used in the program are discussed in Chapter 8. This also allows the user to view the impact assessment results both before and after the normalisation process. The unit cost data required in the LCC calculation includes the costs for procurement of the materials, the associated auxiliary materials and the assembling of sub-components and materials to form the components during the construction phase; the replacement costs within the operational life of the building; as well as the costs for demolition and disposal of the components at the end of the life of a building. The unit cost data were compiled by the Quantity Surveyor in the Study Team, based on the detailed cost data they accumulated from a large number of real building projects that they have handled. The life cycle cost of an assessed building is determined by summing the present values of the costs of all the materials/components, to be determined from the unit cost data and the quantities of individual types of materials/components consumed, and the operating energy cost throughout the life cycle of the building. Note that the two supplementary impact results, which are intended to facilitate separate evaluation of the life cycle energy use and the construction and demolition (C&D) waste production of a building, will NOT contribute to the overall impact assessment; the impacts due to these issues are already accounted for by the 10 impact categories and should not be double counted. 3.2.2 Libraries and files of pre-determined data for LCA/LCC

Box 3.2.2 summarises the libraries and files that accompany the LCA and LCC program. As mentioned in Sections 2.2.3 and 2.2.4, there are a number of Element Libraries, each embracing a different type of Elements (see also Section 3.2.2.2 below).

42

File type Libraries: Main Library: Landfill Impact Library: Foundation Elements Library: Envelope & Frame Elements Library: Contents Elements Library: Mechanical Services Elements Library: Electrical Services Elements Library: For impacts calculations: For cost calculations:

Filename MATLCIA.IDB MATLCIA.ILF FOUND.ELB FABBIC.ELB CONTENTS.ELB MECHASER.ELB ELECTSER.ELB E#.IMP [1] E#.CST [1]

Process Information Files:

[1]

# in the filename is a number that ranges from 1 to as many types of elements as an Element Library embraces.

Box 3.2.2

Libraries accompanying the LCA/LCC program

Figure 3.2.1 shows the file structure for the various Libraries. Note that the Main Library and the Landfill Impact Library must be kept in the same folder where the executable code of the LCA and LCC program resides (denoted here as the Main Library Folder). Furthermore, each Elements Library and the Process Information Files (see descriptions below) pertaining to the type of elements described by the Library must stay in a sub-folder directly under the Main Library Folder (Figure 3.2.1). As the LCA and LCC program accesses files based on the existence of this folder structure, the structure must be maintained at all times; otherwise, the program will fail to retrieve the correct data from the correct file.
Main Library Folder
MATLCIA.IDB MATLCIA.ILF

Foundations Elements Library Folder

FOUND.ELB E1.IMP, E1.CST E2.IMP, E2.CST

Fabric Elements Library Folder

FABBIC.ELB E1.IMP, E1.CST E2.IMP, E2.CST

Contents Elements Library Folder

CONTENTS.ELB E1.IMP, E1.CST E2.IMP, E2.CST

Mech. Services Elements Library Folder

MECHASER.ELB E1.IMP, E1.CST E2.IMP, E2.CST

Elec. Services Elements Library Folder

ELECTSER.ELB E1.IMP, E1.CST E2.IMP, E2.CST

Figure 3.2.1 3.2.2.1

Folder structure of the Libraries

Material impacts libraries

Each of the Main Library and the Landfill Impact Library has been assigned an overall size of 510 records, divided into three segments as shown in Box 3.2.3. The total number of records allowed includes spare spaces for future expansion of the libraries. The list of records in the libraries omits blank record fields; for instance, there are currently 41 building materials, 306 services materials (see later descriptions) and 2 types of energy commodities (electricity and town gas), each of the libraries will include the records as shown in Box 3.2.4.
43

Record 0 Record 1 up to 99 Record 100 Record 101 up to 499 Record 500 Record 501 Record 502 Record 503 to 510

No. of records in Segment 1 for building materials Data for building materials No. of records in Segment 2 for services materials Data for services elements, each treated as a material No. of records in Segment 3 for energy/fuel Data for electricity (1st record in Segment 3) Data for town gas Reserved for other fuels (not used at the moment)

Box 3.2.3

Record segments in the Main Library and the Landfill Impact Library

Record 0 Record 1 Record 2 Record 41 Record 100 Record 101 Record 406 Record 500 Record 501 Record 502 <End of record>

41 Data for Building material 1 Data for Building material 2 : Data for Building material 41 306; this line is directly below the last building material record with no blank records above Data for Services material 1 : Services material 306 2; this line is directly below the last services material record with no blank records above Fuel 1: Electricity Fuel 2: Town gas

Box 3.2.4

Example list of records in the Main Library and the Landfill Impact Library

Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 to 6 Field 7 to 16 Field 17 Field 18

Material No. Material Name Unit (the base material quantity for the impacts, energy and cost values) The three physical properties (where these properties are irrelevant, the fields are filled with zeros) The ten impact values in the impact profile The non-renewable energy consumption incurred per unit of the material The unit cost of the material

Box 3.2.5

Data fields in each material record in the Main Library and the Landfill Impact Library

Each material record includes 18 data fields, as shown in Box 3.2.5. Note that the Material No. for each record should range from 1 to 510 (excluding 0, 100 and 500). The order of appearance of the records in the library, however, may not correspond to the sequential order of the material numbers. This allows the records to be arranged in a way to facilitate speed search for a material while later

44

additions of material records to the library will not affect previously defined element library data (as long as new material numbers are used for the new materials). Note that for the services materials (in records 101 to 499), a record in the Main and Landfill Impact Libraries is actually made up of the total impacts and the unit cost data for a whole piece of services equipment (e.g. a fan, an air-handling unit, a pump, a chiller, etc.) or for a unit length of a services component (e.g. a steel pipe or a busbar). In this way, users can select the type of equipment or component from the relevant elements library and input the number of units of the equipment or the total length of the component. The program can then calculate the impacts and cost based directly on the per unit data given in the Main and Landfill Impact Libraries. Table 3.2.1 summarises the range of building materials that the Main and the Landfill Impact Libraries embrace.
Material No. 1 40 41 2 3 17 18 19 8 33 34 35 16 5 6 4 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 39 26 32 25 31 24 36 21 22 20 23 30 27 28 29 37 38 Material Description Aluminium Aluminium (60% Scrap) Aluminium (100% Scrap) Aluminium extruded Anodising Aluminium (China) Copper (30% Scrap) Copper (from HQ scrap) Copperwire (primary) Cast iron Steel (galvanized) Steel Hot Rolled (rebar) Steel Stainless Construction (Structural) Steel Board plywood meranti Board plywood spruce Asphalt Brick Cement Ceramics Concrete (Grade 35) Concrete (Grade 40) Concrete (Grade 45) Concrete (Grade 50) Concrete (Grade 60) Cement Plaster Plaster White Finish Slake Lime Gypsum Sand Gravel Stone Glass (Float - HQ) Glass (float) Double glazed window Glasswool Rock Wool PMMA sheet PVC Injection Moulded PVC Pipe Wallpaint Acrylic Wallpaint Natural Unit kg kg kg kg m2 kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg kg m2 kg kg kg kg kg kg kg

Table 3.2.1

Building materials in the Main and the Landfill Impact Libraries

45

3.2.2.2

Element Libraries

The following five Element Libraries have been prepared to provide the LCA and LCC program with information about the range and type of user input data required for calculation of the impacts, energy, waste and cost of consuming materials for building development: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Foundation Fabric Contents Mechanical Services Electrical Services (Filename: FOUND.ELB) (Filename: FABRIC.ELB) (Filename: CONTENTS.ELB) (Filename: MECHASER.ELB) (Filename: ELECTSER.ELB)

The five files embrace elements categorised under the respective classes: Foundation, Fabric (including elements of the Envelope and Frame classes in a Floor Component Group), Contents, Mechanical Services (including elements of HVAC, fire services and plumbing and drainage installations) and Electrical Services (including elements of electrical, lighting and lift and escalator installations). The data in these Libraries are basically the descriptors for the required user inputs (e.g. thickness in m, diameter in m; length in m, area in m, etc.), which are used by the LCA and LCC program to guide the user to enter the data in the correct sequence and unit of measurement for individual elements. This allows elements that require different types and numbers of input data to be handled systematically. The user input data will then be used in the impact, energy, waste and cost calculations, according to the calculation steps as defined in the relevant Process Information Files (see next Sub-section). Each Element Library contains records for pre-defined elements in one of the above five element classes. Each record includes the data fields as shown in Box 3.2.6. Each record may contain at maximum 32 fields for descriptors of input data and unit (for 16 different input data). For envelope elements (which are the layers of materials in an envelope component or a roof), the thickness of the element and its unit always occupy Fields 3 and 4 (which will correspond to the first user input data). This is for convenience in obtaining the thickness data for calculation of the heat transfer characteristics of the envelope components for use in cooling load and air-conditioning energy use predictions. Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 Field 5 Field 6 Element No. Element Name Description of the first input data Description of the unit of the first input data Description of the second input data Description of the unit of the second input data : and so on. Data fields in a record in an Element Library

Box 3.2.6

The first record for Element No. 0 in each of the Element Libraries is reserved for a Generic Element. Excluding this, each library may contain records for up to 300 elements. The sequential order of records for elements in the libraries may be different from the sequential order of the Element Nos. provided that both are within the range of 1 to 300. The record for a generic element includes data fields as shown in Box 3.2.7.

46

Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 Field 5 Field 6 Fields 7 10 Fields 11 14 Fields 15 18 Box 3.2.7

Element No. 0 Element Name Generic Material No. (as in the Material Library) Quantity as built (with unit as defined in the Material Library for the material) % waste (incurred in each time of installation/construction) Life expectance of element Repeat Fields 3 to 6 for the second material in the element Repeat Fields 3 to 6 for the third material in the element Repeat Fields 3 to 6 for the forth material in the element Data fields in a record for a generic element

3.2.2.3

Process information files

Each of the elements defined in the Element Libraries is accompanied by two Process Information Files that define the calculation steps for determining the quantities of materials involved in each of the stages of calculation, which are needed for the impact and cost calculations. Each Process Information File contains the lines of data as shown in Box 3.2.8. In addition to the number of composing materials of the element, the material number for each (default) material concerned and the codes for each calculation step, the set of data includes also the default values for the wastage rate (%) and life expectance (yrs) of each material. If required, the user can re-define the types of materials, the wastage rate and life expectance (and the unit cost the default value of which is stored in the Main Library) to suit the construction of a specific element through the use of the editing function provided in the LCA and LCC program (see Section 5.5.2).

Line No. 1 2 3 4 5 to N1+4 N1+5 N1+6 L2 (=N1+7) L2+1 L2+2 L2+3 to L2+N2+2 L2+N2+3 L2+N2+4 L3 (=L2+N2+5) : :

Description Number of materials involved in the element Description for the 1st material (e.g. kg of Concrete in RC beam) Material No. for the 1st material as in the Main Library No. of calculation steps for determining the as-built quantity of the 1st material (N1) N1 lines of the step codes and remarks Wastage rate (%) of the 1st material for building the element Life expectance (yrs) (also serves as an indicator of the usage) of the 1st material Description for the 2nd material (e.g. kg of Steel in RC beam) Material No. for the 2nd material as in the Materials Library No. of calculation steps for determining the as-built quantity of the 2nd material (N2) N2 lines of the step codes and remarks Wastage rate (%) of the 2nd material for building the element Life expectance (yrs) (also serves as an indicator of the usage) of the 2nd material Description for the 3rd material (e.g. kg of plywood formwork consumed) : Lines continue until all materials are defined. :

Box 3.2.8

Lines of data in a Process Information File

47

The data in a Process Information File may supply directly the values for certain parameters (e.g. a constant value needed in the calculation) or serve as a pointer to the data in the relevant user input file for obtaining parameter values that define the quantities of various types of materials in the Element, or to the data in the Main Library for the materials involved such that the correct set of impact profile and other data (e.g. density) can be retrieved from the Main Library during the LCA and LCC calculations. The filenames for the Process Information Files (E#.IMP or E#.CST) are each made up of the prefix E, followed by an integer (replacing the # sign), together with one of the two default filename extensions, .IMP or .CST, for respectively impact and cost calculations. The integer was pre-assigned when the file was prepared and is fixed. Note that in different folders that contain the Element Libraries and the associated Process Information Files, files with the same filename can be found in different folders. Therefore, the Process Information Files in different folders should not be mixed. The Process Information Files are internal files used by the program, and the files should not be tempered with to ensure proper functioning of the LCA and LCC program.

48

4 Calculations for different stages in the life cycle of a building

4.1 Stages of calculations

In a LCA and LCC assessment for a building, the user may be interested in knowing the impacts and costs incurred in different stages within the life cycle of the building. The LCA and LCC program regards a building life cycle as comprising the following stages (Figure 4.1.1): 1. The As-built Stage, which covers all processes starting from extraction of natural materials for producing various types of materials used for constructing the building till the building construction is complete. The Operating Stage, which covers the entire operational life of the building from completion of construction till the end of the useful life of a building. For uniformity in assessment, the operating stage of all buildings is standardised to 50 years. To ease interpretation of the results, the results for this stage are separated into those due to material consumption and those due to use of energy to operate the building. The Demolition Stage, which covers basically the stage in which all materials that make up the building are set to landfill.
Processes embraced up to the As-built Stage: Acquisition of raw materials Production of building materials and equipment Transportation of materials to site Construction of building Disposal of waste and auxiliary materials incurred in the construction work

2.

3.

Processes embraced in the Operating Stage (Materials): Replace of materials and equipment at end of their respective life expectances within building life Disposal of replaced material and auxiliary materials used in the replacement work

Processes embraced in the Operating Stage (Energy): Operating building services equipments with energy input

Processes embraced in the Demolition Stage: Landfill of all demolition wastes

Figure 4.1.1

Stages in a building life cycle

Table 4.1.1 shows the stages of LCA and LCC calculations implemented in the program, to match with the stages in the life cycle of a building as described above. The calculation will start with

49

computing the environmental impacts (LCIA), then the energy, waste and the cost for the As-built stage. The same range of calculations will then be repeated for the other three stages, one after another.
Calculations: LCIA Energy Waste Cost Stage PI File: E#.IMP* PI File: E#.CST* 1 As-built Y** Y Y Y 2 Operating (Material) Y Y Y Y 3 Operating (Energy) Y Y Y 4 Demolition Y Y * Filename for the process information files (PI File); # stands for the Element No. as in the Element Library. ** Y denotes that the calculation procedures defined in the process information file (PI File) will be used for the stage of calculation concerned.

Table 4.1.1

The calculation stages implemented in the LCA and LCC program

The four staged results that will be determined by the LCA and LCC program are elaborated as follows: 1. As-built Stage For this stage, only materials that will be present in the building in its final form, plus construction wastes and auxiliary materials used that will also become wastes are accounted for in the impact, energy and cost calculations. The impacts due to landfill are calculated only for the wastes but not for the materials that would stay in the building after the construction stage. The energy calculation is for evaluation of the embodied energy of the materials and the wastes, which includes the energy used for the production and transportation of the material. The energy used in the construction processes, although should also be included, was found to be negligibly small compared to the embodied energy incurred for production and transportation of the materials, and is excluded. The wastes are the construction wastes and auxiliary materials that will become wastes disposed during the construction stage. 2. Operating (Material) Stage Calculations for this stage include determination of the impacts, energy, wastes and costs due to replacement of worn-out materials and components in the building within the operating stage. Only materials used to replace worn out elements, plus the associated wastes and auxiliary materials are accounted for in the calculations. Number of times of replacement that may take place during this stage depends on the life expectance of the element concerned (see Section below) in relation to the overall useful life of the building (50 years). Impacts include those incurred due to landfill of the replaced materials and the wastes.

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3.

Operating (Energy) Stage This refers to the same stage in the life cycle of the building as in 2 above, but the calculations are for determining the energy consumption of services systems only. The total impacts and costs incurred during the operating stage of a building will be the sum of the results of this and the above stage; the calculations are separated to provide more detailed breakdown of the LCA and LCC results. Calculation of the operating energy use is done through the use of the energy prediction modules incorporated into the LCA and LCC program (See Chapter 6). In addition to an overall operating energy use figure, a breakdown of the operating energy use will be given on individual services type basis. Whereas the environmental impacts and costs for the embodied energy use of materials cannot be separately determined (being absorbed within the impacts and costs of the materials and components), the impacts and costs for the operating energy use are calculated, based on the predicted consumption, the per unit impacts for consuming energy in Hong Kong and the local unit rates of the energy commodities (electricity and town gas).

4.

Demolition Stage This refers to the end-of-life stage in the life cycle of the building. For this stage, only the amount of solid waste that will be sent to landfill and the impacts due to landfill would be determined. Other impacts and costs (e.g. those due to transportation of the demolition waste to the landfill sites) are assumed to be negligible.

The calculation steps for determining the total quantities of materials and wastes involved in each of the above stages are defined in the Process Information Files (E#.IMP and E#.CST) for impacts and cost calculations. Material quantities are further dependent on the life expectance of individual elements. Default values for life expectances of different elements are also defined in the Process Information Files (see summary given in Tables 2.2.1 to 2.2.5).

4.2

Convention for expressing life expectance of materials

The process information file for an Element includes data about the wastage rate (%) and life expectance (yrs) for each material in the element (see Section 3.2.2.3). A convention has been defined for the way in which the life expectance data for individual materials in an Element are to be input such that the program can make use of the information to determine when a material will become a waste to be dispose of, as explained below: 1. The life expectance for a normal material in an Element (that which would stay in the building when it is built and occupied) is entered as a positive number that equals its expected use life in years. For this type of materials, the program assumes that only the wastage will be disposed of at the As-built stage but the material will stay in the building till the end of its useful life, as defined by the value of the life expectance data. At the end of its useful life, the material will be disposed of, and if the life expectance is shorter than the lifespan of the building, the assumption is made that the element will be replaced at the end of its own expected life. At the time of replacement, wastage once again will be incurred and the waste will be disposed of at the same time while the material will stay in the building for another period equal to its life expectance or till the end of the building life, whichever is the shorter. The number of replacement throughout the building life cycle (50 years) will be:

51

No. of Replacement = [50 years / life expectance of material] - 1 2. For an auxiliary material, e.g. formwork for concrete components, its life expectance is entered as a negative number. For this type of material, the program assumes that the entire quantity of the material, including wastage, will be disposed of at the As-built stage. If the same auxiliary material will be used when the element is replaced, the auxiliary material will once again be disposed of at the time of replacement rather than staying in the building till the end of the materials life. For auxiliary materials that may be used for a number of times during the construction work (say N times), the quantity of materials that will be disposed will be the total quantity required in the construction of the element concerned, divided by the number of times of use (N). If there are materials that will only be used once and for all, their life expectance is given a value of zero.

3.

The same convention shall be adhered to when the user inputs data for a Generic Element.

52

Part III

53

5 Features of the program

5.1 General information about the program

To ensure the LCA and LCC program can be used as widely as possible among local building professionals, Microsoft (MS) Visual Basic (VB) Version 6.0, a MS Windows based programming language for software development, was used to develop the front-end of the program as well as all the subroutines in the program for energy use predictions and for LCA and LCC calculations. This offers the advantage that the means for interacting with the program are similar to most Windows based programs which are familiar to the users. The MS VB program used for developing the present version of the LCA and LCC program was installed into a PC which operates with the Professional (English) Version of Windows XP, and test runs with the LCA and LCC program were performed with the same PC. The program should be able to function properly with PCs that operate with other recent versions of Windows, but thorough test runs had not been performed to verify if it would function free of problems with PCs that use Windows other than the version used in the PC for its development. The program cannot work with computer systems that operate with other operating systems. In ensure user input data files will be easily transportable from one PC to another, all the input files that the front-end program creates for storing the input data are in the standard ASCII text format, which will be readable through the use of any text editor, e.g. Notepad, WordPad or MS Word. The output data files will also be in text format. Moreover, tabulated output data will be written as comma separated values (with filename extension .CSV), which is one of the standard formats that allow the data to be directly loaded into a MS Excel Workbook for further manipulation and analysis. Graphical outputs will be in bitmap format and can be exported to the clipboard of the PC and pasted into documents for reporting purpose. After the LCA and LCC program is installed (see Chapter 1 for the procedures involved), the executable file for the program, which has the filename LCA_HK.exe and bears the logo of EMSD as its icon, as shown in Figure 5.1.1, can be found in the folder into which the program has been installed.

Figure 5.1.1

Icon of the LCA and LCC program

The components of the LCA and LCC program are described in the current and the following two chapters in this User Manual, to illustrate the functions and features of the components in the program. In the descriptions, the terminologies for describing different subdivisions of a building, including Portions, Component Groups, Component Classes or Types, Components and Elements, as defined in Chapter 2, are used. See also Chapter 3 for names of various data files accompanying the program, such as the Main Library, Elements Libraries, etc. The major components in the LCA and LCC program are the Forms, which are a type of object in MS Visual Basic that can be incorporated with a group of various other types of objects for user input, action control and text and graphic display. The objects in the Forms in this program include Menus, Buttons, Textboxes, Labels, Lists, Drop-down Lists, Option Buttons, Check Boxes, etc., all of which
54

are common objects used in programs that run on the Windows platform. The Form itself and each of the objects in it may be used to load specific subroutines and functions inside the program, to command the computer to perform the pre-programmed tasks, such as actions on the Form and its objects, or to call up another Form. Figure 5.1.1 shows the most frequently used objects in the program. The functions and features of these objects are briefly described below. Other objects that are also used will be introduced when descriptions are given on how the program can be commanded to perform specific functions through their use.

A textbox for user to type data or text as input A menu with all the first level options shown

DO NOT use this button to close a Form A button for issuing a command

A list showing a range of items in the list

A drop-down list Appearance of a drop-down list when the down arrow button is clicked showing options available

Figure 5.1.1

The most frequently used objects in the program

A Menu includes at least one top level option (there may be several) shown in the Menu Bar at the upper part of a Form, right below the title of the Form. Moving the mouse pointer to the Menu Caption (description for the option) and pressing the left mouse button (this action is referred to hereinafter as clicking on an object) may directly issue a command or cause a list of further options to be shown. Selection of an optional instruction for the program to execute can be done by clicking on the specific sub-menu option. A Textbox is primarily used for the user to key in a number or a string of text as an input to the program, and for displaying previously entered data or data or message generated by the program. For entering data into or changing data inside a Textbox, you need to first click on the Textbox. A cursor will then appear in the Textbox signifying that the Textbox is ready to accept input from the keyboard. The characters typed will be lodged into the Textbox. A Button is provided for the user to command the program to perform a specific function, by clicking on the Button. Most Buttons are labelled with a caption (e.g. Enter, Save, Return, etc.) that tells the user the function of the Button. Unlike a Menu which always appear in the menu bar at the top side of a Form, Lists and Drop-down Lists, which also provide the user with options for him to select, may appear anywhere within a Form. The key difference between a List and a Drop-down List is that multiple options are visible on a List whereas options in a Drop-down List can be seen only when the user clicks the down-arrow button at
55

the right-hand side of the textbox part of the Drop-down List. For both types of lists, selection of an option can be made by clicking on the option on the list. When an option on a List is selected, it will be highlighted. Other than simply offering options for the user to select, selecting an option from a List (clicking once or twice on an option) may also be linked to a certain programmed function. A Drop-down List, however, will display in its textbox part the selected option and the list of options will become invisible after the user has selected an option. Although the user may type characters into its textbox part, this program does not utilise this feature of a Drop-down List all Drop-down Lists in the program are for the user to select an option among the options available. Note that there is a button with a symbol at the top right hand corner of every Form in the program (Figure 5.1.1), which is a standard provision for Forms in Windows. Clicking this button will close the Form. Users, however, SHOULD AVOID using the button to close a Form. Rather, relevant menu options or buttons provided in various Forms (e.g. Return, Exit and OK buttons or Exit or Return menu options) are to be used, as checking is incorporated with these controls which will issue a warning signal to the user if there are data newly entered or changed but have not been saved. This function is unavailable if the button is used instead to close a Form.

