ASSESSMENT OF DEGRADATION OF EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS IN RELATION TO SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES

Abstract

Sustainability is the one of the newest design considerations in building construction. Current programs of sustainability such as Energy Star for buildings and LEED, are providing methods to reduce operational energy use and encourage sustainable building materials. While these methods do aid in building sustainability, a more encompassing method of analysis has been provided with Life cycle Analysis. Life Cycle Analysis aims to provide a complete method of carbon accounting for the life of the building. This accounting includes the construction of the building through the occupancy and even the demolition and removal of waste. When predicting the used carbon for a building in the future, current methods are to use a linear analysis method. The objective of this paper is to introduce entropy into the analysis, and review the total impact. This natural degradation of the building and equipment will change the performance throughout the life of the building. A dynamic degradation model is investigated in this research. With degradation, equipment will use 27.3% more electrical use at the end of life, with at total energy use increase of 15.6%. This increase is important to be included in total building energy accounting for accuracy.