Energy-Saving and Environmentally-Friendly Residential Drawings Certification and Labelling Rating Systems using Energy Simulation and Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

There were approximately 25 million houses in Thailand. The residential unit’s increase rate is 0.5-0.6 million units each year. The majority of the type of housings are detached houses and this is applied to every part of the country. Residential buildings in Thailand consume almost 50% of the total electricity used in the building sector. Residential building has a high impact on the environment because it releases a high amount of greenhouse gases from material production, building construction, building utilization, and building demolition. The sustainable house plan rating and labeling system is one of the measures that could minimize environmental impacts of new residential buildings. The development of sustainable house plan rating and labeling system began with the surveying green residential building rating systems both in Thailand and from other countries. Main credit categories and points allocation were then identified. Residential base cases were selected and were applied with various sustainable design options and analyzed in terms of energy-saving, additional investment, life cycle costing (LCC), and life cycle analysis (LCA). Design options associate with better energy-saving and better LCA were selected as prerequisite credits and point credits. Implementation of a home energy-saving and environmentally friendly certification system would be an important mechanism in driving the design of houses that are energy-efficient and environmentally friendly throughout the life cycle, which help to promote sustainable development according to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) no 11, 12, and 13. The rating system could assist the home buyer’s decision-making in selecting appropriate sustainable housing projects.