5.2

The Main Form

The LCA and LCC program can be loaded in the same way as for running other programs on the MS Windows platform, e.g. through the use of the Start Bar of Windows or by double clicking the icon for the program in the Windows Explorer. The Main Form shown in Figure 5.2.1 is the first object that will appear when the program is successfully loaded.

Figure 5.2.1

The Form that will appear once the program is loaded

56

Note that the program will appear as shown in Figure 5.2.1 provided it has been initialised following the procedures described in Section 1.5 in Chapter 1. The initialisation process allows the program to open the Main Library file and to set the Main Library Folder as the current directory when it is loaded.
Menu File Sub-Menu Open LCIA/LCC Database Create New Project Open Project Save Project Close Project Exit Edit Building and System LCA Input Energy Use Modelling Input Reset Selection for Assessment Function Load data from the Main Library Start a new Project Load a previously prepared Project File Save the latest input to current Project File Close the current Project Terminate the program Load the Form for defining Component Groups in the Foundations, Floors and Services Portions Load the Form for defining characteristics of indoor spaces for energy use prediction Reset the current selection of Portions, Component Groups, Components and Elements for inclusion in LCA/LCC assessment such that all of them will be assessed in the next simulation Load the Form for viewing/editing the normalisation and weighting factors and the LCC calculation parameters. Write a summary of the input data to a text file Write a summary of the elements selected for assessment to a text file Load the Form for operating energy use calculation Start life cycle impact calculations Start life cycle cost calculations Load the Form that shows the energy calculation results Load the Form that shows the life cycle cost calculation results Load the Form that shows the overall calculation results Load the slides that provide a brief introduction to LCA Load the slides that provide an introduction to this program End the slide show function

LCA Weightings and Cost Para.

Write

Input Summary Selected Components and Elements

Run

Calculate Operating Energy Use Calculate Life Cycle Impact Calculate Life Cycle Cost

View

Operating Energy Results LCC Results Overall Results

SlideShow

About LCA About this Program End Slide Show

Box 5.2.1

Control functions accessible through the Menu Bar in the Main Form

57

The Main Form includes a series of menu controls, as shown in the Menu Bar below the Form Caption (LCA/LCC for HK Commercial Buildings), which includes the Menu Captions: File, Edit, Write, Run, View and SlideShow. Clicking on one of the Menu Captions will cause a drop-down menu to appear, showing further command options that the user may choose. These menu commands allow the user to instruct the program to perform the pre-programmed functions, e.g. to create a new project, to load the data for a previously defined project, to call-up another Form to input or edit data, to save input data, to output a summary of the input data to a text file, to start LCA or LCC calculations or to view the calculation results. Box 5.2.1 summarises the functions accessible through the Menu Bar controls in the Main Form. After loading the program, the user may start to create a new project or to open the project file for a previously defined project, through the use of the menu control options File and Create New Project or Open Project, as shown in Figure 5.2.2.

Figure 5.2.2

The sub-menu options under the menu option File in the Main Form for creating a new project, opening the project file for an existing project, etc.

Clicking the File and then the Create New Project menu options will call up a dialog box (Figure 5.2.3(a)) with which the user can select the parent folder in the disk drive under which a new folder is to be created for storing files that will be generated later for the new project, and to name the new folder. The program will then create the new folder (the Project folder) with the given name and will further ask the user to enter a project name, which will be used as the filename for the Project File. Clicking the File and then the Open Project menu options will also call up a dialog box, but this time, it is for the user to browse the file folders and select a previously prepared Project File. When creating a new project, the user should check if there already exists a folder under the selected parent folder, which is having a name identical to the one that he wishes to use to name the Project folder for the new project. If there is such an existing folder, the user should either rename the existing folder or choose another name for the new Project folder. DO NOT create the Project folder

58

manually using the Windows Explorer or through other methods; the program will always attempt to create a new folder when instructed to create a new project so just let the program do it.

Select the parent folder for the Project folder using the browsing function of the dialog box. The Project folder will be created as a sub-folder under the parent folder.

Type the Project folder name here and then click the Open button to create the new Project folder.

(a)

Type the Project Filename here and then click the Open button to create the new Project File. At this stage, the Project File will contain no data.

(b) Figure 5.2.3 Dialog boxes for: (a) opening a new folder for a new project and (b) for defining the Project File Name

There is a textbox in the Main Form (see Figure 5.2.1) for the user to input the project name if a new project is to be defined and modelled, or to display the project name when a previously prepared Project File is loaded for editing and/or modelling. The filename of the Project File, including the names of the disk drive and the folder in the drive where the Project File is stored, will be displayed below the project name. At the centre of the Main Form, there are two overlapping objects: a picture object and an image object; only one of them can be viewed at a time. The picture object is for displaying information about the program (see Figure 5.2.1) when the program is first loaded, and later for displaying runtime messages about the program execution. The image object will show up when the user clicks on the picture object, which will cause a diagram that illustrates the life cycle impacts of a building to be shown (Figure 5.2.4). The image object will also serve also as a slide viewer, when the user selects to

59

view a slide show through the use of the Menu (by clicking the SlideShow Menu Caption). Figure 5.2.5 shows the Main Form when it is functioning as a slide viewer.

Figure 5.2.4

The image object in the Main Form

Figure 5.2.5

The Main Form when functioning as a slide viewer

When the Main Form is functioning as a slide viewer (Figure 5.2.5), additional control objects can be found on the Form, including buttons for showing the previous or the next slide on the screen, a dropdown list that can be used to jump to a specific slide and for displaying the slide number and caption,
60

and a End Slide Show button for quitting the slide show session. The slide show can also be terminated by using the SlideShow and then the End Slide Show menu control options. The Edit, and then the Building and System LCA Input menu controls, or the Enter button at the right hand side of the Project Name textbox, can be used to access another Form for data entry. Figure 5.3.1 shows the Building and System Form that will then show up.

5.3

The Building and System (Portion) Form

The Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1) is for adding, editing or deleting Component Groups in any one of the three Portions in a Building, namely the Foundations, Floors and Services Portions. At the top of the Form are two textboxes, one for showing the current Project Name and the other for input/display of the total construction floor area (CFA) of the Building. The Return button by the side of the CFA text box is for closing the Building and System Form, which will then bring the user back to the Main Form.

Building Portion Component Group Component Element

Level of objects handled by the Form

Figure 5.3.1

The Building and System Form for defining Component Groups in each of the three Portions in a Building

The rest of the Building and System Form is split into three sections, one for each of the three Portions of a Building. Not only Component Groups in different Portions are distinguished in the program with reference to the specific section in this Form through which data for Component Groups are entered, the program will also load the specific Elements Library relevant to the Components in the respective Portion for the user to select types of Elements for input (see Section 3.2.2.2). In each section, there are two lists, two arrow buttons (bearing an upright or inverted triangle label), three command buttons (for adding, editing and deleting a Component Group), three option buttons (with the captions All, Some and None) and a check box (with the caption Skip All).

61

The user input names for the Component Groups in a Portion and the number of identical Component Groups represented by each of the Component Groups are shown in the lists once the relevant data have been entered by the user. These data are to be input through the use of the Component Group Form (see next sub-section and Figure 5.4.1). The name list for the Component Groups is also the means for the user to select a particular Component Group for taking further actions, e.g. to input or edit data for the Component Group. Selection of a Component Group is to be made by clicking once on the name of the Component Group on the list. The three groups of Add, Edit and Delete buttons in the Form are provided for inserting a new Component Group to the respective Portion, to change or view data for a selected Component Group or to remove a Component Group. Clicking on the Add button will call up the Component Group Form (shown in Figure 5.4.1) to allow the user to enter data for the new Component Group to be added to the corresponding Portion in the Building. The Edit and Delete buttons, as well as the option buttons, in the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1) will remain disabled until the user selects a Component Group, which will then enable the buttons (the captions of the buttons will at the same time change appearance, from grey to dark signifying that the buttons are enabled). Clicking on the Edit button will then call up the corresponding Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) with which the user may view or make changes to previously entered data, or proceed to enter or edit data for the Components and Elements under the selected Component Group. Double clicking on the name of the Component Group in the list in the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1) will cause the program to perform the same function as selecting the Component Group followed by clicking on the Edit button. Selecting a Component Group followed by clicking the Delete button will cause the Component Group to be removed from the Portion concerned. The program will ask the user to confirm this action before deleting the selected Component Group. Deletion of a Component Group simply means that the data record for the Component Group will be removed from the Project file; the data file that stores data pertaining to the Component Group will stay in the Project folder, which can be re-loaded later, if needed. The order of the Component Group names in the lists may also be altered by first selecting the Component Group to be moved up or down the list, followed by clicking either the button with the upright triangle (to move upward) or the button with the inverted triangle (to move downward), as deemed appropriate. The option buttons with the captions All and None (Figure 5.3.1) are for the user to select whether all Components or none of the Components in the selected Component Group are to be included in the LCA and LCC assessments. The Some button serves to provide the user with the signal about whether selection has been made for some of the Components in the Component Group in question to excluded from LCA and LCC calculations. Note that the All, Some or None selection will apply only to the selected Component Group, which has its name in the list highlighted. Selection of whether or not to include individual Components in a Component Group in the LCA and LCC assessment is to be made using the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1). Only one of the three options can be in the selected state at a time for each Component Group, and the default is the All option. Selecting the None option will isolate the selected Component Group, in whole, from the LCA and LCC assessment. The Skip All check box is for the user to conveniently isolate an entire Portion from the LCA and LCC assessment. With the option buttons and check boxes, the user can select any specific combination of Components and Elements to be included in the impacts and cost assessment. The Menu control options Edit and Reset Selection for Assessment (Box 5.2.1) in the Main Form (Figure 5.2.1) can be used to reset the selections to the default status, i.e. to include all Component Groups, Components and Elements in the assessment.

62

The Return button in the Building and System Group Form is for closing the Form, which will bring the user back to the Main Form (Figure 5.2.1). With the menu controls in the Main Form, the user can save the project data (using the Menu options File and then Save Project, see Box 5.2.1), perform other functions or quit the program (using the Menu options File and then Exit).

5.4

The Component Group Form

The Form for defining the Components in a Component Group was designed such that it will appear in one of three instances, depending on whether it is used to define a Foundation, a Floor or a Services Component Group. The three instances differ in the captions for the Form, the textboxes and the lists, commensurate with the type of Components being handled. Figure 5.4.1 shows the instance of the Form for a Floor Component Group, which is named MBTypF with its data saved in a file named MBTypF.FLR. This Floor Component Group comprises five Components in the Frame Class, three in the Envelope Class and three in the Contents Class, as can be seen from the Type list in the Form. The names assigned to the Components appear in the list under the heading Floor Components and the number of identical Components represented by each of the Components defined is shown in the list with the heading No. in Flr.

Building Portion Component Group Component Element

Level of objects handled by the Form

Figure 5.4.1

The Component Group Form showing the Components defined for a Floor (a Component Group in the Floors Portion) in a Building

The name of the Component Group being handled and the number of Component Groups identical to (and including) this one that are present in the building are to be entered using the two text boxes at the top of this Form. The Component Group name and the number of identical groups it represents will be displayed in the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1) when the user saves the data (using the Save button) and returns to the Building and System Form (using the Return button). The filename for storing the data pertaining to the Component Group will be displayed in the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) when this Form is called up by using the Edit button in the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1). The Add, Edit and Delete Component command buttons in the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) to the right of the lists are for adding a new Component to the Component Group, editing data for the selected Component or removing a selected Component from the Component Group. The Edit and Delete buttons will be enabled only after a selection has been made on which Component the action is to be applied. The up and down arrow buttons allow the order of appearance of the Components in the
63

lists to be altered (by first selecting the Component to be moved up or down the list, followed by clicking the appropriate button). There are also three option buttons, All, Some and None in this Form, which are for the user to select if all or none of the Elements in individual Components in the list are to be included in the LCA and LCC assessment. Selection of individual Elements for inclusion in the LCA and LCC assessment is to be made through using the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1), which will be introduced in the next sub-section. The Some button shows if any of the Elements in the Component in question have been selected for exclusion from LCA and LCC calculations. The Load command button at the top of the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) can be used to load a previously defined Component Group, which can be used directly, or after making appropriate modifications to the data, for modelling a new Component Group in the Portion (a Foundation, a Floor or a Services installation). If the loaded Component Group has been modified, the modified Component Group shall be saved as a separate Component Group with a filename different from the loaded file, unless it is the users intention to overwrite the original file. The Save command button allows the user to save the latest data for the Component Group, including assigning a filename for the data file. The Return button, when clicked, will close this Form and bring the user back to the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1). A warning will be given if the user has used the Add, Edit or Delete button in the Form, to remind the user to save any changes made before closing the Form.

5.5
5.5.1

The Component and Elements Form

Elements in a Component

From the Component Group Form described above (Figure 5.4.1), the user may proceed to enter data for a new Component using the Add command button or to edit previously prepared data for a Component by first selecting the name of the Component and then clicking the Edit command button. Double clicking on the name of the Component in the list serves the same function. The Component and Elements Form, as shown in Figure 5.5.1, will then appear. Similar to the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1), the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1) for inserting Elements into a Component and for entering data for the Elements in the Component will appear in one of three instances, for Components in the three Portions of a Building (Foundations, Floors and Services). Figure 5.5.1 shows the instance of the Component and Elements Form when used to define a Floor Component in the Envelope Class. The name of the Component Group to which the current Component belongs is displayed in the textbox at the top left corner in the Form for the users reference. This Form is to be used to define the name of the Component and the number of identical Components that the current Component represents (including the current one), by using the text boxes at the top row in the Form. The Component Type (Class of Floor Component or the Type of Services Installation) is to be defined by using the drop-down list under the heading Component Type. The Elements that the Component is composed of and the details of each of the Elements are to be defined using the lower part of the Form. Similar to the Forms introduced above, the names assigned to the Elements defined for a Component will appear in the Elements list in the Component and Elements Form (under the list heading Elements in this Component). New Elements may be inserted using the Add Element button while individual Elements already defined can be selected for editing by selecting the Element (clicking on the name in the list once) followed by clicking the Edit Element button (or simply double-clicking the Element name in the list). An Element on the list may also be removed by first selecting the Element and then clicking the Delete Element button.

64

The order of Elements on the list can be altered using the up and down arrow buttons by the side of the list, after selecting the Element on the list to be moved up or down the list. Note that for a multilayer wall or roof, the sequential order of Elements in the Elements list in this Form MUST correspond to the sequential order of individual layers of materials in the actual component (each being an Element in the wall or roof slab component), horizontally from outside to inside or vertically from top to bottom; the operating energy use prediction module in this program relies on this information to correctly predict heat transfer through these Elements.

For making changes to default parameters for the Element

For selection of a standard type of Element from the Element Library

For entering a value or remark to a selected cell in the table

Figure 5.5.1

The Component and Elements Form showing the Elements defined for a Floor Component in the Building

The File Menu in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1) can be used to: i) ii) iii) Load the file for a previously defined Component for modelling a new Component, with or without making changes to the data; Save the newly entered or changed data for a Component; Define the construction of the Component as a standard Construction for use in airconditioning energy use prediction (see more detailed descriptions in Section 5.7 below and in Chapter 6); and Close the Form and return to the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1).

iv)

When finished with entering all the data for a Component, the data can be saved using the Save Component menu option at the top of the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1). The user may then return to the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) using the Return menu option. A warning will be issued had the Add Element, Edit Element or Delete Element button been clicked but the Save Component menu option has not been used to save data prior to clicking on the Return menu option. The Return menu option in the menu bar is an alternative, but quicker, way of closing this Form.

65

5.5.2 Characteristics of an Element The lower part of the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1) is for inputting or changing data for the Elements in a Component, one at a time. The data to be entered for an Element includes: i) ii) The name for the Element, to be entered using the text box next to the caption Element Name; The element type that the Element belongs, which can be selected from a list (Figure 5.5.2) that will appear when the select button (the button with the > symbol, Figure 5.5.1) is clicked; and The characteristics of the Element, to be entered using the table and the textbox at the bottom in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1).

iii)

Selection of an element type for an Element can be done simply by clicking on the type of element on the list (Figure 5.5.2), followed by clicking the OK button in the Form. The list may not be able to show all the standard elements available from the Element Library within the visible region of the list. Under this situation, a scroll bar will appear to allow the user to browse the list of standard elements available. At the bottom of the list includes a textbox into which the user may type a keyword and then use the Find button next to the textbox to ask the program to search for the first standard element on the list that includes the keyword in its element type name. Other standard elements further down the list, which include the keyword(s) in their element type names can be found one by one by clicking the Next button. The Ignore button is for unselecting the standard element found in the search. Clicking the Ignore button followed by the OK button will not alter a previous selection. Note that for this search function, the program does not distinguish between capital and small letters and the keyword may be just a few alphabets of a complete word.

Generic Element

Pre-defined standard element types

Figure 5.5.2

List of pre-defined Element types for selection

When the Element type has been defined (selected from the standard element type list), descriptions for the type of data to be entered and the unit of measurement for each data (which may vary from one type of element to another) will be shown in the cells under the Item and Unit column headings in the table in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1). Numerical value for each of the characteristic parameters (as described in the cells under the column Item) is to be entered into the

66

cell at the same row, under the column Value, in the table in the Form (Figure 5.5.1), in the unit as defined in the cell at the same row under the Unit column. The user may enter a remark for each data entry, which will be stored in the input file and will be shown in the cell for Remark when the Element is reloaded for editing, to serve as reminders of certain issues about the input data. Entering data to individual cells in the table is to be done by first clicking on the target cell, followed by typing the numerical value or text (if entering a remark) in the textbox below the table and pressing the Enter button next to the textbox afterwards. The content of a cell may be changed or deleted by first selecting the cell (the program will, in response, transfer the cell content to the textbox below the table, and insert a symbol >_ in the target cell), followed by pressing the Clear button (to remove the content) or typing the required entry into the textbox, and then pressing the Enter button. An existing Element File may also be loaded using the Load Element button. All the entries for an Element can be saved using the Save Element & Return button. The program will then automatically register the name of the Element into the Elements list for a newly defined Element, or update the name of the selected Element in the list. To reduce the chances of data loss, the program will temporarily disable the functions of the controls in the Component data entry part (e.g. the Add, Edit and Delete Element buttons at the upper part of the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1)) and requires the user to click the Save Element & Return button each time the Add or Edit Element function is activated, for entering data for a new Element or editing data for an existing Element, before enabling again those controls in the Component data entry part. If the user decides to ignore the changes made to the Element data, he should click the Cancel button in the common dialog box that will show up when the Save Element & Return button is clicked. A message box will show up to ask the user to confirm if he wishes to ignore all changes made or to continue with editing data. For each pre-defined standard element type, not only the parameters requiring user input are defined, default values are also assigned for the types of materials used for constructing the Element (including any auxiliary materials), as well as for the life expectance and wastage rate (in %) for the materials. The LCA and LCC program, however, allows the user to change each of the default values for an Element, on individual Element basis. Changing these default values can be done by clicking the Edit button in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1). The Form will then change in appearance to as shown in Figure 5.5.3. In the Edit mode (Figure 5.5.3), the user may select the material, among the materials that make up the Element, for which changes are to be made to the default values. The type of material can be changed by selecting the type of material appropriate to the case from the material list (Figure 5.5.4), which can be called up using the button with the symbol < (Figure 5.5.3). Selection of a material can be done by clicking on the name of the material on the list, followed by clicking the OK button in the Materials in Library Form (Figure 5.5.4). Similar to the Form for selection of a standard element type, the Form for material selection includes the keyword search function for the user to quickly select a material from the list. Life expectance, wastage rate and unit cost for each material may also be changed by typing the desired values into the corresponding textbox under the column heading Values to be used (Figure 5.5.3). Note that in specifying the life expectance for a material, the convention described in Section 4.2 must be followed.

67

Exit the edit mode Select material in the Element for changing the default values Select a material different from the default material

Figure 5.5.3

Appearance of the Component and Elements Form when in the Edit mode for making changes to default parameters

Figure 5.5.4

List of materials in the Main Library

There may be various reasons for having to make changes to the default values for an Element, such as the use of a material in the Element that is different from the default material type but a suitable standard element type is unavailable, or the formwork used in constructing a concrete element is made from a different material (e.g. steel formwork in lieu of timber formwork). For the latter example, in addition to changing the material for the formwork from plywood to steel, the values for the parameters Plywood thickness and Times of use of Formwork would also need to be changed. Since the description about the thickness of the formwork cannot be changed, the user may like to input a remark next to the thickness parameter, so that he can be reminded of the change made to the formwork material.

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Replacing plywood formwork by metal formwork for a concrete element may also allow the revised Element model to approximately represent a prefabricated concrete element. Notwithstanding that there may be differences in the impacts incurred due to transportation of a prefabricated element from those due to transportation of the materials for constructing the element on site, the differences should not be large, as the total weight and the distance of transport involved may remain roughly the same. There will also be minor differences in the amount of wastes that would be disposed of from the construction site. Nonetheless, the contributions to the total impact by transportation and waste treatment are small compared to those due to consumption of materials. The user input data will be stored as a separate input file, with a filename identical to that of the Element File, but with an underscore inserted between the filename and the filename extension. For instance, if the Element File was named as F1C1E1.FLE, the filename for the user input values would be F1C1E1_.FLE. The user input data in this file will be read and will override the default data in the calculation of impacts and cost. Note that changes to the default values will affect only the Element for which changes in data have been made; other Elements modelled by the same standard element will not be likewise affected.

