ABSTRACT
In recent years, energy efficiency is being implemented in various significant energy consuming sectors including buildings. The building sector alone is responsible for approximately 30%–40% global energy consumption. The sector not only consumes energy for operation but also a significant portion of energy is consumed at the time of construction and repairing in the form of embodied energy. The assessment of the embodied energy in the building construction has surprisingly been given attention to in recent years by the building designers, scientific community, architects, and planners when designing and planning of modern building stocks to reduce the burden on the energy sector. Selection of construction materials is one of the important factors in constructing energy-efficient buildings (EEB). Construction materials play a significant role in improving energy efficiency and help to achieve a safe, healthy, and comfortable indoor environment. Earlier, the energy efficiency of buildings was assessed considering only operational energy consumption, and embodied energy was generally ignored assuming insignificant contribution. However, in a few cases, the embodied energy contributes significantly in the overall energy consumption in the life cycle of the buildings. This chapter discusses the impact of construction materials on indoor thermal comfort, and embodied energy and life cycle energy in the development of EEB building stocks. This chapter also explains different methods and concepts for estimating these two energies in different building typologies. Moreover, embodied energy values of a few construction materials, processes and activities are listed in the chapter to facilitate designers, consultants, and policy-makers to make choices on the construction materials for establishing sustainable and EEB infrastructure.
