A framework to explore energy saving measures during construction phase

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in interest and research in energy efficient buildings in recent years. In the construction phase of a building's life cycle, contractors provide resources and select the means and methods of construction. To make the construction phase less energy intensive, the contractor has to purchase the required resources from the jobsite proximity and select less energy-intensive resources to minimize the energy consumption. Sometimes, it might not be possible to analyze and practice energy-saving measures for the whole project due to time and budget constraints. Therefore, it would be helpful for a contractor to focus on the most energy-consuming activities and deploy energy-efficient procurement to reduce energy consumption of a particular project. This requires a tool to estimate energy required for procurement and installation of the building elements and to identify the most energy-intensive activities. This research focuses on developing a spreadsheet-based tool to estimate energy consumption during construction of a project. The proposed framework uses the project's bill of quantity, data related to materials transportation, and energy data for the required resources to estimate the probable energy consumption during construction. A case study was performed to demonstrate the application of the tool. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.