5.6

Entering a Generic Element

When the user comes across with an element that falls outside the range of standard element types available in the relevant Elements Library, the user may still construct an Element model for it, by using the Generic Element type, which appears at the top of the list of pre-defined elements (Figure 5.5.2). When this type of Element is selected, the contents in the table in the Component and Elements Form will become as shown in Figure 5.6.1.

Double clicking this cell calls up the Material List. Data for one material; up to 4 materials may be specified

Figure 5.6.1

The Component and Elements Form when used to enter a Generic Element

A Generic Element may comprise up to four different materials. Data input for each material in a Generic Element include: i) The material number that denotes the type of material;

69

ii) iii) iv)

The quantity of the material involved (up to the as-built stage); The wastage rate; and The life expectance.

When operating in the mode for entry of data for a Generic Element, the materials that make up the element, including the auxiliary material used in the construction process, can be selected from the material list (Figure 5.5.4), one at a time, by double-clicking the cell under the column Value in those rows for Material No. A material can be selected by clicking on the name of the material in the material list and then the Return button. The quantity data to be entered should be based on the unit of measurement, which will be shown in the remark cell after a material has been selected. The convention for specifying life expectance (see Section 4.2) should also be observed. Obviously, a Generic Element can be constructed provided only that the materials involved are available in the Materials list. Otherwise, no impacts and cost data would be available for the impacts and cost calculations.

5.7

Defining the construction of a fabric component

Simulation modules have been incorporated into the program for predicting the energy use of a building during the occupied stage such that the associated impacts and costs can be accounted for in a LCA and LCC assessment. The energy use prediction modules include an energy simulation model for predicting the air-conditioning energy use in a building, which is the most complicated part of the energy use prediction. This requires information about the construction of individual envelope components, including the material layers in the envelope component, their dimensions and heat transfer properties of the materials. The Construction of a Component that represents an envelope component of the building being modelled, such as an external wall or roof, may be defined after all the Elements in the Component have been defined in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1). This Form includes a menu control (with the Caption Save As Construction) that allows the user to call up the Input Element Material Data Form (Figure 5.7.1) for defining the dominant materials that make up an envelope component, for use in the operating energy use prediction. One may wonder why the program requires the user to select, from the material list (Figure 5.5.4), the dominant material in each Element in a Component (Figure 5.7.1) while the types of materials in the Elements would have already been defined, either as default materials or materials selected by the user during the data input processes for defining Elements. This is because materials used in building construction are typically composite materials, e.g. concrete with steel reinforcement, but the heat transfer through the Component would be affected primarily by the dominant materials in the material layers (for the current example, the dominant material is concrete whilst the presence of steel reinforcement has little effect). When there are Generic Elements in the Component, instead of the material type (which already forms a part of the data input), the program will ask the user to input the thickness for each of the Generic Elements (which has not been input explicitly). Note that for a Generic Element, the program always take the material defined in the first row in the table in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.6.1) as the dominant material, which is an input requirement that users must observe. When the dominant material or thickness for each of the Elements has been defined using the Input Element Material Data Form (Figure 5.7.1), the Save/Edit Construction Form will show up (Figure 5.7.1). Up to this stage, there are still data yet to be defined, which include the solar absorptance at the

70

external and internal surfaces of the envelope component and the type of the envelope component (wall/roof/floor or window/skylight). For a window or skylight, the shading coefficient of the glazing will be one of the further data to be entered by the user. These data can now be input using the Save Construction Form (Figure 5.7.1).

Menu control for calling up the Input Element Material Data Form

Button for calling up the Material List for selecting a material

After data entry for all materials is done, the Save Construction Form will show up for further data entry and recording the Construction data.

Figure 5.7.1

The Menu control in the Component and Elements Form, the Input Element Material Data Form and the Save Construction Form for defining the Construction of a Component

Where the Component (such as an external wall) includes an air cavity, the air cavity would not have been entered as an Element in the Component during the input process. The air cavity is to be inserted using the Save Construction Form (Figure 5.7.1) by using the Add button. Note that the program will first assume that the additional layer to be inserted into a construction will be an air-gap and will assign a material number 0 (zero) and a material description Air Gap into the corresponding textboxes. The only data to be input for an air gap is the gap width (to be typed into the textbox for
71

Thickness); other properties input can be skipped. If the user is inserting a layer of material rather than an air gap, he can use the Select button to call up the material list to selection the appropriate material. Before the inputs for the Construction of a Component can be saved, a name has to be given to the Construction using the textbox provided. After this, the Construction can be added to the list by clicking the Add as New Construction button. The construction file must be saved before leaving this Form, using the File and then Save Constructions menu controls, to ensure the new data are included in the Construction File. Since the Save Construction Form (Figure 5.7.1) includes all the required functions for defining Constructions, the user may directly define Constructions through the use of this Form. This Form can be called up from the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (see descriptions in Section 6.1) through the Edit and Fabric Constructions menu options. The data input procedures include: 1. Define the total number of layers of materials in the Construction (air gap(s) included) by typing the number into the No. of Layers textbox, followed by clicking the Enter button below the textbox. The program will initially assume all materials were air gaps, with a material number 0. 2. Select the layer of material to be defined using the Layer No. dropdown list and then click the Select button to call up a material list for selection of the correct material for the layer. The program will retrieve the values of density, thermal conductivity (k) and specific heat (Cp) of the material from the Main Library and insert the values into the relevant textboxes in the Form. After selection of material for a layer, the thickness of the layer should be defined by typing the numerical value into the Thickness textbox.1 3. Repeat Step 2 until the material and thickness of all layers of materials in the component have been defined. 4. Define if the component is a wall/roof/floor (i.e. opaque) or a window/skylight (i.e. transparent) by clicking the relevant option button, followed by typing the absorptance or shading coefficient value into the relevant textboxes. 5. Type a name into the Enter Name for Construction textbox for identification of the Construction for the specific component just defined and then click the Add as New Construction button to record the Construction. The name of the newly defined Construction will then be included in the list. 6. After all the Constructions required for modelling the building under concern have been defined, save the Construction File using the File and then Save Constructions menu options. The Construction File will be automatically given the same filename as the Project File, but with the filename extension .CON. The Save Construction Form can be closed by using the File and then Exit menu options in the Form.

In case the material used cannot be found from the material list (which are materials embraced by the Main Library), the material cannot be included for the environmental impact calculations due to lack of impact profile data. However, for the space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use prediction, the user can still enter the material, including its thermal properties (density, conductivity and specific heat) for the program to use in the simulation. Note that material numbers from 1 to 99 are reserved for materials available from the Main Library and the program will look for the required properties data for materials with material numbers within this range. Therefore, when entering a material that falls outside the range of materials in the Main Library, the material number to be used to denote the material should be equal to or greater than 100. 72

5.8

The user input files

As described in Chapter 3, the LCA and LCC program will save the user input data into a series of files, one for each object. An object may be the entire building (in which case the file will be the Project File), a Portion in the building (which may be a Foundation, a Floor or a Service File), a Component Group under one of the Portions, a Component under one of the Component Groups or an Element under a Component. Saving the user input data for each of these objects to a file has to be done upon completion of input for the object, through the use of the relevant Form. The program will also automatically append a filename extension (see Box 3.1.1 in Chapter 3) to ease identification of files for different types of objects. All the user input data files will be lodged into the Project Folder defined by the user. Examples of input files for an example building can be found in the document: Application Example, which is also included in the program package, inside a folder named MODBLD. Since the major function of the user input files are for storing the user input data such that the program can retrieve the information for use in the LCA and LCC calculations, there was no intention to make the contents in these files immediately evident to the program users. The users are not expected to prepare or edit these files directly using a text editor. Rather, creating or making changes to these files should be done through the use of the LCA and LCC program. However, it is important that the user can identify which file is for which object, as a file may be used in multiple instances. For example, for a composite wall that includes finishes made of the same material and of the same thickness at both sides, the two finishes layers can share the use of the same Element file (and have the same Element name). The Element file can be created when the user defines the first finish layer and the same file can be loaded when the second finish layer is defined. To be able to do this, the user must be able to identify, by the filename, the Element file that holds data for the first finish layer. For Components and Elements that are of similar constructions, a previously defined data file may also be loaded and modified to become a model for another Component or Element. This, once again, requires the ability to distinguish which file is for which object. Users, therefore, should exercise care when assigning filenames for the user input data files, to ensure the filenames can help them identify the objects that the files represent.

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6 Input for Energy Calculation

6.1 The Inputs for Energy Calculation Form

The Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.1) is the main user interface in the LCA and LCC program devised to facilitate the user to input the data required for predicting the operating energy use of the building services installations in a building. This Form can be called up from the Main Form (Figure 5.2.1) through the use of the menu control options Edit and then Energy Use Modelling Input (Box 5.2.1) in the Menu Bar of the Main Form.

Figure 6.1.1

The Inputs for Energy Calculation Form

As shown in Figure 6.1.1, the Input for Energy Calculation Form comprises three data input sections, under the section headings: Zone Characteristics, Room Characteristics and Fabric Component Characteristics. Besides serving as the front-end for entering or editing data that define the characteristics of zones, rooms and fabric components, menu controls have been incorporated into the Form for loading and saving the zone, room and fabric characteristics data, and for closing the Form (Figure 6.1.2(a)), which will bring the user back to the Main Form. The Input for Energy Calculation Form also provides links to other Forms for inputting or editing data for modelling heat transfer through the envelope elements, and the energy use of the air-side and water-side systems in the central air-conditioning system as well as the energy use of other services systems and equipment in the building. The relevant Forms can be called up by using the Menu Bar in this Form (Figure 6.1.2(b)), through the menu control options Edit and then Fabric Constructions, Shading Mask, Air-side A/C System in Selected Zone or Central Plants.

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(a)

(b) Figure 6.1.2 Menu controls for (a) loading or saving data for the zone, room and fabric characteristics and (b) access to other Forms for editing Construction data, determining Shading Masks for windows, and editing Air-side system data and Central Plant data

6.1.1

The meaning of a Zone and a Room

The terms Zone and Room are imparted with specific meanings as described below, to provide a framework for the development of the air-conditioning energy simulation routines: A Zone refers to a collection of Rooms, each of which may include one or more airconditioned spaces. Adjoining air-conditioned spaces with similar operating characteristics (e.g. all being offices) may be combined to form a Room, which will help reduce the amount of input data required. All spaces in the same Room must be for the same usage; the program cannot cater for a Room that comprises spaces for a mix of usages (e.g. an office together with a shop or restaurant or a hotel guestroom). Moreover, a Room should not include any spaces that are not air-conditioned; the energy use of electric lights and energy consuming equipment in non-air-conditioned spaces is to be separately modelled (see Section 6.3.3). A Room is enclosed by a number of Fabric Components, which may include external walls, windows, roofs, floor slabs and partitions. Rooms serve as the interface between the building fabric components that enclose the spaces in the Rooms and the air-conditioning system in the building for calculation of space cooling loads and air-conditioning energy use. Rooms also act a reference for calculation of energy use by lighting and equipment inside air-conditioned spaces. The key characteristic of a Zone is that all the Rooms in it are served by the same air-side airconditioning system, e.g. rooms on the same floor which are air-conditioned by the same airhandling unit. Should there be more than one centralised air-handling unit on the same floor, the Rooms served by different air-handling units must be grouped into separate Zones. However, for Rooms that are air-conditioned by fan coil systems, the grouping of Rooms into Zones can be organised more flexibly, e.g. all Rooms on a floor may be grouped as a Zone. A Zone, however, may comprise Rooms for different usages, for example office Rooms and retail Rooms. In this case, the air-side air-conditioning system will be assumed to be operating from the earliest start hour till the latest stop hour of air-conditioning among all
75

Rooms in the Zone. For instance, an office is assumed to be air-conditioned from 8:00 till 19:00 whereas a shop will be air-conditioned from 9:00 till 22:00. If a Zone comprises both office Rooms and retail Rooms, the air-side air-conditioning system serving this Zone will be running from 8:00 till 22:00 in a day (see Box 6.1.1 for air-conditioned hours for various types of premises, and the annual equivalent full-load hours for estimation of lighting and equipment energy use within these types of premises). Since the program allows the user to input data for just one of all the Zones that have identical characteristics, each Zone should be a Unique Zone in the building. The characteristics of a Unique Zone together with the number of identical Zones represented by the Unique Zone (itself inclusive) are all the input required for determining the impacts and costs due to operating energy use in all the identical Zones. Similarly, Rooms with identical characteristics may also be represented by the characteristics of just one Room, together with the number of identical Rooms that it represents, which help keep the amount of data that need to be input to the minimum.

Types of Premises Offices:

Day in week Weekdays Saturdays Sundays All days All days All days:

Air-conditioned Hours 8:00 19:00 8:00 13:00 No air-conditioning 9:00 22:00 6:00 24:00 0:00 24:00

Annual Equivalent Full-load Hours Lighting Equipment 3,065 3,086

Retail shops: Restaurants: Hotel guestrooms:

3,112 4,258 2,618

2,639 3,476 2,556

Box 6.1.1

Assumed air-conditioned hours for the four types of premises the program can model

6.1.2 Data entry for Zones, Rooms and Fabric Components The data to be input for the Zones, Rooms and Fabric Components are as shown in Box 6.1.2. The Inputs for Energy Calculation Form is equipped with a number of objects to allow the user to add or delete Zones, Rooms and Fabric Components; to select a specific Zone, Room or Fabric Component for data entry or editing; and to select the type of construction, orientation and, where applicable, the shading mask for the Fabric Components. For ease of referencing, the button and dropdown list objects and some of the textboxes are labelled by the balloons shown in Figure 6.1.3. The following descriptions on the procedures for entering data to model Zones and Rooms in a building make reference to the numbers shown in these balloons, e.g. [Balloon 1] refers to the textbox labelled by the balloon with the number 1 shown in Figure 6.1.3. 1. The data entry process starts from defining the total number of Unique Zones in the building, by entering the number into the specific textbox [Balloon 1], followed by clicking on the Enter button [Balloon 2]. In response, the program will create a sequential list of numbers, from 1 to the number of Unique Zones in the building as entered, in the dropdown list [Balloon 3], which can be used to select a specific Unique Zone for data entry.

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For the Building: 1. The total number of Unique Zones in the Building (Max. 20)

For each Unique Zone in the Building: 1. 2. 3. The name for each Unique Zone (for distinguishing a Unique Zone from other Unique Zones) No. of identical Zones represented by the Unique Zone No. of Unique Rooms in the Unique Zone

For each Unique Room in a Zone: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. The name for the Room The room type (office, retail shop, restaurant or hotel guestroom) No. of identical Rooms represented by the Unique Room The floor area The floor to floor height The number of occupants in the Room The ventilation rate per occupant The indoor temperature (set point for air-conditioning) The indoor relative humidity (set point for air-conditioning) The lighting load intensity The equipment load intensity The number of fabric components enclosing the space

For each Fabric Component in a Room: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The name for the Component The surface area The component type (external wall, window, roof, slab or partition) The construction (to be selected from defined Constructions in the Construction File) The orientation (exposure direction) of the Component The Shading Mask, if any, to be applied to the Component

Box 6.1.2 2.

Zones, Rooms and Fabric Components inputs for building energy prediction

After selecting a specific Zone using the dropdown list [Balloon 3], the name that the user would like to assign for identification of the Zone and the number of identical Zones in the building represented by the Zone can be entered into the textboxes for Zone Name and No. of Identical Zones respectively. The number of Rooms in the selected Zone can then be entered into the textbox for this number [Balloon 7], followed by clicking the Enter button next to the textbox [Balloon 8]. This will cause a list of Room numbers to be generated in the dropdown list [Balloon 9], which is for the user to select a specific Room in the selected Zone for data entry or editing. After selecting a specific Room using the dropdown list [Balloon 9], data for the selected Room can be entered one by one in the textboxes in the Room Characteristics section in the Form, which include: the number of identical Rooms the Room represents; the room area and room height; number of occupants in the room and the ventilation rate per person; the indoor temperature and relative humidity set point values; and the installed lighting power and equipment power densities. The data entry process includes also selection of the Room Type, through the use of the dropdown list [Balloon 12], which contains a list of four standard Room Types: Office, Retail Shop, Restaurant and Hotel Guestroom.

3.

4.

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2 1 4 6 3 5

7 10

9 12

11

13 16 17

14

15 18 19

20

21

22

Figure 6.1.3

Control objects in the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form with balloon labels for referencing

5.

The number of Fabric Components enclosing the selected Room should be entered into the textbox for holding this number [Balloon 13], followed by clicking the Enter button [Balloon 14] next to the textbox. A list of Fabric Component numbers will then be generated in the dropdown list [Balloon 15] in the Fabric Component Characteristics section in the Form. Characteristics of each Fabric Component enclosing the selected Room can be entered by first selecting the Fabric Component using the drop down list [Balloon 15]. The Fabric Component name, surface area, Component Type and Orientation of the selected Fabric Component are to be specified by typing the data into the relevant textboxes or by selecting the appropriate option in the relevant dropdown lists [Balloons 18 and 20] in this section of the Form. Consult Box 6.1.3 for the specific way that should be observed in selecting Orientation of Fabric Components.

6.

78

Note that for a Fabric Component that is horizontal, its orientation should be specified as Hori., irrespective of whether it is a roof, a skylight or a ceiling/floor slab. For a vertical Fabric Component, such as a window, a wall or a partition, its Orientation should be selected with reference to the exposure direction of the surface at the exterior side of the room. For example, for the room shown at the right, which has an external wall with a South facing window, the orientation of the external wall and the window should be specified as South. The orientations of the partitions at the two sides and at the back, however, should be specified as East, West and North. This information is important as the program relies on it to determine if a pair of fabric surfaces could exchange long-wave radiant heat.

Box 6.1.3 7.

Remarks on specifying the Orientation of Fabric Components

The Construction of each Fabric Component should have been defined beforehand using the Save/Edit Construction Form while the Elements in the Component were defined using the Component and Elements Form (Figures 5.5.1 and 5.7.1), according to procedures as described in Section 5.7. All the Constructions defined for the building are stored in a separate file, with a filename same as the Project Filename but with the filename extension .CON. The information that needs to be supplied at this stage is to select a particular Construction from the list of pre-defined Constructions for the Fabric Component under concern. Selection of a Construction for a Fabric Component can be made by first calling up the Select Construction Form (Figure 6.1.4), through clicking the Sel button [Balloon 19]. The Select Construction Form and the Save/Edit Construction Form (Figure 5.7.1) are in fact the same Form in the program but, in this operating mode, the Form Caption will be changed to Select Construction, all the editing functions will be disabled but an additional Select button can be seen. Selecting a Construction for a Fabric Component involves highlighting a Construction by clicking on the name of the Construction in the list, followed by clicking the Select button. This will also close the Select Construction Form. The Construction Number and the Name of the selected Construction will then appear in the textboxes next to the Select button [Balloon 19] in the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.3). If required, the Save Construction Form can be called-up for editing the Constructions in the Construction file, by using the menu control options Edit and Fabric Construction in the Menu Bar of the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(b)). When defining the Fabric Components enclosing a Room on the topmost floor of a building, the Fabric Components for the Room have to include both a roof construction as well as a floor construction. However, for a Room on any one of the intermediate floors below the topmost floor, the program assumes that the rate of heat transfer from the ceiling slab into the Room equals the rate of heat transfer from the floor slab to the Room one floor level below. This assumption allows (and requires) omission of the floor slab in defining the Fabric Components enclosing an intermediate-level Room. Consequently, such Rooms will not have a Construction that represents the floor slab, and there will only be one floor/ceiling slab in the Room, represented by one Construction.
79

8.

9.

10.

Click on the name of the Construction in the list to select it, followed by clicking the Select button

Description of the selected Construction

Figure 6.1.4

Selection of a Construction for a Fabric Component using the Select Construction Form

11.

The program includes a module that can generate shading mask data for modelling the shadowing effects of simple shading devices, such as overhangs and side fins and their combinations. A shading mask is a set of data that quantify the fraction of a surface that is exposed to direct solar radiation for 324 (= 36 9) positions of the sun in the sky vault (see more detailed descriptions for a shading mask in Box 6.1.4). Each shading mask is saved as a separate file, with a user defined filename (with a default filename extension .SHM), which is also used as the name for reference to the shading mask. The Shading Mask Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.5), which is the user interface for the shading mask calculation module, can be called up using the menu options Edit, followed by Shading Mask in the Input for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(b)). A shading mask can be generated using the Shading Mask Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.5) by selecting the exposure direction for the surface under concern, entering the dimensions of the shading device (see descriptions in Box 6.1.4) and typing a filename for the shading mask in the relevant textboxes in the Form (there is no need to type the filename extension; the program will automatically append .SHM as the extension for the filename). Input zero (0) into the relevant textboxes for the projection length and distance from a side of a window for those shading devices that do not exit. The Generate Shading Mask button can then be clicked to instruct the program to generate the shading mask, which will be stored in a file with the given filename inside the Project Folder together with other user input data files for the same Project. The Shading Mask Calculation Form can then be closed using the menu options Action followed by Exit.

12.

80

POH Overhang DT Part of window in shade; Area = AShd PRSF DR Right Side Fin

Legend: W= H= POH = PRSF = PLSF = DT = DR = DL = Window width Window height Overhang projection Right side fin projection Left side fin projection Distance of overhang from top side of window Distance of right side fin from right edge of window Distance of left side fin from left edge of window

Note: W DL Left Side Fin Part of window unshaded; Area = AExp Left or Right refers to the side of the window as viewed at the window from outside the building.

The shading mask for quantifying the shadowing effect of surrounding object(s) (e.g. shading device(s)) on a surface (e.g. a window) comprises 324 data arranged into a matrix of 36 rows by 9 columns. Each data is the fraction of the surface area that remains unshaded (= AExp / (WH)), when the sun is at a specific position in the sky. Each row corresponds to a solar azimuth angle, which ranges from 5 to 355 in 10 increments, measured clockwise from South. The 9 data in a row correspond to solar altitude angles that range from 5 to 85 in 10 increments. Box 6.1.4 Definitions of dimensions for overhang and side fins and for shading mask

Figure 6.1.5

Shading Mask Calculation Form for generating data for the shading effect of overhangs and side fins

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13.

