Indonesian residential high rise buildings: a life cycle energy assessment

Authors: Nuki Agya Utama and Shabbir H Gheewala

The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

Available online on 30 July 2009 at Elsevier Science Direct's Energy and Buildings: an international journal devoted to investigations of energy use and efficiency in buildings

Abstract

This study evaluates the effect of building envelopes on the life cycle energy consumption of high rise residential buildings in Jakarta, Indonesia. For high-rise residential buildings, the enclosures contribute 10-50% of the total building cost, 14-17% of the total material mass and 20-30% of the total heat gain.

The direct as well as indirect influence of the envelope materials plays an important role in the life cycle energy consumption of buildings. The initial embodied energy of typical double wall and single wall envelopes for high residential buildings is 79.5 GJ and 76.3 GJ respectively.

Over an assumed life span of 40 years, double walls have better energy performance than single walls, 283 GJ versus 480 GJ respectively. Material selection, which depends not only on embodied energy but also thermal properties, should, therefore, play a crucial role during the design of buildings.

Keywords: Building envelopes; High rise; Tropical climate; Embodied energy; Life cycle energy

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