Sustainability appraisal of residential energy demand and supply - a life cycle approach including heating, electricity, embodied energy and mobility

This paper introduces the concepts, methods and the implementation of a calculator for the energetic long term analysis of residential settlement structures (ELAS). The freely available online tool addresses, on the one hand, the complexity of the environmental impacts of buildings and settlements including embodied energy and on the other hand, the mobility of the inhabitants and the necessity to provide ecological and socio-economic valuation on the base of a coherent data set. Regarding the complexity of ecological impacts, housing was represented as a life cycle network, combining the life cycles of energy provision as well as buildings and infrastructure depending on the location and supply structure of the settlement. Comprehensive inventories for these different aspects were included. They were then used to evaluate the whole system of activity linked to buildings and settlements with three different ecological valuation methods and then coupled with a socio-economic appraisal. With the ELAS calculator, a status quo analysis for existing settlements can be carried out, as well as planning alternatives can be assessed which include new developments, the renovation of buildings in the settlement, the change of energy supplies as well as the demolition of settlements with reconstruction on the same or a different site.