A predefined shading mask can be attached to a Fabric Component by using the select button [Balloon 21] (Figure 6.1.3). This will call up the common dialog box in which all shading masks pre-defined for the Project (all files with the filename extension .SHM in the Project folder) will be listed. The specific shading mask that is applicable to the Fabric Component under concern can be selected, by clicking on its filename followed by the Open button in the common dialog box. The filename for the shading mask will then appear in the textbox next to the Shading Mask Selection button [Balloon 21] (Figure 6.1.3). Detaching a shading mask from a Fabric Component can be done simply by removing entirely the shading mask filename from the text box. Note that the textbox should be left blank for Fabric Components without shading devices or hold a valid shading mask filename. Otherwise, run time error will arise, which will terminate a simulation run, as the program fails to open the file to get data. The data for the selected Fabric Component can be stored in the computer memory by clicking the Enter button [Balloon 22] (Figure 6.1.3), which completes the data input for the selected Fabric Component. The data for all the Fabric Components of the selected Room are to be entered, one after another, according to the procedures described above. When this step is complete, another Room can be selected for data entry using the dropdown list for Room selection [Balloon 9]. When the data for all Rooms in a Zone have been entered, another Zone can be selected for data entry using the dropdown list for Zone selection [Balloon 3]. Upon completion of data entry for all the Zones, the data entered in this session will still reside in the memory of the computer. The menu control options File and Save Building Data in the Menu Bar of the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(a)) can be used to write the data into a file in the hard disk. The file will be assigned with a filename that is same as the Project Filename, but appended with a filename extension of .ECI. The data in the file can later be retrieved for review or editing using the File and Load Building Data menu control options.

14.

15.

16.

Subsequent to the definition of the total number of Zones in the building (Step 1 above), a new Zone can still be inserted through the use of the Add button [Balloon 4]. Likewise, a new Room can be inserted into the selected Zone using the Add button in the Room Characteristics section in the Form [Balloon 10]; and a new Fabric Component can be inserted into the selected Room using the Add button in the Fabric Component Characteristics section [Balloon 16]. Conversely, an entire Zone, an entire Room in the selected Zone or a Fabric Component in the selected Room may be removed using the respective Del buttons [Balloons 5, 11 and 17]. These actions can be performed while data for a building are being entered, or subsequently after loading the previously entered data from the file that stores the data. Note that loading and saving of the Zone, Room and Fabric Component data (from or to the file named as: ProjFilename.ECI) is done in conjunction with the file that stores the data for the air-side systems (filename: ProjFilename.ASS) see the next section.

6.2

The Air-side Air-conditioning System Form

In order that the LCA and LCC program can accurately determine the energy use of the air-side airconditioning systems, the user has to input into the program the design characteristics of the air-side system for each Zone (see its definition in Section 6.1.1) in the building. The Air-side Airconditioning System Form in the program, as shown in Figure 6.2.1, is for facilitating the user to input this set of data.

82

(a)

(b) Figure 6.2.1 The Air-side Air-conditioning System Form: (a) for Zone data input; (b) for Room data input

The Air-side Air-conditioning System Form can be called up using the Menu control options Edit and then Air-side A/C System in Selected Zone in the Input for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(b)) or the Edit AC for the Zone button in the same Form (labelled by [Balloon 6] in Figure 6.1.3). The range of data to be input is as summarised in Box 6.2.1. Entry of data for air-side air-conditioning systems is quite straight-forward, and the data would have been made available during the design of the air-side air-conditioning systems (e.g. Zone and Room peak loads and design supply flow rates for sizing the relevant air-side equipment and ductwork). The type of air-conditioning system serving a Zone and the way that fresh air supply is provided for the Zone can be input by making selections from options available in the relevant dropdown lists in the Form (Figure 6.2.1(a)). Other design data for the air-handling unit serving the Zone can be entered into the respective textboxes in the Form. Design data for individual Rooms in the Zone can be entered one after another by first selecting the Room using the dropdown list, followed by entering the design data for the Room concerned. Buttons (with either the > or < label) are also provided in the Form to allow the user to browse the data for various Rooms and Zones in the Building (Figure 6.2.1).

83

For each Zone: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. The type of system (Fan coil system, CAV system or VAV system with or without variable speed drive) The way that fresh air supply is provided (Centralised or local intake) Design sensible cooling load of the Zone Design total cooling load of the Zone Design supply air flow rate for the entire Zone Design supply air fan total pressure Design supply air fan power Design chilled water flow rate

For each Room in a Zone: 1. 2. 3. Design sensible cooling load of the Room Design total cooling load of the Room Design supply air flow rate for the entire Room

Box 6.2.1

Data for modelling performance of air-side air-conditioning systems

Where Rooms in a Zone are served by fan-coil systems, the design sensible cooling load, total cooling load, supply flow rate, supply air fan power and chilled water flow rate (Figure 6.2.1(a)) to be entered for the Zone should be the sum of the respective values of all fan-coil units serving the Rooms in the Zone. The value for the design supply air fan pressure can be any value (this value will not used in fan energy calculation for this type of system, as the fan power demand of fan-coil units will stay at a constant value, which is supplied directly by the user). The Air-side air-conditioning System Form (Figure 6.2.1) can be closed either by clicking the Save and Exit button or the menu control options under the File menu caption in the Form. Users attention is drawn to the fact that the Save Data menu option or the Save and Exit button control will only ensure the last set of input data will be stored in the memory of the PC; the data in the computer memory for all the air-side air-conditioning systems would not have been saved into the file in the disk drive. The user input data for the air-side air-conditioning systems in a building can be written to a file through using the menu control options File and then Save Building Dat in the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(a)).

6.3
6.3.1

The Central BS Plants Form

Appearance of the Form

The Central BS Plants Form is the component in the LCA and LCC program that serves as the interface for the user to input the characteristics of the water-side air-conditioning system as well as other services systems in the building, for the program to predict the operating energy use of these systems. The Form can be called up using the Edit and then the Central Plants menu controls in the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.2(b)). The Central BS Plants Form has been embedded with a variety of objects to cater for the different types and number of input data required for different types of system and equipment. Its appearance may vary, as not all the objects in the Form will be visible at all times and, when they are visible, they may appear at different positions, depending on the specific system or equipment for which data input is being performed with the Form. When first loaded, the only control object that is visible in the

84

Form is the Menu Bar. The menu options available in the Central BS Plants Form are as shown in Figure 6.3.1.

(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 6.3.1 The menu control options in the Central BS Plants Form: (a) for loading and saving user input plant data and closing the Form; (b) for entering and editing data for the water-side air-conditioning system; (c) for entering and editing data for other services systems and equipment

The menu options File and Load Plant Data are for loading previously saved data for review or editing. The menu options File and Save Plant Data are for saving the user input data for the water-side airconditioning system as well as all other services systems in the building. Two files will be written to the disk drive when the user saves the input data. Both files have the Project Filename as their filenames, but one will be appended with the filename extension .WSS and the other with .NAC. The former is for storing the data for the water-side air-conditioning system while data for all the other services systems are stored in the latter. 6.3.2 Central air-conditioning plant and equipment

When the Edit, HVAC Plant and Plant Type menu options are used to set the Form for data input for a central air-conditioning plant, its appearance will be as shown in Figure 6.3.2. In this mode, the dropdown list for selection of the type of heat rejection system provides the following options: 1. Air-cooled
85

2. 3. 4. 5.

Water-cooled with cooling towers Indirect seawater-cooled Direct seawater-cooled Indirect seawater-cooled with cooling towers

Enter button will appear next to the cell selected for data input/editing

Figure 6.3.2

The Central BS Plants Form when being used to define the characteristics of a central air-conditioning system

An air-cooled system comprises air-cooled chillers that use the ambient air for condenser cooling. Packaged air-cooled chillers include condenser air fans for drawing the ambient air through the condenser coils as integral parts of the chiller units, and thus require no extra equipment (e.g. condenser water pumps or cooling towers) for chiller heat rejection. Air-cooled systems are the simplest type of heat rejection method but, compared to systems using other types of heat rejection methods, they operate at the highest condensing temperature and thus are the least energy efficient. The following diagram shows the configurations of the four types of water-cooled systems that can be modelled by the energy simulation models in the program. In a water-cooled system with cooling towers, cooling towers and condenser water pumps form parts of the water-side system. Chiller condenser heat is first rejected to the condenser water being pumped through the condenser, and is then carried by the water to the cooling tower where the heat is rejected to the ambient air through evaporation of a minute portion of the condenser water.
Cooling Tower(s)

TC2

Cooling Tower(s)

TC4

TC2 mc1

TWB

TWB Heat Exchanger(s)

mc1 TC1 Chiller(s)

mc2 TC3 TC1 Chiller(s)

Water cooled w/cooling tower(s)

In-direct water cooled w/cooling towers

86

TC2

TC4 mc2

TC2 mc1

TSW

mc1 TC1

TSW

Heat Exchanger(s)

TC3
Chiller(s)

TC1 Chiller(s)

Harbour

Harbour

Direct seawater cooled

In-direct seawater cooled

The in-direct water cooled system includes two separate water circuits; the primary circuit is for circulating condenser water through the chiller condensers and the secondary circuit for circulating cooling water through the cooling towers. Both circuits are connected to the heat exchangers at which the condenser heat is passed from the primary circuit to the secondary circuit. Note that for this type of system, the pumps in the primary circuit are to be input as condenser water pumps whilst those at the secondary circuit are to be input as seawater pumps irrespective of whether fresh water or seawater is used in the secondary circuit. For buildings that can draw-in seawater from nearby seashore for chiller heat rejection, either the direct or indirect seawater cooled system can be used. In a direct seawater cooled system, the seawater is fed directly into chiller condensers whilst in an in-direct seawater cooled system, the seawater will be fed through the heat exchangers, which separate the seawater circuit from the condenser water circuit (typically with fresh water). The inclusion of heat exchangers protects the chillers from the corrosion and erosion effects of the seawater but at the same time lowers the energy efficiency. The dropdown list for selection of the type of chilled water pumping system includes the following options: 1. 2. 3. Single-loop Two-loop with constant speed secondary-loop pumps (SLPs) Two-loop with variable speed secondary-loop pumps (SLPs)

The following diagrams show the configurations of a single-loop and a two-loop chilled water pumping system. The two-loop pumping system includes two groups of chilled water pumps and those at the secondary loop may be constant speed pumps or variable speed pumps.
Differential pressure by-pass control valve

Cooling coils Chiller Control valves Chilled water pump

B

Single-loop chilled water pumping system

87

Decoupler Bypass Pipe

Secondaryloop pumps
Flow meter

B Primary-loop pumps
Flow switch

Two-loop chilled water pumping system

Other inputs for defining the plant type for a central air-conditioning plant include the start and stop hours in a day and the design entering and leaving temperatures of the primary cooling medium and, where applicable, the secondary cooling medium. Note that the start and stop hours for the central chilled water plant should match with the earliest and the latest time between which air-conditioning is called for by any air-conditioned zones in the building. The air-conditioned hours assumed (not changeable by the user) for the four types of premises that the program can model are summarised in Box 6.1.1. Data can be entered into a specific table cell in the Form by first clicking on the cell. A textbox of the same dimension and with the same content as the cell, if any, will then appear at the same position as the cell, thus covering up the entire cell. At the same time, an Enter button will appear next to the cell for the user to confirm an entry to the cell. After the input has been typed into the textbox and the Enter button has been clicked, the data in the textbox will be transferred to the cell and the Enter button will disappear. When finished with entering data for the type of central air-conditioning plant, the user can command the computer to record the data and proceed to enter data for the major equipment in the plant by pressing the OK button. Once the central plant type has been defined, the Menu options for those types of equipment that will be present in the plant will be shown in black whilst the options for those that will not be present will be shown faded (Figure 6.3.1(b)). The latter type of Menu options will also be deactivated. This Menu Bar is to be used to set the Form to the format suitable for data input for various types of equipment. Box 6.3.1 summarises the types of central air-conditioning plant equipment for which data can be entered using the Central BS Plants Form, the input data required for modelling each type of equipment and the options available for some of the inputs. Figure 6.3.3 shows the appearance of the Central BS Plants Form when it is used for data input for chillers.

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Chillers

Seawater pumps

1.

Number of chillers in the plant

1.

Number of seawater pumps in the plant

For each chiller unit: 1. 2. 3. 4. Type of chiller (options: Centrifugal, Reciprocating or Screw) Rate power demand Chilled water flow rate Condenser water flow rate (for water-cooled chiller only)

For each seawater pump: 1. 1. 2. 3. Type of pump (options: CS, CF; CS, VF; and VS, VF) Rated seawater flow rate Rated pumping pressure Rated pumping power

Primary-loop chilled water pumps

Cooling towers

1.

Number of primary-loop pumps in the plant

1.

Number of cooling towers in the plant

For each primary-loop pump: 1. 2. 3. Chilled water flow rate Pumping pressure Rated power demand

For each cooling tower: 1. 2. 3. Cooling capacity Water flow rate Rated fan power

Secondary-loop chilled water pumps

Central fresh air handling units

1.

Number of secondary-loop pumps in the plant

1.

Number of fresh air handling units in the building

For each secondary-loop pump: 1. 1. 2. 3. Type of pump (options: CS, CF; CS, VF; and VS, VF) Rated chilled water flow rate Rated pumping pressure Rated pumping power

For each fresh air handling unit: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Design sensible cooling capacity Design total cooling capacity Design fresh air supply flow rate Design fan pressure Design fan power Design chilled water flow rate

Condenser water pumps

1.

Number of condenser water pumps in the plant

For each condenser water pump: 1. 2. 3. Condenser water flow rate Pumping pressure Rated power demand

Box 6.3.1

Input data required for modelling various central air-conditioning plant equipment

When being used to enter data for chiller plant equipment, the Form includes a textbox for entry of the total number of units of the equipment in the plant. The Enter button next to the textbox is for confirming the number of units (which must be clicked after entering the total number of equipment). When this button is clicked, a list will be created in the dropdown list below the textbox, for the user to select individual equipment for data input, one at a time. Subsequently, the Add and the Del buttons in the Form may be used to insert an additional unit or remove a unit of the equipment into or from the plant.

89

Figure 6.3.3

The Central BS Plants Form when being used to enter data for chillers

A button with the label = last unit will appear in the Form. After entering data for a unit, the data for the next unit, if it is identical to the last unit, can be input automatically by first selecting the next unit using the dropdown list for equipment number selection, followed by pressing the = last unit button, which will help speed up the data entry process. Figure 6.3.4 shows this button control in the Form when the Form is being used to enter data for seawater pumps.

Button for applying all data entered for the last unit to the current unit

Options of seawater pump type: CS (constant speed); VS (variable speed); CF (constant flow); & VF (variable flow)

Figure 6.3.4

The Central BS Plants Form when being used to enter data for seawater pumps

In many central air-conditioning system designs, among a group of similar equipment, there is a unit that is smaller in capacity than the others. For example, the combination of chillers in a building may include 4 chillers, each with a cooling capacity of 1,000 kW, plus one unit with a cooling capacity of 500kW. The smallest unit will be the last unit that will be run when the cooling load drops to a very low level (e.g. in the evening for overtime air-conditioning).

90

The air-conditioning plant simulation module in the LCA and LCC program can model the type of system design described above provided that the smallest unit is input as the last unit (in the example of 4 x 1,000kW + 1 x 500kW, the 500kW unit should be entered as the fifth unit). For each operating hour, the program will first check if the last unit will be of a sufficient capacity to cope with the load at that moment. If it is, the program will assume that the last unit will be running whilst all other units will not. Otherwise, the program will determine how many units need to be run to cope with the load, starting from the first unit and adding other units in sequence according to the sequential order that the units were input, until the total installed capacity of the number of units selected equals or exceeds the instantaneous load. For example, for the abovementioned plant, if the building cooling load is 300kW, the 500kW unit will be regarded as the only unit that is running; if the load is 700kW instead, only one of the 1,000kW units will be run. When the load increases to 2,300kW, the above mentioned chiller plant will have 3 of the 1,000 kW units running. If the building cooling load further increases to 4,100 kW, the assumption will be made that all chillers will be running. The above operating sequence is assumed for all types of central air-conditioning equipment, including chillers, chilled water pumps, condenser water pumps, cooling towers, seawater pumps and central fresh air handling units. For chillers, the load that will be checked will be the building cooling load. For water pumps and cooling towers, the load that will be checked will be the relevant water flow demand for the instantaneous operating condition (e.g. for the primary loop pumps, it will be the total chilled water demand of all running chillers; for the secondary loop pumps, the load is the total chilled water demand of all air-side equipment; etc.). For central fresh air handing units, determination of the number of units to be operated will be based on the total fresh air flow rate demand of all the zones that are air-conditioned at the operating hour under concern. Consequent upon the way in which the program determines the number of equipment that should be run for a particular operating condition, the chilled water flow rate through each chiller must match exactly with the chilled water flow rate of the chilled water pump that will be operated together with the chiller. Similarly, the condenser water flow rate through a chiller much match exactly with the water flow rate of the dedicated condenser water pump and with the flow rate through the associated cooler tower. Furthermore, when there are chillers of different cooling capacities in the central plant, the sequence that chillers are input must match with the sequence of input of the matching equipment, including primary loop chilled water pumps, condenser water pumps and cooling towers. 6.3.3 Other services systems

Besides the central air-conditioning plant, the Central BS Plants Form includes provisions for data input for other types of energy consuming services systems in the building (Figure 6.3.1(c)). Such types of systems include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Additional HVAC Systems; Additional Electrical and Lighting Systems; Fire Services; Lifts and Escalators; Plumbing and Drainage Systems (P & D); and Systems using Town Gas

The program allows the user to input up to 10 different systems under each of the above-listed types of systems for inclusion in the operating energy use calculations. The Additional HVAC systems refer to any HVAC systems that are not covered by the inputs for the air-side and water-side air-conditioning systems. Such systems may include: space heating systems; ventilation systems for plant rooms, car parks, etc.; and window or split type air-conditioners used in rooms not served by the central air-conditioning system.

91

The Additional Electrical and Lighting systems refer to all types electrical and lighting installations except those in air-conditioned Rooms for which lighting and equipment loads have been input while the Zones and Rooms are defined using the Inputs for Energy Calculation Form (Figure 6.1.1). Such systems may include: lighting systems for various outdoor areas, circulation areas, plant rooms, staircases, etc.; landscape lights, neon lights and flood lights; and various fixed and portable equipments. Since many electrical and lighting installations may fall in this category, installations with the same annual operating hour and load factor should be grouped to become one system in the input for energy use calculation. The Fire Services Systems, Lifts and Escalators and Plumbing and Drainage Systems cover all energy consuming systems and equipments which are parts of the respective type of services systems. Note that the assumption is made that the entire air-conditioning system and all the above-listed types of systems except Systems using Town Gas consume electricity. Where there are systems and equipments in the building that consume town gas rather than electricity, the data pertaining to such systems and equipments are to be input as a System using Town Gas. For a system or equipment that consumes town gas, it may still be a part of one of the system types in items 1 to 5 in the above list. For instance, a gas water heater for space heating belongs to the HVAC Systems but a gas water heater for service hot water supply (e.g. hot water supply for wash basins, showers or baths) belongs to the Plumbing and Drainage Systems. Therefore, when entering data for this type of systems, the user is required to indicate also to which types of services system the town gas consuming system belongs (through selecting a system type using the drop down list in the Form in the row for Sub-System of) (Figure 6.3.5).

For selection of the type of system the gas using system belongs

Figure 6.4.5

The Central BS Plants Form when being used to enter data for systems using town gas

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7 LCA and LCC calculations and results

7.1 Steps of LCA and LCC calculations

After all the data required for modelling the life cycle environmental and financial performances of a building and its services systems have been entered, the user may proceed to conduct life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) for the building. The LCA and LCC calculations should start with predicting the energy use during the operating stage of the building such that the impacts and costs associated with the energy use can be included in the life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations. The next step will then be to evaluate the life cycle impact and then the life cycle cost. The program can be commanded to perform the three steps of LCA and LCC calculations, one by one, through the use of the Run menu option together with one of the three sub-menu options in the Main Form, as shown in Figure 7.1.1(a). The menu option View and the associated sub-menu options, as shown in Figure 7.1.1(b), are for viewing the calculation results. Details about each of these steps of calculations are described in the following sections.

(a)

(b) Figure 7.1.1 Menu control options in the Main Form for operating energy, life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations

7.2
7.2.1

Operating energy use calculations

Calculation methods

The LCA and LCC program can provide a break down of the total energy use in a building by five types of systems, namely: i) HVAC systems, ii) Electrical and Lighting systems, iii) Fire Services systems, iv) Lifts and Escalators and v) Plumbing and Drainage systems. As described in Chapter 6, the energy use of the HVAC systems includes the energy use of the central air-conditioning system and any additional HVAC systems. The energy use of the Electrical and Lighting systems includes the energy use of lighting and equipment in air-conditioned Rooms and any additional electrical and lighting systems.

93

The energy consumption of gas equipment can also be evaluated but, for simplicity, the energy use of a gas consuming system will be allocated to one of the abovementioned five types of systems even though the gas consuming system may actually be regarded as a different type of system of its own. For instance, all gas systems in kitchens or laundries may be regarded as separate systems but would have to be assigned as a sub-system of one of the five types of systems, such as Plumbing and Drainage systems. A building and plant energy simulation model has been developed and incorporated into the LCA and LCC program for detailed prediction of the annual energy use of the central air-conditioning system in a building. The energy simulation model is considered to be an essential part of the LCA and LCC program, as it allows the LCA and LCC analysis to take detailed accounts of the impacts of the envelope design on cooling loads of air-conditioned spaces, and in turn the energy use of the plant to cope with the load. The results, therefore, will be a holistic picture of the life cycle performance of the building. The last Section in this Chapter provides a brief description of the methods used to predict space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use for a building. Except for the central air-conditioning system, the annual operating energy use (AEC) of all types of services systems in a building will be estimated using a simplified approach, as follows: AEC = WD AOH LF Where AEC = annual energy consumption (kWh) WD = power demand (kW) AOH = annual operating hours (h) LF = load factor (-) The product of AOH and LF equals the annual equivalent full-load hours, which is used for estimating the annual energy use of lighting and equipment in air-conditioned spaces (see Box 6.1.1 for the assigned values). The annual equivalent full-load hour values shown in Box 6.1.1 were determined based on the patterns of use of lighting and equipment in the respective type of premises, which are consistent with those used in determining the cooling load due to these internal sources during the space cooling load predictions. For gas consuming systems, the calculation will be based on the following method: AEC = RCap AOH LF / Eff Where RCap = rated capacity (heat output, kW) Eff = efficiency (-) All the annual energy use calculation results, including electricity and heat from gas, will be converted to values in MJ (1 kWh = 3.6 MJ), to match with the base unit of the impact indicator figures in the Main Library. 7.2.2 Performing operating energy calculations

The user can activate the operating energy use calculation modules in the program by clicking the Run and then the Calculate Operating Energy Use menu options in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(a)). If the required energy calculation input data files, which include four files with the filename extensions

94

.ECI, .ASS, .WSS and .NAC (see Chapter 6), have not yet been loaded (which would be the case if the user have prepared these files in previous sessions but starts to run the operating energy use prediction model in the current session without revisiting these files), a common dialog box will show up to ask the user to select and open these files prior to calling up the Operating Energy Calculation Form. The Operating Energy Calculation Form, as shown in Figure 7.2.1, is the main control console in the program for performing operating energy use calculations. The menu control options in this Form (Figure 7.2.1) allow the user to conduct energy use calculations for all systems in sequence (by selecting the All Systems, One-by-one option), or for a selected system (by selecting the menu caption for the specific system concerned).

