Materials and Design 30 (2009) 21732180

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Inuence of material selection on energy demand in residential houses

Agya Utama, Shabbir H. Gheewala *
The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Utilizing local materials for improving the energy demand in the single landed houses in Indonesia is very promising, since it also entails less cost during production and transportation. Many possible scenarios have been proposed towards this end such as improving building craftsmanship, using double walls with cavity, double walls with bamboo in between and introducing less transparent glass. The scenarios are tested in terms of the additional initial investment in terms of energy and cost and the benets accrued for life cycle energy and cost. Energy and cost payback are computed to evaluate each scenario and a framework proposed for quick screening of building materials. 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Article history: Received 10 July 2008 Accepted 15 August 2008 Available online 12 September 2008 Keywords: Building fabrics Environmental performance Material properties

1. Introduction The electricity consumption in Indonesia for residential houses is 40% of the total generation [1]. This compares well with the world gures of 3040% primary energy used in buildings [2] and 35% in the US [3]. In terms of cost, building envelopes contribute a major percentage of material used in the residential building, walls contributing 46% and roofs 16% [4], and are the second heaviest with 1417% of total building weight (after 80% for foundation and structure [3]). For the overall energy usage during the life cycle of the building, the operation phase constitutes more than 80% of the demand. Thus, the energy use during the occupation phase needs to be analyzed. Heat gains through building envelopes contribute approximately 5060% of the total heat gain in the building [4]. In Indonesia, economic development and population growth have created a high demand for housing compounds (some big cities develop high-rise apartments as an alternative to cope with expansion to the rural areas) and trafc problems. Some of the growing cities do not yet face trafc and land availability problems, however, sooner or later they will face problems similar to metropolitan cities. Single landed houses are still far more attractive compared to high-rise apartments in these cities. Semarang is a good example of this kind of city, the rapid population growth as well as urbanization creates problems for the government in providing adequate shelter for its citizens. For decades, it is the private sector that has come to provide alternative residential compounds. Semarang (SMG) with a total population of about 1.35 million [5] has different characteristics in terms of urban residential buildings compared to Jakarta (JKT) which is a metropolitan city. The
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: shabbir_g@kgsee.kmutt.ac.th (S.H. Gheewala). 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.08.046

trend of residential buildings in JKT is more towards high-rise houses (apartments, condominiums, etc.) rather than landed houses. The typical houses in Semarang are single houses owned and developed by private companies, followed by government owned single housing (Perumnas). Based on local municipality facts and gures, presently there are 114 single housing compounds owned and developed by private companies or government, with the number of households varying from 25 units up to 5000 units per compound. Previous studies have shown that building structures last longer compared to the constituent materials (building elements). The data required for analysis of life cycle energy and costs are numerous and analysis would be tedious and time consuming. Therefore, it is not practical for a designer to calculate the effect of a certain design decision over its lifetime every time a new building is to be designed [6,7]. Hence, it is important to assess the parts of the building which have the biggest inuence to its life cycle and give various design options and strategies for typical buildings based on performance over their entire lifetime. There is only a limited amount of research literature on energy efciency in residential buildings (landed and high-rise apartment) in hot and humid climates: most of the literature has focused on the comfort conditions for occupants while the majority of the studies are done in apartments rather than single landed houses [8]. Also, most of the studies focus on particular envelope components towards energy effects and human comfort without considering the embodied energy, for example, energy-efcient envelope [8], wall insulation thickness and positions [8], ventilation strategies [9], or heating and cooling energy by the utilization of passive design [10]. This study focuses on single landed houses (commonly used in developing countries) and considers not only human comfort and energy impact of the selected materials but also considers embodied energy during raw material extraction, transportation,

