Life cycle assessment: A design element for ventilation system selection

A Danish office building designed with a hybrid ventilation system has been compared to a full mechanical ventilation system in the same building. The comparisons include a life cycle analysis (LCA) focussing on CO2 equivalents (CO2equiv.) and life cycle cost (LCC) of the two ventilation solutions. The LCA includes embodied carbon form the ventilation components and operational energy due to heating and electricity. A potential reduction of 32% in the total global warming potential (GWP) was found when using a hybrid ventilation solution instead of a mechanical ventilation solution. This includes a 46% reduction in the embodied carbon and a 26 % reduction in the operational energy. The hybrid ventilation solution was 7 % cheaper to acquire, and the life cycle cost was found to be 16 % cheaper than a mechanical ventilation solution.