Figure 7.2.1

The Operating Energy Calculation Form and the menu control options in the Form

Figure 7.2.2 shows the appearance of the Form when the Air-conditioning menu option has been selected. The program will proceed with operating energy use calculation when the user clicks the Calculate button. The program will first predict the hourly space cooling loads of various Rooms in the building. This part of the simulation may take several minutes, depending on the complexity of the building and the computing speed of the computer used. During a simulation, the Zone and month in the year being processed will be shown in the Form to inform the user of the progress of the calculation (Figure 7.2.3a). As far as possible, AVOID SWITCHING TO ANOTHER TASK when the computer is performing this simulation. Otherwise, the computer may not continue to display the program front-end properly, although it will continue to process the calculations. Normally, by the time the calculation is complete, the front-end will come back to normal. To avoid repeating the time consuming space cooling load simulation when it is unnecessary, which will be the case when changes are made only to the central plant whilst no changes have been made to any parameters that would affect the space cooling loads (e.g. building envelope elements or internal load intensities), the option is provided to allow the user to skip the space cooling load simulation. When the Calculate button (Figure 7.2.2) is clicked, the program will first detect if a cooling load simulation result file already exists within the Project Folder (its filename is AnHSpCL.TXT; the same filename is always used). If an existing file is found, the program will ask the user to confirm if space cooling load simulation is to be repeated (Figure 7.2.4). Because the program will always use the same filename for the file into which the simulation results are written, any old results will be overwritten. Therefore, if the user wishes to retain the old results, he should rename the file that stores the previous set of results. Previous results may be used once again by renaming the file back to AnHSpCL.TXT.

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Button for user to confirm the use of the user input values. Instead of using the results predicted by the program, the user may directly enter estimates obtained using other means into the text boxes.

Figure 7.2.2

The Operating Energy Calculation Form when switched to the mode for energy use calculation for the central air-conditioning system

Figure 7.2.3

(a) (b) The run-time message shown during a space cooling load simulation

Figure 7.2.4

Options for confirming if space cooling load simulation is to be repeated or skipped

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The program will proceed with a new round of space cooling load simulation if the user clicks the Yes button (Figure 7.2.4). If the No button is clicked, the program will skip the space cooling load simulation, ask the user to confirm if the energy use prediction calculations are to proceed and, if the answer given by the user is affirmative, it will use the cooling load data in the existing file for the plant energy use simulation. Clicking the Cancel button will cause the program to abort the entire simulation. Once the space cooling prediction is complete, or is skipped, the program will ask the user if he wishes the program to continue with predicting the annual energy use of the central air-conditioning system. This break point is provided to allow the user to test run with the space cooling load inputs before proper inputs have been entered for the central air-conditioning plant. Unlike the space cooling load simulation, this part of the simulation can be accomplished within a much shorter time. Message will be shown to inform the user when the calculations have been completed (Figure 7.2.3b). When the air-conditioning energy use prediction is complete, the calculated results will be displayed in the textboxes for the corresponding types of equipment (Figure 7.2.2). At this point, the program allows the user to change the calculation results shown in the textboxes for various types of equipments in the air-conditioning system. In fact, the user can skip both the space cooling load and plant energy use simulation (by not clicking the Calculate button) and enter directly the annual energy use of various equipments in the system into the relevant textboxes. This allows the user to directly input simulation predictions obtained through the use of other building energy simulation programs, which may be necessary if the building being assessed possesses complicated features that go beyond the simulation capacity of the energy simulation models within the LCA and LCC program. When any changes to the results or direct entries of data have been made, the user has to click the Enter Changes button such that the program will calculate the total annual energy use from the energy use of individual types of equipment as entered by the user, and use this total energy use value in subsequent calculations of life cycle impacts and costs. Clicking the OK button will terminate the calculation for one type of system. The Calculate menu option and the sub-menu options (Figure 7.2.1) can then be used to perform energy use predictions for another type of system. If the user chose the All Systems, One-by-one menu option at the beginning of the simulation process, the program will set the Form into the format ready for predicting the energy use of the next system. The procedures of using the program to calculate the annual energy use of other types of systems are similar to the calculation of the air-conditioning energy use as described above. No matter whether the energy use results were predicted by the program or were amended or entered directly by the user, the latest set of energy use results for all the systems modelled may be written to a file such that the results may be re-loaded later. Saving and re-loading energy calculation results can be performed using the menu control options File and Load Previous Results or Save Current Results in the Operating Energy Calculation Form, as shown in Figure 7.2.5. The filename can be specified by the user through the use of the common dialog box but the filename extension *.EUR should be used at all times; the common dialog box will only list files in the Project folder with this filename extension for the user to select the file to be loaded.

Figure 7.2.5

Menu options for saving and loading energy calculation results

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When the user has loaded the previous set of energy calculation results, the results for the system concerned will be displayed when the user calls up the relevant control panel for energy calculation for that system (using the Calculate and then the relevant menu options see Figure 7.2.1). The user can then decide if re-calculation is needed for any of the systems, or simply to use the whole set of results for other assessment studies. After the energy use calculations for individual types of system are complete, the Operating Energy Calculation Form can be closed using the Menu control options File and then Exit (Figure 7.2.5). This will call up the Energy Calculation Results Form, as shown in Figure 7.2.6, which provides a summary of the annual energy use predicted for individual types of systems. If the user is satisfied with the results, he can click the Return (no change) button to confirm, which will also close this Form. Otherwise, the user may still make changes to any results as deemed appropriate such that further steps of impacts and costs calculations will be based on the new user input values. However, changes made at this stage CANNOT be saved for retrieval later.

The user may transfer the calculated results to text boxes in the second column in one go or one-by-one, and make changes to the figures. The user may make changes to each of the calculated values by typing the desired values in these boxes Caption of button will change as the user makes changes to the results.

Figure 7.2.6

The Energy Calculation Results Form

Before making any changes to the results, the user has to use the Copy All to -> button or any of the Copy to-> buttons to transfer the calculated results to the textboxes under the heading Value for Impact and Cost Estimates. This will also cause the caption of the button at the bottom of the Form to change from Return (no change) to Confirm and Exit. The user can then make changes to the values by typing the required values into the corresponding textboxes. After making changes as needed, the user can confirm the changes and close the Form using the button Confirm and Exit. The Energy Calculation Results Form can be called-up any time thereafter within the same session (i.e. before quitting the program) for viewing or making further changes to the energy use calculation results, by using the Menu control options View and then Operating Energy Results in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(b)).

7.3

Life cycle cost calculations

The life cycle cost calculation methods implemented in the program are based on well-established life cycle costing methods which evaluate the present worth of incomes and expenditures taking place in the future by discounting. The real discount rate (d) used in the present worth calculation is the net interest rate which will make a person indifferent to receiving or spending a dollar now or a dollar plus the interest in the future. The real discount rate is related to the nominal interest rate (r) and inflation rate (f) as follows:

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d=

1+ r 1 1+ f

(7.3.1)

For a project that involves an initial investment of C0, and thereafter an annual expenditure of Ci at the end of the ith year, for i = 1, 2, , N, where N is the overall duration of the project in years, the life cycle cost of the project (LCC) will be:

LCC = C0 +
i =1

Ci (1 + d ) i

(7.3.2)

The future annual expenditures (Ci) in equation (7.3.2) are in constant dollars, i.e. with inflation adjusted. If the annual expenditure is the same year after year, the life cycle cost of the project can be calculated in a simpler manner as follows:

LCC = C0 + Ci

(1 + d ) N 1 d (1 + d ) N

(7.3.3)

The price escalation rate for energy commodities (e) may be different from the discount (real interest) rate. Hence, in determining the life cycle energy cost (LCCe) of an energy consuming system, the price escalation rate needs to be accounted for separately, as follows:
N 1+ e LCC e = Ce ,i i =1 1 + d i

(7.3.4)

Where Ce,i is the annual energy cost in constant dollars paid at the end of the ith year. If the energy cost per period is the same throughout the life of the system, the life cycle energy cost of the system can be evaluated from:
N (1 + e) 1 + e LCC e = Ce ,i 1 ( d e) 1+ d

(7.3.5)

In the program, the life cycle costs for replacement of components and equipments in a building are evaluated using equation (7.3.2), based on current prices of the components and equipments and the time in the future that the replacements take place. The life cycle energy cost is evaluated using equation (7.3.5), based on the predicted annual energy cost of the building and a lifespan of 50 years.

7.4

Performing life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations

The LCA and LCC program can be commanded to proceed with life cycle impact calculations by using the Run followed by the Calculate Life Cycle Impact menu control options in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(a)). As described in Chapter 4 of this User Manual, the calculation will include life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), which will yield an impact indicator value for each of the 10 impact categories, the life cycle energy use (including embodied and operating energy use) and the waste production for each of the four stages in the building life cycle, which include: Stage 1: As-built; Stage 2: Operating (Matl); Stage 3: Operating (Egy); and

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Stage 4: Demolition. While the program is performing life cycle impact calculations, it will report the progress made by showing relevant messages in the picture box in the Main Form, as shown in Figure 7.4.1. No summary results will be presented at the completion of this part of the calculations, as the results can be examined in detail later through the use of the View and Overall Results menu options in the Main Form, while users are not expected to alter the results of this part of the calculations.

Progress of calculation shown here

Figure 7.4.1

Start life cycle impact calculations using The Main Form

Upon completion of the life cycle impact calculations, the program can be commanded to proceed with life cycle cost calculations, by using the Run followed by the Calculate Life Cycle Cost menu control options in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(a)). However, the calculation will yield costs, in present value, for only three stages in the building life cycle (As-built, Operating (Matl) and Operating (Egy); see Chapter 4); the cost for the Demolition stage will not be calculated (assumed to be small enough to be negligible). Similar to life cycle impact calculations, the progress of calculation, in terms of calculations for each of the life cycle stages, will be reported in the picture object in the Main Form. Furthermore, when the Run menu is called up again, the menu captions for the completed stages of calculations will be preceded by a tick (Figure 7.4.1), to allow the user to keep track with the progress of the LCA and LCC assessment. Upon completion of the life cycle cost calculations, the Life Cycle Costing Results Form (Figure 7.4.2(a)) will be shown to provide a summary of the calculation results. Similar to the operating energy use calculation results, the user may make changes to the results if deemed appropriate. Before making any changes to the life cycle costing results, the set of calculated results need to be copied to another array for storing the values, by using the Copy All to -> button. The Form will in response change slightly in appearance (Figure 7.4.2(b)). Under this mode, the textboxes showing the life cycle cost values can be used to make changes. When finished with making changes to the cost data for various parts and stages of the building, the Update LCC button must be used to command the program to re-calculate the total values. The Confirm and Exit button can then be used to close the

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Form. The menu options File and then Confirm and Exit (Figure 7.4.3) performs the same function as this button.

(a)

(b) Figure 7.4.2 The Life Cycle Costing Results Form: (a) as will be shown right after LCC calculations; (b) when switched to edit mode for making changes to the results

Figure 7.4.3

Menu control options in the Life Cycle Costing Results Form

The latest set of LCC results can be viewed again using the menu control options View and then LCC Results in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(b)), and further changes may also be made with the Life Cycle Results Form that will show up. The set of results being displayed in the Form can also be saved to the disk, as a file with the .LCC filename extension, which can be reloaded later. The tabulated results in the Form may also be exported in the .CSV format, which is one of the standard formats that can be directly loaded into MS Excel. The menu controls that enable the user to perform these functions are shown in Figure 7.4.3.

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7.5

LCA/LCC Results Form

After performing all the LCA and LCC calculations, the results can be viewed using the View and then the Overall Results menu control options in the Main Form (Figure 7.1.1(b)). The LCA/LCC Results Form, as shown in Figure 7.5.1, will then show up to provide a summary of the calculation results.

Drop down list for selection of the Case for which results are to be shown.

Drop down list for selection of the life cycle stage for which results are to be shown.

Drop down lists for selection of the part of the building for which results are to be shown.

(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 7.5.1 The LCA/LCC Results Form: (a) the appearance of the Form; (b) provisions for selecting a particular part for which results are to be shown; (c) menu options in the Form

The results shown in the LCA/LCC Results Form include: 1. The impact indicator values for the 10 impact categories embraced by the adopted life cycle impact assessment method, together with the two supplementary impact indicators (Energy Use and Solid Waste), which are shown in the set of text boxes under the column heading
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Characterised. The units associated with each of the impact indicators are also shown next to the respective values. 2. The normalised values for the 10 impact indicators, which are shown in the textboxes under the column heading Normalised. Note that no normalised values are shown for the two supplementary impact indicators. The weighted values for the 10 normalised impact indicators, which are shown in the textboxes under the column heading Weighted. The sum of the 10 weighted impact values, shown in the text box next to the label Tot. Imp. (Cat. 1-10). The life cycle cost (or that for a stage), shown in the text box next to the label Stage/ LC Cost (HK$). The weighted overall environmental and finance performance indicator, shown in the text box next to the label Total LCA/LCC Score.

3. 4. 5. 6.

In addition to the results for the entire building, the program can provide the user with LCA and LCC results for a selected Portion or a specific Component Group within a selected Portion, as well as the result for just a selected life cycle stage, for analysis and comparison. The selection can be made through the use of the dropdown lists at the top of the Form (Figure 7.5.1(b)). The program allows the user to compare results of different cases (up to three cases concurrently), which can be different parts or at different life cycle stages of the same building being assessed; the same building but when it has been incorporated with alternative designs; or different buildings. These scenarios are referred to as the Reference Case, the Alternative Case and the Current Case. The latest set of LCA/LCC results for the project that have just been assessed is regarded, by default, as the Current Case. The user may set the Current Case as the Reference Case or the Alternative Case and save the set of results as those for the respective Cases (using the menu control functions shown in Figure 7.5.1(c)). The user may then proceed to make changes to the inputs, re-conduct the LCA and LCC assessment and compare the results of the revised Case (the Current Case) against the Reference Case and/or Alternative Case. The saved results can also be re-loaded later, which will allow the comparison to be done in multiple times of use of the program. The LCA/LCC Results Form includes a menu control option (under the menu caption Options) that allows the results being summarised in the Form to be exported to the hard disk as a file in the comma separated values (CSV) format, which is one of the formats that can be directly loaded into MS Excel. The user may then format and manipulate further the data in an Excel Worksheet and use the tabulated data for reporting purpose. The program can also present LCA/LCC results in graphical form to ease comparison. The LCA/LCC Results (Charts) Form (Figure 7.5.2) will show up when the Show Charts button in the LCA/LCC Results Form is clicked. Results for up to three Cases can be shown in the same graph in this Form: the Reference Case, the Alternative Case and the Current Case. The user may select the Cases to be shown by using the check boxes provided.

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(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 7.5.2 The LCA/LCC Results (Charts) Form: (a) when showing results in stacked bars; (b) when showing results in separate bars; (c) menu options for selecting type of results to be shown.

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The Parts of the building for which results are to be shown would be according to the selections made by the user using controls in the LCA/LCC Results Form (Figure 7.5.1(b)), when the numerical results were calculated and shown in that Form. With the LCA/LCC Results (Charts) Form (Figure 7.5.2), the user may select a specific type of result (Figure 7.5.2(c)), including the results of intermediate stages of the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) process as well as a specific impact category to be shown. Furthermore, for each of the Cases, a particular stage in the building life cycle may be selected for graphical presentation. The program can display results in two formats: Stacked bars, with weighted impacts shown in bars in different colours stacking on one another (Figure 7.5.2(a)); or Bars, with impact values for different impact categories shown separately (Figure 7.5.2(b)). The Export Chart button in the Form allows the user to export the graphical image being shown in the Form to the clipboard of the computer. The image, in bitmap format, can then be pasted into document files for reporting purpose.

7.6

Selective assessment

As described in the preceding section, the LCA/LCC Results Form (Figure 7.5.1) already includes a range of dropdown lists that allow the user to single out the contributions of individual parts or specific life cycle stages of a building to the overall impact and cost of the building over its complete life cycle. The individual part that may be selected can be a Portion (Foundations, Floors or Services), an individual Component Group (e.g. a particular Floor in the Floors Portion) or a specific Class of Components (e.g. Envelop, Frame or Contents within the Floors Portion or HVAC, Electrical and Lighting, Fire Services, Lifts and Escalators or Plumbing and Drainage Services with the Services Portion). The program can facilitate the user to analyse in greater detail the contributions of different parts of a building to its life cycle impact and cost, even down to individual Elements level. The user can select to include or skip calculations for an individual Portion, Component Group, Component or Element by using the Skip All check boxes for an entire Portion, the All or None option buttons for a Component Group or Component and the Yes or No option buttons for an individual Element in the relevant Forms, as described in greater detail below. In the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1), the Skip All check box for each of the three Portions (Foundations, Floors and Services) can be checked if the user wishes to skip life cycle impact and life cycle cost assessment for an entire Portion. A specific Component Group can be skipped from the calculation by first selecting the Component Group (e.g. a Floor) (by clicking on the name of the Component Group in the list), followed by clicking the None option bullet button. Selecting a Component followed by clicking the None option bullet button in the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) allows the user to set aside a specific Component within a Component Group from the impacts and cost calculations. When some but not all Components in a Component Group are selected for exclusion from the calculations, the Some bullet in the Building and System Form (Figure 5.3.1) will appear activated when the Component Group is selected. Similarly, in the Component and Elements Form (Figure 5.5.1), individual Elements in a Component may be selected for exclusion from the calculations (by clicking the Element in the list, followed by clicking the No option bullet button). If some but not all Elements in a Component are selected for exclusion from the calculations, the Some bullet in the Component Group Form (Figure 5.4.1) will appear activated when the Component is selected.

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With these controls, not only individual parts of a building could be included or excluded from the life cycle impact and cost assessments to unveil their contributions, the user may actually input all alternatives for the same part of the building and obtain the results with anyone in use by selecting the other alternatives for exclusion from the assessment. The selections can be reset in one go using the menu options Edit and Reset Selection for Assessment in the Main Form. If the user is interested in knowing the embodied energy use of the building materials and the services systems and equipment at different life cycle stages of a building, he may use either one of two ways to obtain the information. In the overall result summary shown in the LCA/LCC Results Form (Figure 7.5.1), the embodied energy use of building materials and services systems and equipment is shown in two parts; one part for that incurred up to the As-built stage and the other part for that incurred during the operating stage. By selecting (using the relevant dropdown lists in the Form) the Whole Building option on the dropdown list for Building Parts (or the specific part of the building as deem appropriate) and the As Built option on the dropdown list for Life Cycle Stage followed by clicking the Show Data, the embodied energy use of the whole building up to the As-built stage can be seen in the textbox for Energy Use. Similarly, by selecting the Operating (Matl) option on the dropdown list for the Life Cycle Stage followed by clicking the Show Data button, the embodied energy use of the whole building during the operating stage can be seen in the same textbox. The sum of the two figures (to be done manually or using Excel after the two set of results are exported to two separate .CSV files) will be the life cycle embodied energy use of the building. Alternatively, the user may close the Project (assuming that all data were properly input and assessments have been done in the last session) and re-load the Project again. This time, he should proceed direct to life cycle impact assessment WITHOUT conducting the operating energy use assessment (the life cycle cost assessment may also be skipped). He can then proceed to view overall results and choose Whole Building and Whole Life Cycle options on the relevant dropdown lists. The energy use result that will be shown after clicking the Show Data button will be the embodied energy use of the entire building in the whole life cycle.

7.7

Parameters used in life cycle impact and life cycle cost calculations

The normalisation and weighting factors used in the program to calculate the normalised and weighted impact indicators can be viewed by using the Edit and then the LCA Weightings and Cost Para. menu control options in the Main Form. This will call up the Weighting Factors Form (Figure 7.7.1(a)), which shows the numerical values of the normalisation factors and the weighting factors being used. The normalisation factors are the impacts that would be incurred by consuming 1 TJ of electricity in Hong Kong. The weighting factors were derived from comparative importance among the impact categories, as expressed by the participants of a forum that was specifically conducted for soliciting subjective judgements of the participants on the environmental impacts. Additionally, the weighting between life cycle impact and life cycle cost for the evaluation of an overall LCA/LCC score, also derived from relative importance between the two issues as perceived by the participants of the same forum, is shown in the Form. Chapter 8 describes briefly the rationale behind the selection of the normalisation factors and the purpose of using the weighting factors. With this Form (Figure 7.7.1), the user may change the weighting factors for calculation of the overall impact value and the overall LCA/LCC score, and save the user input values for application to other projects. Note however should be taken that the sum of the weighting factors for the 10 impact categories should equal 1.0. The user, however, is not allowed to change the normalisation factors.

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(a)

(b) Figure 7.7.1 (a) The Weighting Factors Form showing the normalization and weighting factors used in LCA/LCC calculations and (b) the Cost Parameters Form showing the parameters used in LCC calculations

The LCC calculation involves the use of several parameters, including the unit price of electricity and town gas, and the nominal interest rate, inflation rate and energy cost escalation rate. The default values for these parameters can be seen using the Cost Parameters and then the View Edit menu control functions in the Form. The values of these parameters will be shown in the Cost Parameters Form that will then show up (Figure 7.7.1(b)). The user may also change the values for these parameters for use in the LCC calculation, and save the data for application to other projects.

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7.8

Space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use prediction

7.8.1 The modelling methods The space cooling load and air-conditioning energy use prediction models in the program were developed based on well established methods and models for these purposes. Detailed descriptions about these methods and models are given in a number of reference books and handbooks in the field. The most relevant ones include: 1. 2. 3. ASHRAE (2001), Handbook: Fundamentals, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, Inc. McQuiston FC, Parker JD, Spitler JD (2000). Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning: analysis and design, 5th Ed, John Wiley & Sons. Underwood CP, Yik FWH (2004). Modelling methods for energy in buildings, Blackwell Publishing Company.

