Energy use in the life cycle of a low-energy building

Abstract

Nowadays a new generation building has a variety of definitions, namely, low energy building, passive house, nearly zero energy building. These definitions refer to the building with a very high energy performance and a significant share of energy supply from renewable energy sources. Therefore, the common target of implementing these types of buildings is to reduce the demand for operating energy. However, the energy use, related to the production, construction and delivery of the building and its components, is ignored. The article’s subject is the evaluation of the energy and environmental performance of the low energy building in a life cycle perspective. A detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been performed for the low energy family house built in Lithuania.