Life cycle cost analysis of a hostel building with energy efficient approach : Case study

Abstract

Construction sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emission around the world. Across the world, people are using a huge amount of resources for construction. Due to the growing environmental problems, it has become a great matter of concern. These environmental issues arising due to construction activities give both an opportunity as well as responsibility for the construction research community to develop eco-friendly buildings. For these, design integrity is an important parameter to be included during the design, construction and operation phase of the building when it is in conceptual stage. Sustainable development can be achieved through Green Building construction, energy conservation through energy analysis & energy management, energy simulation, energy modeling of a building etc. Green Building Certification can be achieved through practicing various green building codes such as LEED, BEE etc. Sustainable development aims to reduce the ever-surmounting pressure of energy production in the country thereby saving raw resources and contributing towards the environmental well-being. This work entirely focuses on investigating the ill-effects of construction sector on environment, the various modern green remedies available to solve such problems. In this work, life cycle cost analysis for 25 years of a proposed hostel building is performed under three different criteria i.e. LCCA of normal traditional building, LLCA by replacing the conventional building envelope materials with advanced construction materials building envelope and lastly LLCA on the basis of best orientation of the building in order to optimize the use of day lighting. Along with the LCCA, Net Present Value is to be calculated for the two criteria by considering the discounted rate method for Payback period of 25years and suggest whether using advanced construction materials and green building principle would be economically viable for the hostel or not. The benefit-cost analysis for the hostel building is performed on the basis of energy saving in terms of electricity. The Electricity consumption for all the three cases is calculated with the help of a well known software called as eQUEST 3-65. This software is accepted and certified by Energy Conservation Buildings Codes of India. Basic rates of electricity and labour have been collected from Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) for predicting the future rates.