For modelling conduction heat transfer through building fabric components, a finite difference model was developed to numerically solve the partial differential equation that governs transient conduction heat transfer in solids (see Chapter 2 in Ref. 3 above for detailed descriptions about the method). In this method, each layer of material (an element) in a fabric component (e.g. a composite wall or roof or slab) is subdivided into a number of slices, with the temperature of each slice represented by a nodal temperature, as illustrated in Figure 7.8.1. The numerical scheme used is the forward difference scheme, which makes use of the knowledge about the nodal temperatures and the boundary conditions at the current time step to predict the nodal temperatures at the next time step, as depicted by Equation 7.8.1, where [A] is a N N coefficient matrix; {Tn+1} is a vector of the nodal temperatures at the next time step (n+1); {Tn} is the same vector with known element values at the current time step (n); and {b} is a vector of constants, which depends on the boundary conditions.
Interior nodes; temperature of node: Ti; i = 2, , N-1 A boundary node; temperature of node: T1 A boundary node; temperature of node: TN

Slice 1 x/2 x

Slice N x x/2

Figure 7.8.1

Subdivision of a layer of material in an envelope component

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 T1n b1 T1n+1 n n+1 T2 0 T2 : = [ A] : + : T n 0 T n+1 N 1 N 1 n +1 n TN bN TN

(7.8.1)

The forward difference scheme has the advantage that it can progress from one time step to another more quickly than other schemes (such as the backward difference or the Crank-Nicholson scheme) as the calculation involved is straightforward (the other schemes require iterative calculation procedures). It, however, has the drawback that the time step that can be used must stay within the stability limit, which is dependent on the material property and the thickness of the slices into which the material is subdivided. In the program, a fixed time step of 60 seconds is used. The program will initially subdivide each element layer in a fabric component into four slices (two internal slices, each with a thickness that equals one third of the overall thickness of the element layer, and two boundary slices, each with a thickness half that of an internal slice) and then check if the stability criterion for each slice would be violated. When any one of the slices violates the stability criterion, the number of subdivisions for the layer will first be reduced and the stability check will be repeated. If the stability criteria cannot be met even when the entire element is modelled as two boundary slices, the layer will be regarded as having no thermal capacitance (but with resistance), similar to an air gap. This helps ensure the numerical scheme will always be stable, although the model may respond to excitations more quickly than the actual fabric component that it represents. The boundary conditions that affect heat transfer through building fabric components include: the temperature of the ambient air to which the surface at each side of the fabric component is exposed; and the short and long wave radiant heat exchanges between the fabric component surfaces and the surrounding environments. For an exterior surface, the radiant heat exchanges include the incident direct and diffuse solar radiation from the sun, the sky and ground reflectance, and the long wave radiant heat exchange with the sky and the ground. For the surface at the indoor side, it would gain or lose radiant energy due to the incident solar radiation transmitted through windows and the long wave radiant heat exchanges with other internal surfaces of the building fabric, and with the internal heat sources (e.g. lighting and equipment). The solar irradiance upon the exterior surface of an envelope component is determined based on wellestablished models for this purpose (see e.g. the Chapter on Fenestration in Ref. 1) and according to the geometric relation of the surface with the sun and the sky, which in turn is dependent on the latitude of the location in question (in our case, Hong Kong), the time and date for each time step, the orientation of the surface and the intensities of direct and diffuse solar radiation available at the time. A weather data file has been compiled (with the filename: hkw1989.TXT, which is included in the package) based on the weather records of Hong Kong in 1989 (found by previous research to be an example weather year in Hong Kong2). The weather file supplies the program with 8,760 sets of weather data for each hour in the year. The data for each hour include, for the outdoor air, its dry bulb, wet bulb and dew point temperatures and its moisture content; the intensities of direct solar radiation upon vertical surfaces facing eight principal directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW) and upon a horizontal surface as well as the diffuse solar radiation upon a vertical and a horizontal surface. The solar intensities upon surfaces facing these standard directions were pre-calculated and lodged into the weather file such that the data can be used directly for building heat transfer calculations, saving computing time for their determination during the simulation process.
See Wong WL, Ngan KH, Selection of an example weather year for Hong Kong, Energy and Buildings 1993; 19: 313-316. 109
2

The weather file includes also the solar altitude and azimuth angles for each sunshine hour throughout the year. This information is utilized for calculating the amount of direct solar heat gain through windows and skylights. The dependence of the transmittance and absorptance of window glazing on the incident angle of solar radiation is taken into account by using the model for the standard DSA glass, as given in Ref. 1. The heat gain for the standard glazing is then scaled to reflect the solar heat gain with the specific glass used in a building based on the shading coefficient of the glass. The heat balance method is used for determining the heat gain of an indoor space (a Room). It includes a thermal network that takes into account the long wave radiant heat exchanges among the fabric surfaces enclosing the same space. For simplicity, the radiation shape factor for each pair of the surfaces is evaluated using the area-weighted method. The long wave radiant heat exchanges are evaluated using the MRT/Bal method (the mean radiant temperature with balance method). Furthermore, the assumption is made that the transmitted direct solar radiation will be uniformly distributed upon the floor surface only but the transmitted diffuse radiation will be uniformly distributed upon all the internal surfaces of the fabric components that enclose the space, including the floor, ceiling, walls, windows and skylights (if any). Radiant heat emitted by all internal sources is also distributed uniformly onto all the internal surfaces. These are typical methods used to simplify the calculations in building heat transfer simulations (see e.g. Chapter 8 in Ref. 2 and Chapter 2 in Ref. 3). When the temperatures in the fabric components at the end of a time step have been evaluated, the space cooling load at that time can be determined by summing the convective heat transfers to the indoor air, including those from the internal surface of each fabric component to the indoor air, each internal source, and infiltration. The indoor temperature of the air-conditioned spaces are assumed to stay steadily at the respective design levels whenever air-conditioning is operating, but will float dependent on balance of heat transfer in the space outside the air-conditioned period. The space cooling load calculation evaluates separately the sensible and latent heat loads of a space, because the former is needed for determining the performance of the air-side air-conditioning systems. The space cooling loads for each time step within an hour will be summed to yield the hourly cooling load for each space. The methods and equipment models used in the air-conditioning plant simulation modules in the program are as described in detail in Chapter 4 in Ref. 3. Unlike the building fabric, which has its dynamic heat transfer characteristics modelled in detail, the air-conditioning system and equipment are simulated based on steady state models only. In other words, the air-conditioning system and equipment are assumed to be capable of responding instantaneous to any excitations and are capable of maintaining the indoor temperature right at the design level at all times whenever the system is on. This assumption allows the prediction of space cooling load to be done separately from prediction of the air-conditioning plant energy use, with the former for each hour in the year predicted first and the hourly space cooling loads predicted can then be used as inputs for prediction of air-conditioning energy use. Models included in the program for modelling air-conditioning equipment are mostly curve-fit models established based on performance data obtained from equipment manufacturers. 3 The equipment models included can cover air-cooled or water-cooled chillers that are using centrifugal, reciprocating or screw compressors; pumps and fans with or without variable speed drives; cooling towers; heat exchangers; and cooling coils in air-handling units (for prediction of chilled water demand under various total cooling coil loads). System models include those for predicting the temperature of condenser water entering water-cooled chillers for chiller plants that are direct or in-direct seawatercooled or by cooling towers with or without heat exchangers; chilled water pumping systems with
See e.g. Yik FWH, Lam VKC (1998). Chiller models for plant design studies, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, Vol.19, No.4, p.233-241, The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, UK. 110
3

single-loop or two-loop designs, and for the latter with or without variable speed secondary-loop pumps; and variable air volume (VAV) air-side systems. For Zones served by VAV systems, the air-conditioning system simulation module will determine the supply air flow rate required for each space in each Zone, based on the respective space sensible cooling loads for the hour under concern (as predicted beforehand by the space cooling load simulation module in the program), and then the total supply flow rate to be delivered by the airhandling units serving individual Zones. The fan supply pressure required of an air-handling unit will also be determined using a fan modulation curve model, based on the total supply flow rate. These results will then allow the fan speed or inlet guide vane (IGV) position, and the fan power demand, of the air-handling unit to be determined, through the use of the fan model (the fan affinity law for variable speed fans or the fan model that relates fan pressure and power to flow rate and IGV position). For Zones served by constant air volume (CAV) systems or fan-coil systems, the fan power for each operating hour would simply be taken as the sum of rated power of all operating air-side equipment. The number of fresh air-handling units to be operated at each hour will be determined based on the total fresh air supply demand of individual air-conditioned spaces. The fan power and chilled water supply flow rate demands of the fresh air-handling units will then be determined, based on the outdoor air condition at the corresponding hour and the fresh air supply flow rate demand. Based on the total cooling loads of individual spaces and that for fresh air treatment, the chilled water demand of individual air-side equipment will be determined, through the use of the cooling coil model. The chilled water demand will then be summed to yield the total chilled water supply flow rate to be delivered by the central air-conditioning plant, based upon which the chilled water pumping energy use will be determined. Pump models are included to cater for constant speed and variable speed pumping systems. For the former, the pump model is simply a numerical model that relates the pumping pressure and power to the flow rate. For variable speed pumps, the pump affinity law is also employed for determining pump speed and the pumping pressure and power at reduced speeds. Similar to the VAV system model, a pump modulation curve model is used to relate pumping pressure requirement to the flow rate. The space total cooling loads and fresh air loads will also be summed to yield the total cooling load on the chillers in the central plant. Based on the total cooling load, the number of central plant equipment, including chillers and chilled water pumps, and where applicable, cooling towers, condenser water pumps and seawater pumps, that need to be run will be determined. The equipment models for these equipments will then be utilized to evaluate their respective power demand, and their total value will be determined. The calculation will be repeated for each air-conditioned hour throughout the year, taking into account the variations in the duration of air-conditioned periods with day in the week and type of premises in the building, to yield the annual energy use for air-conditioning in the building. 7.8.2 Comparison of predictions

The hourly cooling load and air-conditioning energy use predicted by the energy simulation modules in the LCA and LCC program (referred to hereinafter as the current model) for the 40-storey model office building (see details of the building model as described in the Example Application document accompanying this program) have been compared with the predictions for the same building model by using HTB2 and BECON. HTB2 is a detailed building heat transfer simulation program developed by the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, in the UK and BECON is an air-conditioning plant simulation program developed by the Department of Building Services Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The building simulation package (HTB2 and BECON) has been used as the major tool for assessing energy performance of buildings in Hong Kong under the HK-

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BEAM scheme since the scheme was launched in 1996. 4 The package has also been applied to existing buildings and its prediction has been compared against measured building cooling load and energy use.5 Figure 7.8.2 compares the hourly building cooling loads throughout the year that were predicted by the current model against those predicted by HTB2 and BECON for the model office building, and Figure 7.8.3 compares the predicted air-conditioning energy use of the model building. Figure 7.8.4 shows a comparison between the monthly energy uses predicted by the two packages. Figures 7.8.5 and 7.8.6 show the predicted hourly cooling loads for seven consecutive days in a hot summer month and in a cool autumn month. It can be seen that the daily ranges of hourly cooling load and air-conditioning energy use predicted by the current model are generally wider than those predicted by HTB2 and BECON, which should be the result of the simplification in the simulation method as discussed above. Nonetheless, the two sets of results agree remarkably well with one another: the differences in the predicted annual total cooling load and annual total air-conditioning energy use are both around 1% only.

Cooling Load (kW)

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 1 201 401 601 801 1001 1201 1401 1601 1801 2001 2201 2401 2601 2801 3001 A/C Operating Hrs Current Model HTB2&BECON

Figure 7.8.2

Comparison of hourly building cooling loads predicted by the current model and by HTB2 and BECON

Yik FWH, Burnett J, Jones P, Lee WL (1998). Energy performance criteria in the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method, Energy and Buildings, Vol.27, No. 2, p.207-219.
5

See, for example, Sat PSK, Yik FWH (2003). Comparison of predictions of the building energy simulation programs HTB2 and BECON with metered building energy data, Transactions, Vol.10, No.3, p.34-47, The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, HK. 112

Energy Use (kW)

4000

3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0 1 201 401 601 801 1001 1201 1401 1601 1801 2001 2201 2401 2601 2801 3001 A/C Operating Hrs Current Model HTB2&BECON

Figure 7.8.3

Comparison of hourly air-conditioning energy use predicted by the current model and by HTB2 and BECON
Monthly AC Energy Use (kWh)

800000

700000

600000

500000

400000

300000

200000

100000

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Month Current Model HTB2&BECON 7 8 9 10 11 12

Figure 7.8.4

Comparison of monthly air-conditioning energy use predicted by the current model and by HTB2 and BECON

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Cooling Load (kW) July 21 - July 27

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 A/C Operating Hrs Current Model HTB2&BECON

Figure 7.8.5

Comparison of hourly building cooling load predicted by the current model and by HTB2 and BECON for a week in July
Cooling Load (kW) Nov 1 - Nov 7

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 A/C Operating Hrs Current Model HTB2&BECON

Figure 7.8.6

Comparison of hourly building cooling load predicted by the current model and by HTB2 and BECON for a week in November

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7.9

The accompanying Calculator program

A numeric calculator program, with the filename Calculator.exe, is included in the package as a supplementary tool, which may be found useful if the user needs to perform certain numeric calculations while preparing input data for a project or making changes to calculation results output by the LCA and LCC program (e.g. changing the operating energy or LCC calculation results). The Calculator can be run by doubling clicking the filename (or logo, also that of EMSD) of the program that appears on the file list in the Windows Explorer when files in the Program Folder (C:\HK_LCA, as assumed in the description on installation procedures for the program) are listed in the Windows Explorer. The Form of the Calculator will appear at the top right hand corner of the computer screen, as shown in Figure 7.9.1.

Data entry textbox

Click the X button to quit the program

Figure 7.9.1

The Calculator Program

There are two parts in this Calculator. The upper part is a numeric calculator that can perform a range of basic arithmetic, trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential operations. This calculator operates with the post-fix convention, which is different from the mid-fix convention used in most electronic calculators. With the mid-fix convention, when we want to compute X + Y, the sequence of entries would be to enter the numerical value of X first, followed by the + instruction, the numerical value of Y and finally pressing the = button. The operation, + in this case, is entered between the two numerical values to which the operation is applied, and is thus referred to as midfix. With the post-fix convention, there is no need for a = button but an Enter button is provided instead. The sequence of entries starts with keying in the first numerical value, denoted as X, into the data entry textbox (the textbox next to the label Y =, as shown in Figure 7.9.1), followed by clicking the Enter button. In response, the value just entered for X will be shifted up to the textbox next to the label X =. The other numerical value, denoted as Y, can then be typed into the data entry textbox. The command on which mathematical operation is to be applied to the two values, X and Y, is to be

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issued at this stage, e.g. by clicking the + button. The Calculator will then compute the numerical value of X + Y and show the result in the data entry textbox. The user may continue with another mathematical operation that takes the result just computed as X, by clicking the Enter button, followed by anther numerical value for Y and lastly the button for the operation to be applied to X and Y. This convention is called post-fix because the mathematical operation is entered only after the two numerical values involved in the operation have been entered. Note that each time the Enter button is clicked, the numbers in the textboxes would be shifted up by one level making available the lowest level textbox (the data entry textbox) for input of a new number. When each mathematical operation (e.g. +, , or /) that involves the lowest and the lowest but one numbers in the stack of numbers is performed, the result will be shown in the lowest level textbox and all the numbers above the 2nd level will be shifted down by one level. With this feature, a number, be it a user input or a result of previous calculation may stay in the stack for use at a later stage without the need for brackets to control the sequence of calculations. For example, to compute: 2 (3 + 4) The procedure can be (typing) 2, (clicking) Enter, (typing) 3, (clicking) Enter, (typing) 4, (clicking) + and (clicking) . For operations that involve only the number at the lowest level textbox (next to the Y = label), e.g. Sqr(Y), ln(Y) etc., the result will simply replace the original number in the textbox. The lower part of the Calculator program is a Financial Calculator for performing present worth calculations, which may be useful when the user makes changes to the LCC calculation results. The Financial Calculator can compute the total present worth of a uniform stream of money outlays or just a single outlay at the end of the study period (in constant dollars, i.e. with inflation adjusted) when the parameters are input and when the Calculate button is clicked. Figure 7.9.2 shows two examples of using the Financial Calculator. The example shown in Figure 7.9.2(a) is about calculating the total present value of paying 100 units of money at the end of each period for a total of 12 periods when the interest rate and inflation rate per period are respectively 5% and 3%. The example shown in Figure 7.9.2(b) differs from that shown in Figure 7.9.2(a) in that 100 units of money will be paid only once at the end the 12th period. A non-zero price escalation rate may also be entered if it is known that the money outlays will increase according to the rate entered.

(a) Figure 7.9.2 Two examples of using the Calculator Program

(b)

Unlike the LCA and LCC program where using the button at the top right hand corner of a Form to close the Form is discouraged, quitting the Calculator is to be done through clicking the button

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at the top right hand corner. This method to unload the Calculator is used because there is no need to ensure the data entered need to be saved before unloading the program.

7.10 The accompanying Slide Show program

Limited by the size of the image object in the Main Form, the two set of slides accompanying the LCA and LCC program may not be shown clear enough in the Main Form, especially when various Forms of the program are shown in the slide. Moreover, to locate a specific slide can be difficult even with the dropdown list provided. To allow users to view more clearly the slides and to more quickly search for a specific slide to view, a supplemental tool, with the filename SlideShows.exe, is included in the package. The SlideShows program can be loaded in the same way as loading the LCA and LCC program or the Calculator program described above. When loaded, the program Form will occupy the entire screen, and thus is able to provide clearer images of the slides. Figure 7.10.1 shows the appearance of the SlideShows program when it is first loaded.

Figure 7.10.1

The SlideShows Program

The program will automatically read the file LCA.TXT in the Program Folder of the LCA and LCC program, which supplies the SlideShows program with information about the locations of the two sets of slides. With this information, the program will be ready, once loaded, to allow the user to select which set of slides to view using the dropdown list (under the caption Select Chapter) (Figure 7.10.2). The captions of the slides in the selected set will then be displayed in the list at the left hand side of the Form (Figure 7.10.3). The slides can be viewed one-by-one by first clicking on one of the slides and then use the down arrow button in the keyboard of the computer. The sliding bar may also
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be used to browse the slide captions for selecting a particular slide to view. Additionally, the user may type a keyword into the textbox at the bottom of the form and click the Find button to search for the first slide in the set the caption of which contains the keyword. Searching for other slides may continue by clicking the Next button. The SlideShows program may be closed by using the button at the top right hand corner, or the menu control options File and then Exit.

Figure 7.10.2

Dropdown list for selecting a set of slides to view

Sliding bar for pulling up or down the list

Search function for locating slides with captions containing the keyword typed as typed in the textbox

Figure 7.10.3

Slides available listed for selection

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Part IV

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8 Normalisation and weighting factors

The LCA calculations implemented in the LCA and LCC program includes the normalisation and the weighting steps (see Appendix A for brief descriptions about the steps in a LCIA (life cycle impact assessment)). Before applying these steps, the results calculated are what can be obtained after implementing the characterisation step in the LCIA process, which include one impact indicator for each of the impact categories embraced by the LCIA method. The normalisation process converts the ten impact indicators (each measured in a specific unit) for a building into dimensionless values, which is a necessary step to take before applying weighting to yield a single, overall impact indicator to inform decision making. For a LCA cum LCC assessment, the life cycle cost should likewise be normalised to allow trade-offs between environmental impacts and cost to be made on a levelled basis. The environmental performance indicator (the overall impact indicator) and the financial performance indicator (the normalised life cycle cost) will also be weighted to yield and overall LCA cum LCC index, with the trade-off between the two accounted for by the weighting factors.

8.1

Selection of normalisation factors

The normalisation factors embedded into the LCA and LCC program are the impacts due to consuming 1TJ of electricity locally in Hong Kong. This choice was made because of the following considerations: 1. Commonly used normalisation factors are the total impacts incurred in a year in the geographical region concerned (e.g. in a country or a continent or in the whole world), which may also be scaled down to impacts per capita. However, sufficiently detailed and comprehensive data embracing all sorts of socio-economic activities for evaluation of the total impacts under each of the ten impact categories, as would be incurred in the whole Hong Kong were unavailable. Electricity generation is responsible for a large proportion of pollutant emissions in Hong Kong (for around 86% of SO2, 60% of CO2, 43% of NOX and 37% of particulate matters). Therefore, as a basis for impact quantification, the impacts due to electricity use are a good substitute of the city-wide total impacts. Furthermore, for a commercial building in Hong Kong, its operating energy use, which is predominantly electricity, usually dominates the life cycle impact of the building. The reference impacts are domestic, which are therefore more relevant than applying impact figures available in the literature for other countries, continents or for the whole world. The life cycle impact of a building quantified on this basis will assist comprehension, as the value of the buildings impact can be interpreted as equivalent to that due to consumption of an equal number of TJ of electricity in Hong Kong. With the impacts of a building normalised based on the impacts of consuming 1TJ of electricity in Hong Kong, normalising the life cycle cost of a building by the price of 1TJ of electricity will provide a consistent basis for the two aspects of assessment. Referencing the life cycle impact of a building to electricity use also provides a good basis for considerations of trade-offs between life cycle impact and life cycle cost. Where improving the design of a building would yield a reduction in its life cycle impact by an amount equivalent to that due to a reduction in electricity use by a certain amount, the cost of the
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2.

3. 4.

5.

6.

reduced amount of electricity use may be regarded as a return to the investment made in the measures that would lead to the reduction in the impact of the building. The investment could be considered worth making if the life cycle cost of the measures is lower than the electricity cost saving. Since the impacts and the cost of consuming 1TJ of electricity may both change with time (the impacts are dependent on the fuel mix used in Hong Kong for electricity generation, e.g. the shift from coal to natural gas as the main fuel will lead to reduced emissions), the normalisation factors for impacts and cost will need to be updated when substantial changes in the fuel mix for electricity generation and/or the electricity price take place.

8.2

The weighting factors

8.2.1 Purpose of weighting On top of selecting an impact profile for use as the basis for normalisation, the two issues below had to be addressed: 1. The impacts under the ten impact categories may be regarded as having different importance while aggregation of the 10 categorised impact indicators into a single, overall impact indicator must take account of their relative importance; the assessment result will help designers make decisions to address the most important aspects of environmental problems only if the impacts are given proper weights. The cost of the equivalent amount of electricity saved (see point 6 in the earlier list) could only reflect the internal cost saving to a building owner for the associated impact reduction; it does not account for other parts of the social cost (the externalities) that could also be avoided. For this reason, an environmentally conscious developer/designer will consider it worthwhile to invest more for achieving the same degree of impact reduction when considering whether the improvement measures would be worth adopting.

2.

As are dealt with in nearly all LCA/LCC studies conducted worldwide, the above two issues are addressed by weighting methods. For the first issue, a set of weighting factors that reflect the relative importance of the individual impacts are applied such that the overall impact indicator is a weighted sum of the categorised impact indicators. Weighting factors are also applied to the overall impact indicator and to the normalised life cycle cost to yield an all embracing indicator for the environmental and financial performance of a building, which may then be used for comparison of alternative building designs and as a reference for making decisions. 8.2.2 Derivation of the weighting factors Given that there are still limited scientific evidence to support derivation of objective weighting factors for the categorised impacts and for impact and cost, the weighting factors used in the LCA and LCC program were derived from subjective valuations, as expressed by a group of stakeholders who were invited to unveil their valuations on the issues through responding to a questionnaire at the end of a forum. In the forum, an introduction to LCA and LCC was given, the need for normalisation and weighting in LCA and LCC of buildings was explained and the ten impacts for which the respondents were required to judge their relative importance were introduced, before the questionnaire survey was conducted.

