Effects of utilizing various types of facade material on the Embodied and operational energy; a case study of apartment building in Indonesia

This study investigates the impact of using prefabricated facade materials on the embodied energy (EE) and operational energy (OE) consumption of apartment buildings. To analyze the total EE, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted, which calculated the EE from cradle-to-use each of the products employed. In addition, a building energy simulation was performed for the case study building using various prefabricated facade materials to assess its OE. The findings reveal that the selection of facade wall materials with low energy intensity must be favored to optimize building energy and that layered materials, such as insulated panels, can reduce the cooling energy load due to their higher thermal resistance (r- values). Furthermore, the LCA results showed that solid precast concrete materials with thicknesses of 120 and 150 mm have EE and greenhouse gas emissions that are more than twice the average of all materials tested. In contrast, uninsulated Glass-Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GRC) removable walls (disassembly panels) exhibited the lowest EE, corresponding to 50% of the average. Finally, the results of the OE simulations using EnergyPlus software indicate that insulated GRC removable walls with a thickness of 120 mm can reduce the cooling energy load by 29.5% compared to precast concrete facades.