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production and construction and especially utilization of materials available in the local market. It also compares cost efciency and provides an easy guide for building stakeholders in selecting appropriate materials for enclosure and lower impact to the environment, low embodied energy and also better inuence in terms of reducing the electricity consumption on cooling loads. The purpose of this article is to assess workable scenarios based on Indonesian climate and occupant behaviour for building envelopes by utilizing local materials available in the market, in relation to the embodied energy and energy demand during use phase also including cost implications for single landed houses in Semarang. The comparison will focus on scenarios for possible reduction of heat gain through the building envelope using locally available materials. Some possible options for reducing energy during use phase are already being implemented in some countries, such as adding low U-value insulation to the walls, additional photovoltaic for facades, and passive cooling systems. However, it seems unlikely that these options are practicable in the Indonesian context due to lack of availability of materials, high cost, lack of knowhow, or technical difculties (low quality, unskilled labour, etc.). The model scenarios proposed in this study will be compared to the typical houses used in Indonesian middle class residential compounds which are used as baseline (this will be further explained in Section 2.2). The methodology developed will evaluate the possible scenarios vis--vis the efciency of electricity consumption (by AC) by adjusting the material envelopes (excluding the building form and shape) using locally available materials which have not been assessed in the studies so far in Indonesia. The framework proposed in this study could be useful for designers who may wish to consider more design options. Possible scenarios include improving the building craftsmanship during construction and introducing additional air barriers for reducing leakage between zones and the external environment to the conditioned zones, double layer walls by means of bricks, external layers and gypsum board for inner layer (with air gap in between), applying locally abundant raw material (bagasse) as main constituent of non-ring bricks, reducing windows to walls ratio (WWR), replacing regular window glass with less transparent glass and adding the bamboo sheet in double layer walls. These scenarios will be simulated based on the room behaviour of Semarang single landed houses for AC utilization, including also calculations for the inltration between zones (three zones) and inuence of the external zones. However, the simulation will exclude the inuence of internal sensible and latent heat (such as from appliances and human heat). This study will focus on the cooling load associated with its enclosure inuence to the perimeter zones as most of the air conditioned zones in single landed houses are located in this zone. The perimeter zone, or perimeter load, is the component of the sensible heat load, which is calculated under the condition that the internal heat generation is zero [11].

Land developer Scenarios by utilizing available local material for building envelopes and its associate available in the market

Designer

Simulations

Contractors

Houses

Users behaviour
Fig. 1. Stages diagram showing stakeholder inuences on the study.

construction stage, including energy consumed during its transportation. Though the study site for the buildings is the city of Semarang, the data collection for the enclosure materials has been conducted throughout Java as not all the material is manufactured locally. Most of the data used for embodied energy assessment in this study is obtained from the authors previous study [12] and some from other sources such as bamboo from Janssen [13] and bagasse bricks from Noerwasito [14], Khedari et al. [15] and Aggarwal [16] (see Fig. 1). The materials selected for the scenarios in this study are based on the typical materials available in the local market (clay bricks, gypsum board, bamboo sheet and clear glass), and those that are potentially available as the natural resources and recycled material are very abundant (for instance bagasse). Local materials will be the strong focus for selecting scenarios in this paper, as imported materials and inter-regional materials consume more energy than local materials. The embodied energy and initial cost will be considered only for the selected zone (room) where air-conditioners are utilized. The other zone materials remain the same as the baseline case. 2.2. Case study (baseline) Middle class residential houses were used in this study as baseline; the typical materials that are currently used have been chosen along with typical oor area and occupancy rate. The studied houses are predominantly made from clay based material, by means of having external walls that use clay bricks as the main material, and roof enclosure made from clay tiles. The other typical houses use cement base as the core material, such as concrete blocks for walls and concrete roof. Both types of houses have the average air conditioning type and power (General brand from Japan with 7000 Btu/h capacity and coefcient of performance (COP) 3.2; details are presented in Table 1 below) and similar occupant behaviour (4 people: 2 adults and 2 children). The data was gathered in Semarang using open interview and questionnaire from 35 households (mainly brick material) with a oor area ranging from 5065 m2. The households have two bedrooms (one of which is air-conditioned) and are considered as middle class homes with a monthly average family income between 5 and 10 million Rupiah (USD 5501100).