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The questionnaire included two main parts. The first comprised a series of questions that required each of the respondents to indicate, between the two choices presented in each question, how more important is one compared to the other. To reduce the burden on the respondents, the ten impact categories were grouped into four impact groups as shown in Table 8.2.1. The two choices in each of the questions were one of the possible combinations of the four groups of impact categories. The respondents were also reminded that when they compare two groups of impacts, the comparison should be based on the aggregated importance of all impacts in each group. A scale, which was designed to facilitate analysis by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), was included in each question for the respondent to indicate their judgement. The importance weights used in the program for weighting the ten impacts were derived through analysing the subjective evaluations of the respondents using the AHP method. Group A B C D Impacts in the group global warming human health and ecotoxicity, including terrestrial, marine aquatic, and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity ozone depletion, photochemical smog, acidification, and eutrophication resources depletion Grouping of impact categories for the survey on relative importance of the impact categories

Table 8.2.1

The second main part of the questionnaire was for obtaining the relative importance between life cycle environmental impact and life cycle cost, as perceived by the respondents. Each question in this part presented two choice cards to the respondents, with each card containing two attributes about a building product, which were the percentage changes in the life cycle impact and life cycle cost of the product from those of a conventional product (e.g. 10% less life cycle impact, 10% more life cycle cost). The two attributes in one card are different from those of the other card in the same question, such that when asked to make a choice between the two products as represented by the two cards, the respondents were forced to make trade-offs between the two performances of the two products. Their responses were then analysed using the Discrete Choice Analysis (DCA) method to yield the weighting factors between life cycle impact and life cycle cost for use in the program. The weight factors derived from the survey may not match with the subjective evaluations of all program users. Therefore, the program provides the flexibility to allow users to make adjustments to the weighting factors (see Section 7.5) such that they can use a set of weighting factors that they deem more appropriate.

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9 Limitations of the LCA and LCC program

The life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) program and the associated data libraries, as described in this User Guide, are the major deliverables of a project, which commenced in April 2003 and lasted for about two years. Because LCA is a relatively new but is also a rapidly developing field of study, it is important to take note of the time of development of the program and the data libraries, as it reflects the methods and the data that were available for use when the program and the libraries were developed. As will be discussed in the following sections in this chapter, the methods implemented and the data used in the current version of the LCA and LCC program do have limitations that are awaiting improvements, especially in the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the methods and the data. The program users should bear in mind such limitations in interpreting the results that the program outputs. The timeliness of the methods and the data based upon which the program and the data libraries were developed should be kept under regular review taking into account the evolution of LCA methods and data taking place. Further developments of the subject will lead to the emergence of better methods and more comprehensive and accurate data, which may arise within a few years from now. It may then warrant substantial upgrades of the program and/or the data libraries, or even replacement of them by a new program and a new set of data libraries. The program users should also be alert of the development.

9.1

On the methods

Considerable time and effort had been spent in the earlier phases of the project to source for information about the latest development of LCA worldwide, especially on LCA methods, tools and data relevant to buildings. The literature review conducted showed that even though active application of LCA has only a relatively short history, some life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods have already become obsolete while the methods that are currently most widely used are understood to be limited in comprehensiveness and accuracy. Methods that quantify impacts in terms of the quantities of emissions of different kinds (the mid-point approach) are widely accepted as scientifically sound but cannot provide a clear picture about the ultimate effects of the emissions, especially to non-LCA experts. The links between the emissions and their end-point effects are in fact highly complicated and are dependent on existing levels of their presence in various geographical regions. There are currently methods that go further to quantify the damages (the end-point approach), which are seen to be a promising way forward, but these methods are limited in scope of coverage and in the certainty of the results, due to the lack of adequate models for predicting the fate of the emissions and their damages. International and national efforts are being made to improve the methods as well as to make available more accurate data to underpin widening of LCA applications. Against this background, a relatively conservative decision was made in the selection of a LCIA method for use in the program. First, none of the end-point methods were considered appropriate. The selected method is the CML 2 Baseline 2000 method, which is a mid-point method that embraces 10 impact categories (see Section 3.2). This method was selected because: the impact categories it embraces are regarded as the minimum that a LCA should embrace; the methods and parameters used in the method for classification of the resources consumed and substances emitted in a process into the impact categories and for characterization of the impacts into impact indicators under each of the

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impact categories are well documented and widely accepted;6 and this method is implemented in a detailed LCA program, SimaPro,7 which was selected for use as a developing tool for generation of the impact profiles for materials in this work. The program also adheres closely to the 10 impact categories embraced by the CML 2 Baseline 2000 LCIA method in the other LCIA steps that the program implements. Implementation of the normalisation and weighting steps to yield an overall impact indicator are restricted to these 10 impact categories. There are other impact categories that are considered to be worth considering (e.g. biotic resources depletion) but scientifically sound methods for their evaluation are still lacking. Therefore, all such impact categories were ignored. Some may criticise that this approach would fail to address some of the issues that the society would perceive as the most important, such as energy consumption and waste production, but these issues are not explicitly covered by the 10 impact categories. For this reason, the life cycle energy use and solid waste production that would be incurred by a building are calculated separately in the program, and the results are presented as supplementary impact indicators for the users reference. However, these supplementary impact indicators are omitted in the normalisation and weighting processes for calculation of the overall impact indicator. The main reason for omitting energy consumption and solid waste generation from the overall impact calculation is to avoid double counting. Depletion of fossil fuel reserve and the emissions resulting from burning of the fuels for electricity or heat generation have already been accounted for, under the impact categories of abiotic depletion, global warming, acidification, etc., within the 10 impact categories embraced by the LCIA method. Impacts of solid wastes have also been accounted for by the landfill processes included as the end-of-life treatment process for various types of materials and products, which would also contribute to the relevant impact categories. If the life cycle energy use and solid waste generation were to be separated from the 10 impact categories and treated as two additional impact categories, it would necessitate reprocessing of the life cycle inventory (LCI) data (the quantities of natural materials consumed and emissions incurred), to extract their contributions back from the 10 impact categories and allocate their contributions to the respective additional impact categories, if double counting is to be avoided. This process would need to be done for all LCI models involved in the generation of the life cycle impact profiles for the materials, which would be a tedious process that would take a very long time to complete. More importantly, establishing a new impact category would require a set of characterisation factors to be established as well, such that all different types of resources consumption or emissions that fall in the category can be aggregated into a single impact indicator for the impact category. Taking the global warming impact category as an example, CO2 is taken as the reference greenhouse gas emission and the characterisation factor for each other greenhouse gas (e.g. methane) is the equivalent amount of CO2 that would give rise to the same extent of global warming as would be incurred by the emission of the other greenhouse gas. For the energy use impact category, a characterisation factor is needed for energy in each different form (e.g. electricity or heat) derived from each different type of source (e.g. solar heat, oil or natural gas) or process (e.g. hydro, photovoltaic, fuel cell, etc.). Given that energy may either be a natural resource (e.g. solar heat) or a product, the establishment of characterisation factors for energy derived from different sources is extremely complicated. It was, therefore, considered not worthwhile to depart from the well established LCIA method and the impact categories that it embraces.
6

See, for example, Guinee JB (Ed.) (2002). Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment Operational Guide to the ISO Standards, Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Pre (2002). SimaPro 5.1 User Manual Introduction to LCA methodology and practice with SimaPro 5.1. Pre Consultants, the Netherlands. 124

As one would expect, the normalisation factors and weighting factors (see Chapter 8) have strong influence on the value of the overall impact indicator. Whether the overall impact indicator so evaluated can provide a good reflection of the total impact remains a controversial issue in the LCA community. As explained in Chapter 8, the normalisation factors used in the program are the impact indicators for the consumption 1TJ of electricity in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the price of 1TJ of electricity is used to normalise the life cycle cost to provide a levelled basis for consideration of the trade-offs between environmental impacts and costs in decision making. The normalisation factors and the electricity price, however, may need updating from time to time. Given that the weighting factors were derived from subjective evaluations of the relative importance among the impact categories, which, although is still the most widely used method, the adequacy of the result can be challenged. Therefore, the program has been designed such that it will output all the impact indicator values before and after normalisation and weighting, and allows the user to change the weighting factors, as they deem appropriate. Hence, users may make their own decision on whether or not to apply the normalisation and the weighting steps, and if these steps are to be applied, what weighting factors they would like the program to use to compute an overall impact indicator.

9.2

On the data

The most problematic issue encountered in the project has been the lack of comprehensive and accurate data for quantification of the impacts due to consumption of materials for local building construction. Compared to many types of manufactured products, buildings are much more complicated; even a relatively simple building may involve the use of a very wide range of materials that were produced through numerous processes. However, obtaining appropriate life cycle inventory (LCI) data (the quantities of natural resources consumed and emissions incurred) for the building materials was very difficult, and the following are parts of the reason: 1. 2. 3. 4. Given that application of LCA to buildings is just a recent development worldwide, building materials with known LCI data are still rather limited. As LCA is new to the local construction industry, no previous attempts have been made in Hong Kong to produce LCI data for building materials. The vast majority of building materials used in Hong Kong is imported; some predominantly from Mainland China while some others from a large number of countries. The resources input and production methods used in different countries for producing building materials could differ largely, and likewise the impacts incurred, but details about the production processes are largely unknown.

The project included a survey of the bills of quantity (BQ) of 28 recently completed building developments, which was meant to identify the range of building materials that would dominate the life cycle impact of commercial buildings in Hong Kong. The database development work then focused only on the dominant materials. This helped make the target deliverables practically achievable and ensure data would be made available for the dominant materials, even though no data could be made available for many other materials that may be found in buildings. The raw LCI data for building materials were sourced mainly from one proprietary LCI database (the IVAM LCI database, 8 which had, among the LCI databases examined in the study, the most
8

IVAM. IVAM LCA Data 4, 2003 (see http://www.ivambv.uva.nl/uk/producten/product5.htm). 125

comprehensive coverage of building materials), while several other databases were also used as supplementary data sources. This helped maintain as far as possible consistency in the system boundaries that embraced the processes covered by the LCI data for different materials. However, the raw LCI data can only reflect the resources consumption and emissions of the production processes in the West Europe. Direct application of such data for assessing buildings in Hong Kong could lead to inappropriate results. Therefore, adjustments were made to the data to adapt them to local situations. The adjustment work included: 1. Identification of the countries of origin from which various types of building materials were imported into Hong Kong for building construction, which was based on the trade statistics published by the Hong Kong SAR Government. Identification of the fuel mix used in various counties for electricity generation, with reference to the energy statistics published by various organisations, e.g. the International Energy Agency (IEA). This allowed the differences in the impacts due to electricity use in the production processes in different countries to be accounted for. Identification of the modes and distances of transport involved for delivering the materials to Hong Kong. This allowed the impacts due to transportation of the materials to be accounted for.

2.

3.

For a material that may be imported from a number of countries, adjustment to the data was performed for the material from each country of origin and the results were weighted by the imported quantities from the respective countries to yield a set of representative impact data for the material. Further adjustments had also been made to some materials, e.g. the use of coal rather than natural gas for production of the heat required in the production of cement in China, but these were limited to a few materials for which reference data could be found from the open literature. The data adjustment work was performed through the use of a detailed LCA model (SimaPro) that can access the LCI databases (including IVAM) as well as facilitate editing of the process models for the materials. To simplify the calculation processes involved in assessing a building, the characterisation step of the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) process was also conducted using the detailed LCA model to generate a life cycle impact profile for each material, which is the 10 impact values for the 10 impact categories embraced by the LCIA method adopted per unit quantity of the material. These life cycle impact profiles were then lodged into the Main Library for use with the LCA and LCC program. From the above descriptions about the processes undertaken to generate life cycle impact profile data for LCA of building developments in Hong Kong, it is evident that the data produced are limited in terms of the range of materials covered as well as in the accuracy of the data, which were mainly due to lack of sufficient information. The difficulty encountered in generating data for services equipment and materials was even greater, as the equipments involved are typically complex assemblies of a large variety of materials which have undergone a large number of complex manufacturing processes. Detailed information about the range of composing materials of the equipments and the resources consumed and emissions incurred during their production was simply unavailable. In the project, the material compositions of various types of services equipment were estimated with reference to information that could be found from the manufacturers catalogues, although the information for many types of equipment remained incomplete. The impacts were determined simply based on the estimated types and quantities of materials, and ignored the impacts incurred in manufacturing the equipment. For simplicity, the cost data lodged into the data library are all unit costs for the various types of materials (e.g. HK$ per kg of the material). This means that the cost estimates that the program will provide will be determined simply from the quantity of each type of material involved and the
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corresponding unit cost data. The cost estimates, therefore, will only be approximations; it is evident that using the same material (e.g. concrete) for constructing different types of components (e.g. concrete pile vs. floor slab) may result in different costs, but it would make development of the program and the data libraries a much more complicated task if such cost differences are to be adequately catered for. Nevertheless, upon completion of the LCC calculation, the program will display the results and will allow the user to make adjustments to the calculated results before the costs are used further for calculation of the overall LCA/LCC performance indicator for the building.

9.3

Points to note in interpretation of LCA and LCC results

Owing to the limitations of the methods and data as outlined above, users of the LCA and LCC program should take note of the following in interpreting LCA and LCC results produced by the program: 1. The program can only cater for components in a building of which all the composing materials are embraced by the LCIA profiles in the data library (the Main Library). Any materials outside the coverage of the data library would have to be ignored (it is not possible to input such materials into the program for LCA and LCC calculations). The results are unlikely to be a complete account of the environmental impacts and costs of the components in the building and are subject to uncertainties. Although it is not possible to ascertain the uncertainties involved, it is apparent that the uncertainty in the result should be lower for the entire life cycle of the whole building than for a single stage in the life cycle or for just a part of the building. The cost estimates should be checked and, if available, replaced by better estimates (e.g. estimates made by a quantity surveyor based on the actual design of the building).

2. 3.

4.

Notwithstanding the limitations that exist, which could not be overcome given the limitations imposed by the availability of the required information and data, and the time and resources available for the development work, the LCA and LCC program is the first of its kind in Hong Kong, which was developed locally for application in the local construction industry. The features in the program are already more comprehensive and versatile than the currently available building LCA programs developed elsewhere. Hopefully, making available the program will arouse the attention of local building designers to the importance of more sustainable building development, and their interest in quantifying the environmental and financial performance of their designs. This should be taken as just the first step while continued effort should be made to enhance the program and the data, and to promote its application in the interest of realising more sustainable building developments in Hong Kong.

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Appendices

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Appendix A:
A.1

Introduction to life cycle assessment (LCA)

What is LCA?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been defined by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) as: LCA is an objective process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and material uses and releases to the environment, and to evaluate and implement opportunities to affect environmental improvements. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or activities, encompassing extracting and processing materials; manufacturing, transporting and distribution; use, reuse, maintenance; recycling and final disposal. (Consoli et al, 1993) Originated from the industrial sector of West Europe and North America for quantification of the environmental impacts of producing, using and disposing of manufactured products, LCA is used to guide improvements to production processes, and more recently as a basis for environmental performance labelling of products. At present, application of LCA to building design remains embryonic. The following listed 14040 series of ISO Standards provide a structured framework for LCA, which are currently the authoritative document for LCA: ISO 14040: ISO 14041: ISO 14042: ISO 14043: A standard on principles and framework (ISO, 1997); A standard on goal and scope definition and inventory analysis (ISO, 1998); A standard on life cycle impact assessment (ISO, 2000a); A standard on life cycle interpretation (ISO, 2000b).

ISO Standard 14040 stipulates that an LCA shall comprise the following four phases (Figure A.1): Definition of goal and scope; Inventory analysis; Impact assessment; and Interpretation of results.
Life cycle assessment framework Goal and scope definition

Inventory analysis

Interpretation

Applications

Impact assessment

Figure A.1

Life cycle assessment framework according to ISO Standard 14040

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A.2

The four phases of LCA

A.2.1 Goal and scope definition

The goal and scope definition phase of a LCA involves defining: The intended application, including reasons for doing LCA and to whom the LCA results are communicated; The product systems to be studied and the system boundary; Assessment method; Data requirement; Functional units; and Assumptions and limitations, etc.

A.2.2 Inventory Analysis

The life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis phase includes collecting data about the economic flows and environmental interventions for each unit process within the system boundary, which will yield a list of natural resources input and emissions from the involved processes (Figure A.2).
Inputs Products, including goods, services, materials, energy Abiotic and biotic resources, land transformation and occupation Outputs Goods, services, materials, energy waste

Economic flows

Unit Process / Product System

Environmental interventions

Chemicals to the air, water and soil, radionuclides, sound, heat, casualties, etc.

(a)
To be accumulated

Natural materials

Products & energy Product

Natural materials

Products & energy Product

Natural materials

Products & energy Final Product

Unit process Byproducts

Unit process Byproducts

Unit process Byproducts

Wastes and emissions

Wastes and emissions

Wastes and emissions

To be accumulated

(b) Figure A.2 (a) The economic flows and environmental interventions of a unit process; (b) a product process involving a series of unit processes

The LCI process yields a long list of the quantities of all the natural resources consumed and the emissions produced in various stages of the complete life cycle of a product, from cradle to grave. The

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LCI result is dependent on the types and quantities of natural resources (including fossil fuels) and other materials used in the production of the product; the modes and distances of transportation involved; the way in which the product is used and its lifespan; and how the product is finally disposed of. These factors vary from one country or region to another, dependent on the availability of the required resources in the region, the technologies employed in the production processes, and whether the consumed product is locally produced or imported.

A.2.3 Impact assessment

Whilst the LCI result is a complete account of the quantities of resources consumed and emissions incurred during the life cycle of a product, the long list of quantities is difficult to interpret. The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase that follows the LCI analysis is for further processing the LCI data, such that the impacts incurred by consuming natural resources and generating emissions can be expressed by a set of impact indicators, each addressing an aspect of environmental problems, or further by a single overall impact indicator, which would be more easily understandable and could better inform decision making. The LCIA phase includes the following series of steps: 1. 2. 3. Categorisation, including selection of impact categories, category indicators and characterisation models. Classification of the inventory data to impact categories. Characterisation of the impacts, which converts the quantities of various types of impacts under each category into equivalent quantities of a reference impact (e.g. methane into an equivalent amount of CO2 under the global warming category), yielding one single impact indicator for each impact category. Each impact indicator retains the unit of measurement of the quantity. Normalisation of the characterised impact indicators, which converts the impact profile (the set of impact indicators, one for each impact category), into a set of dimensionless numbers. Typical normalisation factors used are the total quantity of each type of impact incurred in a region or the whole world in a year, on the whole or on per capita basis. A normalised impact indicator reflects the proportional contribution of the product to the total impact of the same type in the region, and hence the seriousness of the impact the product would incur. Grouping of the impact categories into fewer impact groups for the convenience of further study and result interpretation. Weighting, which is basically to calculate a weighted sum of the normalised impact indicators to yield a single, all-embracing impact indicator, through the use of a set of weighting factors to facilitate decision making. Derivation of the weighting factors is typically through solicitation of expert opinions.

4.

5. 6.

According to ISO Standard 14042, only the Categorisation, Classification and Characterisation are mandatory while the rest are optional.

A.2.4 Interpretation
This is the phase where observations are made from the LCA results to identify improvement opportunities or compare alternative processes.

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Appendix B:
B.1 Introduction

A note on the impact categories

In performing LCA calculations for a building, the LCA and LCC program utilises impact profile data for materials that were evaluated based on the CML 2 Baseline 2000 LCIA method, which embraces the following ten impact categories: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Abiotic depletion Global warming Ozone layer depletion Human toxicity Fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity Marine aquatic ecotoxicity Terrestrial ecotoxicity Photochemical oxidation Acidification Eutrophication

The LCA Handbook (Guinee, 2002) regards these ten impact categories as obligatory, i.e. what a LCA must at least include, and documents in detail how the inventory data are to be classified to the impact categories and the characterisation factors to be used for calculation of an impact indicator for each impact category. Although the range of impact categories would be fixed by the selected LCIA method, selecting to use a well established LCIA method has the advantage that the classification method and the characterisation factors to be applied are also defined. Selecting to use a new set of impact categories requires the establishment of the associated classification method and the characterisation factors, which are far from simple but require expert knowledge to handle, to ensure the methods are scientifically sound. The other advantage is that a detailed LCA model that implements the established LCIA method can be used to generate the LCIA profiles conveniently.

B.2

Descriptions on the impacts

B.2.1 Abiotic depletion

This refers to the depletion of available natural resources (including energy resources) such as iron ore, crude oil, which are regarded as non-living (and hence the name abiotic) and non-renewable. The interest of mankind for abiotic resources is not the resource itself but its potential to fulfil functions for mankind. Abiotic resource depletion is the decrease of availability of the total reserve of potential functions of resources. Note that one resource may have different potential functions while one specific function may be fulfilled by different primary materials, i.e. a resource can be substituted. Depletion of most resources is a long term process, as when a resource becomes increasingly scarce, its price will go up and people will look for lower cost substitutes. Also, there is a continuous economic renewal process: new applications of resources are invented, other applications being obsolete. Future generations have time to do research on substitutes for depleting resources. However, extraction of resources by our generation does decrease their opportunities.

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Furthermore, fossil fuel depletion is at the heart of the sustainability debate. As at end of 2003, the worlds oil reserve would be exhausted in 43 years, natural gas in 67 years and coal in about 200 years, if the proven reserve and the annual production stayed at the respective 2003 levels. Note however should be taken that as an impact category, abiotic resource depletion addresses only the depletion aspect; not the impacts associated with the extraction process nor the use of the resource they would be dealt with by other impact categories, e.g. global warming for CO2 emission from combustion of fossil fuel.

B.2.2 Global warming

The short-wave radiation from the sun that penetrates the atmosphere and reaches the earth surface is partly absorbed (directly leading to warming) and partly reflected as infrared radiation. The reflected part is absorbed in the troposphere by the greenhouse gases and is radiated again in every direction, so that it is partly radiated back to earth, leading to further warming. Greenhouse gases include principally water vapour but also carbon dioxide, methane, the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and ozone (O3). Whilst greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, the environmental problem is the increase in the greenhouse effect due to emissions from human activities. The resulting general increase in temperature can alter atmospheric and oceanic temperatures, which can potentially lead to alteration of circulation and weather patterns and thus changes in the distribution of rainfall resulting in shift in vegetation zones. A rise in sea level is also predicted due to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of polar icecaps. The effects are global and long term. An increase in about 1C/100 years has been observed, and is expected to rise 1.4C to 5.8C by 2100 relative to 1990. International collaborative efforts are being made to mitigate global warming due to its serious implications to ecosystems (biodiversity), human settlements and agriculture and possible consequences for other socio-economic activities that could affect global economic output. The main international agreement is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). The FCCC has been ratified by 186 parties. Its 1997 Kyoto Protocol establishes differentiated national or regional emission reduction for limitation targets for industrialised countries for 2008-12. However, greenhouse gas emissions are still growing in many countries and overall, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region and in North America.

