Comparison of environmental impacts of two residential heating systems

• Published in: Building and environment Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 1072 - 1081
• Main Authors: Yang, Lijun, Zmeureanu, Radu, Rivard, Hugues
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air pollution; Applied sciences; Building technical equipments; Buildings; Buildings. Public works; Cost; Electricity; Emissions; Energy; Energy consumption; Energy sources; Energy use; Environmental engineering; Environmental impact; Environmental impacts; Exact sciences and technology; Exergy; Forced air heating; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Heat recovery; Heating systems; Hot water heating; House; Houses; Life-cycle analysis; Natural gas; Residential; Residential building; Space heating; Types of buildings; Ventilation; Ventilators; Canada, Quebec, Montreal; Canada; Heating systems; Energy; Forced air heating; Life-cycle analysis; Environmental impacts; House; Exergy; Hot water heating; Cost; Emissions; Energy analysis; Life cycle (environment); Pollutant emission; Residential building; Exergy analysis; Environment impact; Cost analysis; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0360-1323; 1873-684X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2007.02.007

This paper presents a comparison of environmental impacts of two residential heating systems, a hot water heating (HWH) system with mechanical ventilation and a forced air heating (FAH) system. These two systems are designed for a house recently built near Montreal, Canada. The comparison is made with respect to the life-cycle energy use, the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the expanded cumulative exergy consumption (ECExC), the energy and exergy efficiencies, and the life-cycle cost. The results indicate that the heating systems cause marginal impacts compared with the entire house in the pre-operating phase. In the operating phase, on the other hand, they cause significant environmental impacts. The HWH systems with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) using either electricity or natural gas have the lowest life-cycle energy use and lowest ECExC. The HWH and FAH systems using electricity as energy source have the lowest GHG emissions. Finally, the FAH systems have, on the average, a lower life-cycle cost than the HWH systems.