2. Methodology 2.1. Embodied energy Embodied energy in a product comprises the energy used to extract, transport and rene the raw materials and then to manufacture the components and assemble the product [2]. The energy consumed directly at each phase of material production is clearly denable and measurable; this paper assesses the direct energy consumed by residential enclosure building materials. Process analysis has been used to assess the energy consumed during raw material extraction, and material production up to the

Table 1 Average cooling appliances condition and designated zone in Semarang AC system Average conditions Semarang city COP 3.2 AC capacity 7000 Btu/h Temperature set point 24 C Operating hours 9h (15.0023.00) Designated humidity 60%

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8.82 2.80 3.80

2.80

AIR CONDITIONED AREA

2.80 0.68 6.00

LIVING ROOM
3.10

9.50

Fig. 2. Floor plan and perspective for typical single landed house (54.5 m2 oor area).

The typical house in this study (see Fig. 2) has an air-conditioned area of approximately 10 m2 from a total of 54.5 m2, and one combined living room/kitchen. The wall is mainly clay brick covered by 10 mm plasterboard on both sides. The ceiling is made from local 3 mm gypsum, with roof and window/door frames made from wood. Clay based houses are used as baseline for this case study as the result of a previous study revealing that a clay based house has better performance in its life cycle (40 years) compared to other common type (cement based); hence improvement options are sought for this type. The baseline will be compared with the possible scenarios of reducing electricity demand associated with cooling load. The baseline also takes into consideration some standard materials, such as structure column (made from concrete and steel reinforcement), roof frame (made from wood frame classication two), gypsum ceiling, concrete slabs with ceramic oor tiles, windows and doors wooden frame, as well as occupant behaviour and weather conditions. The data collected in the selected house and utilization behaviour was used as input in ECOTECT, a dynamic building analysis software used to simulate the cooling load. ECOTECT performs simulations based on data such as average temperature setting, occupants, material for enclosure, humidity, AC efciency, AC utilization behaviour, zone inltration, external inltration, air speed, and internal heat (appliances and human) [17,18]. The simulations are carried out on an annual basis as most of the months are hot and humid and a few months (45 months) wet and rainy. ECOTECT provides information of heat gain/loss through opaque portions of the enclosure, and natural ventilation in 3D [19]. The simulated results from ECOTECT were cross-checked with actual measurements by using Wattmeter on an air-conditioner with the conditions similar to the average air-conditioner utilization, Semarang weather conditions, local humidity, etc. for several days during summer time. The simulated results were within 25% of the actual measurements. The electricity bills were used to calculate the average monthly electricity consumed by the air-conditioners. The questionnaire gathered the information for all the electricity-consuming appliances in every house, together with the average use per day for week days as well as weekend. The Indonesian electricity bills do not use the low and high peak measure; they use progressive charging per kWh electricity consumed plus additional charge for installed capacity. The capacity installed in small to medium residences (R1) varies between 450 and 2200 W (the rates of the progressive electricity costs per kWh for 450 W installed capacity are different from those for the other capacities) [11], the surveyed on Indonesian middle class houses use 2200 W installed capacity. A typical calculation is shown in Table 2 below.

2.3. Baseline and scenarios Fig. 3 shows the typical brick congurations used for walls of single landed houses in Indonesia. These typical brick layer assemblies are used in the scenarios, for example, double walls with cavity (DWg) uses half pair bricks for external and gypsum board in the inner layer, and double walls with bamboo sheet (DWb) uses pair bricks on the bottom followed by quarter bricks built along vertically to the top, etc. Fig. 4 shows the typical cross-section of walls in single landed houses in Indonesia. The layers consist of 250 L 110 W 50 T
Table 2 Example of the electricity bill for one month with the electricity consumption 400 kWh category capacities installed 2200 W (R1) Number 1 2 3 4 Item Capacity cost Block I: 020 kWh Block II: 2160 kWh Block III: the rest (61400 kWh) Calculation 2200/1000 Rp. 30,200.00 20 kWh Rp. 390.00 40 kWh Rp. 445.00 340 kWh Rp. 495.00 Sum (Rupiah) 66,440.00 7,800.00 17,800.00 168,300.00 260,340.00 Sum (USD) 7.3 0.85 1.95 18.49 28.60

Sum of expenses (Rupiah)

Pair bricks

half pair bricks

quarter pair bricks

Fig. 3. Typical brick layer arrangements for masonry.