B.2.3 Ozone depletion

The ozone in the stratosphere absorbs short-wave ultra-violet (UV) radiation and releases it in longer wavelengths in all directions, reducing the amount of UV-radiation that reaches the earth. Antropogenic (caused by mankind) emissions cause depletion of the ozone layer; a hole in the ozone layer has been observed in the Antarctic area while a hole is developing over the Artic and ozone depletion is now also discernible on the mid-latitudes. Substances that have a depleting effect on the ozone mostly belong to the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The effects of ozone depletion includes warming up of the earths surface and growth changes or a decrease in harvest crops, skin cancer and eye diseases and decrease of sea plankton (suspended living organisms), which affect the food chain. The depletion of the ozone layer could have major or significant effects on sustainable development. The major international agreements to mitigate ozone depletion are the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Vienna, 1985), the Montreal Protocol (1987) and the subsequent London (1990), Copenhagen (1992), Montreal (1997) and Beijing (1999) Amendments. The protocol and amendments set out timetables for phasing out ozone depleting substances (ODS).

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As a result of the Montreal Protocol, industrialised countries have rapidly decreased their production and consumption of CFCs and halons. The targets set have been reached earlier than originally called for, and new and more stringent targets have been adopted. Global atmospheric concentrations of ODS show important changes. Growth rates of CFC concentrations have decreased since 1989. However, stratospheric ozone depletion remains a concern due to the long time lag between the release of ODS and their arrival in the stratosphere.

B.2.4 Human toxicity

There are many potential human health effects from exposure to industrial and natural substances, ranging from transient irritation to permanent disability and even death. There are many substances that can lead to adverse heath impacts on human beings. Some substances have a wide range of different effects, and different individuals have widely varying tolerances to different substances. Use of toxic substances that have serious effects would have been put under regulatory control but the effects of many other substances are not immediately evident and could accumulate inside human bodies.

B.2.5 Eco-toxicity
Eco-toxicity impact measures the potential of a chemical released into the environment to harm terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Similar to human toxicity, there are many potential chemicals that can lead to adverse effects to the ecosystems. In some life cycle impact assessment method, ecotoxicity is regarded as one impact category but in the CML 2 Baseline 2000 LCIA method, it is broken down into the following three categories, with reference to the receiving site of the toxic substances: Fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity Marine aquatic ecotoxicity Terrestrial ecotoxicity

B.2.6 Photochemical oxidation

Solar radiation together with the presence of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons can go through complex chemical reactions and yield aggressive products of which ozone is the most important. Although ozone has got a protection function in the stratosphere, it is a damaging trace gas at ground level. Photochemical ozone formation in the troposphere, referred to as summer smog, is suspected to cause damage to vegetation and material. High concentration of ozone does not often occur in the immediate area of the source, but in clean air areas, e.g. forests, because CO, e.g. those emitted from vehicles, reduces the ozone back to CO2 and O2. The effect of photochemical oxidation is of local scale.

B.2.7 Acidification
Transformation of air pollutants into acid is the major cause of acidification of soils and waters. It leads to a decrease of the pH value of rainwater and fog. Acidification causes damage to ecosystems such as dying of forests. It also leads to nutrients being washed out of soils, increased solubility of metals in the ground and even damages to buildings and building materials. Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are the principal compounds involved in acidification and their principal human source is fossil fuel and biomass combustion. Other compounds released by human activities that can lead to acidification include hydrogen chloride and ammonia.

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B.2.8 Eutrophication
Eutrohpication is the addition of mineral nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, to the soil or water. Air pollutants, waste water and fertilisation in agriculture contribute to eutrophication. In waters, this results in an accelerated algae growth, which in turn prevents sunlight from reaching the lower layers. Photosynthesis that produces oxygen is thus suppressed while oxygen is needed for depletion of dead algae. Both effects cause a decreased oxygen concentration in the water which can finally lead to fish dying and to anaerobic decomposition producing hydrogen sulphide and methane. The addition of large quantities of mineral nutrients results in generally undesirable shifts in the number of species in ecosystems and a reduction in ecological diversity.

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Appendix C:
C.1

Bibliography

Relevant textbooks, handbooks and guides

Despite its relatively short history, LCA is currently seen as a key tool to the achievement of sustainable development; it has undergone rapid development in the Europe and North America and its application has spread from manufacturing industries to other industries, including the construction industry. Many books, reports and guides about LCA have been written. The following lists a few selected examples: A) Introductory materials that provide readers a basic understanding about LCA: 1. Life cycle assessment: what it is and how to do it (Heijungs et al, 1996) 2. LCA A tool for measuring environmental performance (Jnson, 1996) 3. Life cycle assessment A guide to approaches, experiences and information sources (EEA, 1997) 4. Towards the global use of life cycle assessment (UNEP, 1999) 5. LCA of building materials Impact assessment and interpretation in the building material industry (German Building Materials Association, 2000) 6. LCA 101 Introduction to LCA (USEPA, 2001) B) Practice guides: 1. Environmental life cycle assessment of produces. Guide and Backgrounds (Heijungs et al, 1992) 2. Handbook on life cycle assessment: operational guide to the ISO standards (Guinee, 2002) The first reference above, published in 1992, is a relatively early comprehensive reference for LCA methods written by the Centre of Environmental Science (CML) of the Leiden University, the Netherlands, which is widely known as the Dutch Guide to LCA. The Dutch Guide has recently been replaced by the Handbook on LCA (the second in the above list) published in 2002, as an operational guide to the ISO Standards. C) A recent publication from SETAC relevant to building construction: 1. Life-cycle assessment in building and construction: a state-of-the-art report of SETACEurope (Kotaji, 2003)

C.2

Research articles and cited references

C.2.1 LCA development

Bisset R. Methods for environmental impact analysis: recent trends and future prospects, Journal of Environmental Management, 11: 27-43, 1980. Bourdeau L (Ed.). CIB Report Publication 237: Agenda 21 on Sustainable Construction. Rotterdam: CIB, 1999. Consoli F et al (Eds.) Guidelines for Life Cycle Assessment: A Code of Practice (First Edition), Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Brussels, Belgium and Pensacola, Florida, USA, 1993.

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EC (European Commission). Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - Integrated Product Policy: Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking, COM(2003) 302 final. Brussels, 2003b. EC (European Commission). Evaluation of Environmental Product Declaration Schemes, Final Report Annexes I IX, 2002. (http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ipp/epdannexesi_ix.pdf) EC (European Commission). ExternE Externalities of Energy. 6 Volumes, EUR 16520-162525, DG Science Research and Developments, Brussels, 1995. EC (European Commission). Study on External Environmental Effects Related to the Life Cycle of Products and Services, Final Report. Directorate General Environment, 2003a. Ecobilan. Life Cycle Assessment History, 2003a. (see http://www.ecobalance.com/uk_lca02.php) Environment Australia. Background Report: LCA Tools, Data and Application in the Building and Construction Industry, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australia, 2001a Fava J, Smith Cooper J. Alignment of North American activities to the UNEP/SETAC Life-Cycle Inititives. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 5(4): 3-5, 2002. Gardner G. The challenge for Johannesburg: Creating a more secure world. In: Starke L Ed., State of the World 2002 A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2002. Guinee JB (Ed.) Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment Operational Guide to the ISO Standards, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002. Heijungs R, Guine J, Huppes G, Lankreijer RM, Udo de Haes HA, Wegerner Sleeswijk A, Ansens AMM, Eggels PG, van Duin R, de Goede HP. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of produces. Guide and Backgrounds. CML, Leiden Univeristy, Leiden, 1992. Heijungs R. CMLCA 4.0 Chain Management by Life Cycle Assessment, Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University, 2003. (available from: http://www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/software/cmlca/index.html) Heijungs R. Life cycle assessment: what it is and how to do it, Paris: United Nations Environment Programme, 1996 Inaba A, Grant T, Moriguchi Y. Developing a Research Network for Life-Cycle Assessment in the Asia Pacific Region. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 5 (3): 6-8, 2002 ISO International Standard 14040, Environmental Management Life cycle assessment Principles and framework. International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva, 1997. ISO International Standard 14041, Environmental Management Life cycle assessment Goal and scope definition and Inventory analysis. International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva, 1998. ISO International Standard 14042, Environmental Management Life cycle assessment Life cycle Impact assessment. International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva, 2000a. ISO International Standard 14043, Environmental Management Life cycle assessment Life cycle Interpretation. International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Geneva, 2000b. James K, Grant T. ALCAS: Australian LCA Society - Whats happening in Australia. International Journal of LCA, 7(1): 4, 2002. Joint Centre for Land Development Studies. Life cycle costs for architects A draft design manual. Reading, UK: College of Estate Management, 1985. Jnson G. LCA A tool for measuring environmental performance. Surrey, UK: Pira International, 1996.
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Jonsson A. Tools and methods for environmental assessment of building products methodological analysis of six selected approaches, Building and Environment 35 (2000): 223-238. Kotaji S, Schuurmans A, Edwards S. Life-cycle assessment in building and construction: a state-ofthe-art report of SETAC Europe, Soc. of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2003 OECD. Environmentally Sustainable Buildings Challenges and Policies. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2003. PRESCO. Practical Recommendations for Sustainable Construction Newsletter, Issue 5, March 2003. (http://www.etn-presco.net/newsletter/NL5.pdf) Public Technology Inc. Sustainable Building Technical Manual: Green Building Design, Construction and Operations. Public Technology Inc., 1996. RCLCA. Research Outline. Research Centre for Life Cycle Assessment, AIST, Japan, 2003. (see http://unit.aist.go.jp/lca-center/english/activity.htm#outline) Reijnders L, van Poekel A. Comprehensiveness and adequacy of tools for the environmental improvement of buildings, Journal of Cleaner Production 7(1999): 221-225. Ross S, Evans D. Use of Life Cycle Assessment in Environmental Management, Environmental Management 29 (1): 132-142, 2002. Sustainable Development Commission. Pioneering: the strategic route to sector sustainability. The Sustainable Development Commission, UK, 2002. Udo de Haes HA, Jolliet O, Finnveden G, Hauschild M, Krewitt W, Muller-Wenk R. Best available practice regarding impact categories and category indicators in life cycle impact assessment. Int. J. LCA 4(2): 66-74, 1999. Udo de Haes HA, Lindeijer E. The conceptual structure of Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Final draft for the Second Working Group on Impact Assessment of SETAC-Europe (WIA-2), Brussels, 2001. Udo de Haes HA. The UNEP/SETAC Life-Cycle Initiative. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 6(1): 11 13, 2002. UNEP. Energy Saving in the Transport Sector. Industry and Environment Office, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), 1995. UNEP. Evaluation of Environmental Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment Meeting report: Brussels, 29-30 November 1998 and Brighton, 25-26 May 2000. United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), 2003 (see http://www.uneptie.org). UNEP. Towards the Global Use of Life Cycle Assessment. UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, United Nations Publications, Paris, 1999. USEPA. LCA 101 Introduction to LCA, US Environmental Protection Agency, 2001(see http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NOMRL/lcaccess/lca101.htm) USEPA. Life-Cycle Assessment Ongoing Efforts. US Environmental Protection Agency, 2003b. (obtained from: http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/lcaccess/ongoing.htm) WCED. Our Common Future, The World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, UK, 1987.

C.2.2 LCA methods

Adalberth K. Energy use during the life cycle of buildings: a Method, Building and Environment, 32(4): 317-320, 1997. Bare JC, Hofstetter P, Pennington DW, Udo de Haes HA. Life cycle impact assessment mid-point vs. end-points the sacrifices and the benefits, International Journal of LCA, 5 (2000): 319-326.
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Bare JC, Pennington DW, Udo de Haes HA. Life cycle impact assessment sophistication international workshop. International Journal of LCA, 4(5): 299-306, 1999. Baumann, H Rydberg T. A comparison of three methods for impact analysis and valuation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2, 13-20, 1994. Ben-Akiva M, Lerman SR. Discrete Choice Analysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991. Goodkoop M. The EcoIndicator 95, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 1995. Huijbregts MAJ, Breedveld L, Huppes G, de Koning A, van Oers L, Suh S. Normalisation figures for environmental life-cycle assessment The Netherlands (1997/1998), Western Europe (1995) and the world (1990 and 1995), Journal of Cleaner Production, 11(2003): 737-748. Klepper O, van de Meent D. Mapping the potentially affected fraction (PAF) of species as an indicator of generic toxic stress. RIVM Report no 607504001, Bilthoven, 1997. McFadden D. The choice theory approach to market research. Marketing Science 1986; 5: 276-97. Saaty TL. Multicriteria Decision Making, The analytic Hierarchy Process Series, Vol.1., 1996. Todd JA. Practical approaches to LCA impact assessment. In: Proceedings of Air and Waste Management Association, for presentation at the 89th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Nashville, Tennessee, June, 23-28, 1996. Vigon BW, Tolle A. Streamlined Life-Cycle Assessment of Production of a Chemical Intermediate from Petroleum Feedstock vs Bio-Derived Feedstock. In: International Conference on EcoBalance and Life Cycle Assessment, Mumbai, India, February 13-15, 2002.

C.2.3 LCI data

Ahbe, S. Braunschweig,A. Muller-Wenk R: Methodik furoekobilabzen auf der basis okologischer optimierung (A method for ecobalance and ecological optimization) Bundesamt fur Umwelt, Wald and Landschaft (BUWAL), Bern, Schriftenreihe Umwelt Nr 133, 1990. Bretz R. SPOLD, International Journal of LCA, 3(1998): 119-120. Frishknecht R, Jungbluth N. SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual The ETH-ESU 96 library, Pr Consultants, 2003. Goedkoop M, Oele M. SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual General Introduction, Pr Consultants, 2003a. Goedkoop M, SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual Dutch Input Output Database 95, Pr Consultants, 2003. Grant T, James K. Proposal for a National Life Cycle Data Resource, Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society, 2002. Hemming CR. Directory of Life Cycle Inventory Data Sources, SPOLD, Brussels (1995). Inaba A. Database and Software for Life Cycle Assessment, Enerugi Shigen, 17 (6): 25-31, 1996. IVAM. IVAM LCA Data 4, 2003. (see http://www.ivambv.uva.nl/uk/producten/product5.htm) Norris G, SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual The Franklin US LCI library, Pr Consultants, 2003. NREL. U.S. LCI Database Project Phase I Final Report SR-550-33807. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2003a. (Available electronically at http://www.osti.gov/bridge). NREL. U.S. LCI Database Project Phase II 2nd Quarterly Report and Development Plan Update: April 2003. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2003b. (Available electronically at http://www.osti.gov/bridge).

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Singhofen A, Hemming CR, Weidema BP, Grisel L, Bretz R, de Smet B, Russel D. Development of a common format for Life-Cycle Inventory Data, International Journal of LCA, 1(3): 171-178, 1996. Spriensma R, SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual The BUWAL 250 library, Pr Consultants, 2003. USEPA. Guidelines for Assessing the Quality of Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1995. USEPA. Life-Cycle Assessment: Inventory Guidelines and Principles, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1993. USEPA. LCA Resources. US Environmental Protection Agency, 2003a. (see: http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/lcaccess/resources.htm) Von Malmborg FB, Forsberg A. Choice of energy data in environmental assessment of the built environment, Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 5(1): 83-97, 2003.

C.2.4 LCA tools

ATHENA Environmental Impact Estimator, The ATHENA Institute, 2003. (see: http://www.athenasmi.ca/ath_model/model_main.htm) Ecobilan. DEAM: Data for Environmental Analysis and Management, 2003b. (see http://www.ecobalance.com/uk_deam.php) Environment Australia. Building LCA Tools description, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australia, 2001b Goedkoop M, Oele M, Effting S. SimaPro 5.1 Database Manual Methods Library, Pr Consultants, 2003b. Inaba A, Hunkeler D, Rebitzer G, Finkbeiner M, Siegenthaler C, Saur K. The Fifth International Conference on Ecobalances, Practical Tools and Thoughtful Principles for Sustainability. International Journal of LCA, 8 (1): 1-5, 2003. Knapen, M. Comparative Applications: A Comparison of Different Tool Results on Similar Residential and Commercial Building, IEA Annex 31 Energy-related environmental impact of buildings, October, 2001. Lippiatt BC. Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) 3.0 Technical Manual and User Guide, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2002. (available from: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/software/bees.html) Mak J, Annink D, Knapen M, Kortman JGM, van Ewijk H. EcoQuantum development of LCA based tools for buildings. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Buildings and the Environment, Vol.1. Paris: CSTB, 1997, p.49-58. Menke DM, Davis GA, Vigon BW. Evaluation of Life-Cycle Assessment tools, Centre for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, The University of Tennessee, 1996 Miyamoto S, Tekawa M. Development of Life Cycle Assessment Software and Application to Personal Computer Assessment, NEC Research and Development Special Issue on Environmental Technology, 39 (2), April 1998. Pre. SimaPro 5.1 User Manual Introduction into LCA methodology and practice with SimaPro 5.1. Pre Consultants, The Netherlands, 2002. Trusty WB, Meil JK, Norris GA. ATHENA: A LCA Decision Support Tool for the Building Community, Proceedings: Green Building Challenge 98 An International Conference on the Performance Assessment of Buildings. Vancouver, B.C., October 26 - 28, 1998.

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Trusty WB, Meil JK. ATHENA: an LCA decision support tool. Application results and issues. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Buildings and the Environment, Vol.1. Paris: CSTB, 1997, p.239-248. Trusty WB. Introducing an assessment tool classification system, ATHENATM Sustainable Materials Institute, Advanced Building Newsletter #25, July 2000, p.18. USEPA. LCA Resources. US Environmental Protection Agency, 2003a. (see: http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/lcaccess/resources.htm) USEPA. Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI): Users Guide and System Documentation, US Environmental Protection Agency, 2002. (available from: http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/std/sab/iam_traci.htm)

C.2.5 LCA application

Borjesson P, Gustavsson L. Greenhouse gas balances in building construction: wood versus concrete from life-cycle and forest land-use perspectives, Energy Policy, 28(2000): 575-588. Chen TY, Burnett J, Chau CK. Analysis of embodied energy use in residential building of Hong Kong, Energy, 26(2001): 323-340. CIT Energy Management AB. Life cycle assessment for building services systems a survey. Goteborg: CIT Energy Management AB, 1999. Cole RJ. Energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of alternative structural systems, Building and Environment, 34(1999):335-348. Erlandsson M, Borg M. Generic LCA-methodology applicable for buildings, constructions and operation services today practice and development needs, Building and Environment, 38(2003):919-938 Erlandsson M, Levin P, Mythe L. Energy and environmental consequences of an additional wall insulation of a dwelling, Building and Environment, 32(2): 129-136, 1997. Finch E. Environmental assessment of construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 10: 5-18, 1992. Frankl P, Rubik F. Life Cycle Assessment in Industry and Business: Adoption Patterns, Applications and Implications, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2000. German Building Materials Association. LCA of Building Materials Impact Assessment and Interpretation in the Building Material Industry, 2000 Kohler N, Klingele M, Heitz S, Herman M, Koch M. Simulation of energy and massflows of buildings during their life cycle. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Buildings and the Environment, Vol.1. Paris: CSTB, 1997, p.19-29. Lenzen M, Murray SA, Korte B, Dey CJ. Environmental impact assessment including indirect effects a case study using input-output analysis, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 23(2003): 263-282. Lenzen M, Treloar G. Embodied energy in buildings: wood versus concrete reply to Borjesson and Gustavsson, Energy Policy, 30(2002): 249-255 Nagatomo T, Miyauchi T, Tsuchiya H. Preliminary investigation for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Shinkansen Vehicles. In: World Congress on Railway Research, Florence, Italy 16-19 November 1997. Petersen AK, Solberg. Greenhouse gas emissions, life-cycle inventory and cost-efficiency of using laminated wood instead of steel construction. Case: Beams at Gardermoen airport, Environmental Science & Policy, 5(2002): 169-182.

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Schmitz S, Oels HJ, Tiedemann A. Eco-balance for drink packaging. Comparative Investigation of the Environmental Effects of the various Packaging Systems for Fresh milk and Beer. German Federal Environmental Office, III 2.5, Revised Edition, Berlin, 1994. Suzuki M, Oka T. Estimation of life cycle energy consumption and CO2 emission of office buildings in Japan, Energy and Buildings, 28(1998): 33-41. Wehrmeyer W, Tyteca D. Measuring environmental performance for industry: from legitimacy to sustainability and biodiversity? Int. J Sustain Dev World Ecol, 5: 111-124, 1998. Yamamoto M, Mituhara Y. Life-Cycle Inventory of an Automotive Fuel Tank, LCA News, 17(3), May 1997.

C.2.6 LCC
Ashworth A. How life cycle costing could have improved existing costing. In: Bull J. Life cycle costing for construction. London: Blackie Academic & Professional, 1993. ASTM. Standard E 917-99: Standard Practice for Measuring Life-Cycle Costs of Buildings and Building Systems, American Society for Testing and Materials, 1999. Bull J. Life cycle costing for construction. London: Blackie Academic & Professional, 1993. CIBSE. CIBSE Guide Section 18, Owning and operating costs. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, London, 1986. Flanagan R, Norman G, Meadows J, Robinson, G. Life cycle costing Theory and Practice. Oxford: BSP Professional Books, 1989. Flanagan R, Norman G. Life cycle costing for construction. UK: The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 1983. Frangopol DM, Furuta H. Life-cycle analysis and design of civil infrastructure systems, US-Japan Workshop on Life-Cycle Cost Analysis and Design of Civil Infrastructure Systems, 1st: 2000: Honolulu, Hawaii, Reston, VA: Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 2001. NIST. Annual supplement to NIST Handbook 135 and NBS Special Publication 709: Energy price indices and discount factors for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis April 2003, Washington DC: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2003. NIST. Handbook 135 Life-cycle costing manual for the federal energy management program, Washington DC: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1995. USNBS. Handbook 135 Life-cycle cost manual for the federal energy management program, Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, 1980. (latest version published by NIST in 1995)

C.2.7 Local issues

Chung SS, Lo CWH. Evaluating sustainability in waste management: the case of construction and demolition, chemical and clinical wastes in Hong Kong. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 37(2003): 119-145. CSD. Hong Kong Energy Statistics, Annual Report (2000 Edition). Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department, 2001. EMSD. Hong Kong Energy End-use Data (1990-2000). Hong Kong: Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, 2002.

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EPD. Hong Kong Air Pollutant Emission Inventory. Hong Kong: Environmental Protection Department, 2003 (available from EPDs website). Poon CS, Yu ATW, Ng LH. On-site sorting of construction and demolition waste in Hong Kong. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 32(2001): 157-172. RVD. Hong Kong Property Review, Annual Publications (2000 Edition). Hong Kong: Rating and Valuation Department, 2001.

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