Climate impact from HVAC systems in the production and construction phase: A case study of two university buildings in Sweden
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Frendberg, Tobias
Wiksten, Kajsa
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
As of today, the magnitude of the climate impact of the HVAC systems is currently
uncertain as few detailed studies have been made on the subject. This study therefore
intends to increase the knowledge regarding the climate impact of HVAC systems by
calculating the climate impact of two university buildings in Sweden for life cycle
phases A1-A5.1 and comparing the results to existing reference values.
The results of the climate impact calculations are that the climate impact of Umeå
Building is 30 kgCO2e/m2
Atemp, and Nya Konst is 31 kgCO2e/m2
Atemp. The result of the
calculation of Umeå Building is based on Construction documents which makes for a
sturdier foundation of the results while the result of Nya Konst is based on Project
planning documents, that had less information available in them which makes the result
more uncertain.
The results also show that without a reference building to draw assumptions from when
calculating the HVAC system with Project planning documents, it can be hard to
achieve a high enough coverage rate to have a solid result.
A hotspot analysis shows that by only calculating the six product groups with the largest
climate impact for Umeå Building it would correspond to 81% of the total impact from
the HVAC system and the calculations would be much quicker. The product groups not
calculated could for example be accounted for with an add-on or by coverage rate.
Several issues with performing this type of calculations are identified, such as the
current lack of EPD´s, difficulties in processing the data provided through BIM-models
and the time-consuming work of locating weights and material content for the products.
It is therefore suggested that it would be preferable to update the BIM-models to include
weight and material content of the HVAC products. This would make the calculations
easier and faster to carry out. If also the availability of EPD´s increased, it would also
be possible to increase the certainty of the results.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Life cycle assessment (LCA); building; technical installations; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)