OUTSIDE

plaster

pair bricks

plaster

Fig. 4. Cross-section of layers for typical Indonesian single landed walls.

INSIDE

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mm bricks covered by mortar plaster on both sides. Brick density in the model is 950 kg/m3. Mortar plaster thickness is 10 mm; therefore the total thickness is 130 mm. In this study, the building enclosure materials available in the local market have been used to obtain a low embodied energy as well as the most feasible cost associated with reasonable energy reduction during use phase in typical single landed household behaviour under local weather and climate conditions. The scenarios will be categorized into three points of view vis--vis responsibilities (land developer/contractors, designer, and a point of view combining the previous two). 2.3.1. Land developer/contractors inuence Scenario Crf: Using the baseline case to improve the craftsmanship between gaps, thereby minimizing air-ow across the gaps. Air movement occurs from the air leakage due primarily to the pressure difference of air across the opening [20]. Often low quality craftsmanship occurs in Indonesian housing; the use of low quality materials, below standard brick-laying, low quality nishing, and so on. This leads to leaks between joints, uneven window/door frames, and big gaps between windows/doors and the frame, sometimes resulting in the windows/doors inability to be properly closed. Typical such openings in Thailand as studied by Chirarattananon [20] include leakage between frame and wall 2.2 104 m2, between door and frame 9 104 m2, between window frame and wall 1.34 104 m2, and between window and frame 4.2 104 m2. There can also be leakage via ceiling 8.6 103 m2 (on ceiling and wall xtures, and between ceilings). The typical leakage area is more or less the same as in the Indonesian case. The baseline airow caused by leakage is assumed to be 0.45 L s/ m2 or 0.5 ACH (air changes per hour), which is higher than typical houses in Sweden (0.35 L s/m2 or 0.4 ACH) [21]. Reducing the possible bigger gaps will reduce air movement (especially to external environment and lower pressure zones), however, better craftsmanship is not enough to completely eliminate leakage. Further reduction of the ow can be achieved by introducing additional air barriers for windows, doors, and gaps between wood, sheet, gypsum, panels, etc. Air barriers are also capable of resisting wind loads, positive pressure and suction [5]. However, gaps will still continue to occur through differential movement, degradation of components, material shrinkage or expansion (due to weather) as the building ages, and therefore good quality material should be introduced. Moreover, the air barrier material should also be easily available in the market. Some water barrier materials such as airtight drywall approach (ADA), spray polyethylene foam, or any other advance air barrier materials are available in the global market, but not in the local market. Some options available locally are sealants, rubber tapes and asphalt. By introducing high quality craftsmanship, and introducing air barriers, the possible gaps and openings (especially during the hot season) will be reduced by as much as 20% of the ACH between zones and 40% from external ambient. The baseline ACH between zones is 0.5 for the typical Indonesian landed house. If the craftsmanship is improved and air barriers introduced, the ACH can be reduced to 0.40 ACH ($0.4 L s/m2) between zones, and from 0.25 ACH for ambient air inltration to 0.15 ACH (0.15 L s/m2). This will entail some additional cost due to the purchasing of wind barrier materials, as well as additional expenses for labour because working hours will increase. 2.3.2. Designers inuence Scenario DWg: Using double layer walls with cavity and gypsum, half pair brick layers (pasangan setengah bata, a common practice for constructing bricks masonry for houses) as external layers

and gypsum plaster board at the inner layer, and an air gap with wooden frame (to which the gypsum is attached) in between. The cross-section of the wall is shown in Fig. 5 below. The material properties, as seen in Table 3, show the total U-value to be lower than a typical wall structure. Moreover, an initial cost for gypsum will be necessary, as well as the cost of the wood frame as a supporting structure for the gypsum. Since the construction process is done by human labour, embodied energy during assembly as well as initial cost for construction machinery is not included. However, the cost for the labour is taken into account. As seen in Table 1 the time lag for this scenario is longer (4 h) compared to the typical wall (baseline 3 h), due to the introduction of gypsum in the inner layer. This may cause heat gains at 11.00 to reach the conditioned zones, whereas for the typical wall when the delay is 3 h, only heat gains at 12.00 will inuence the cooling load at the conditioned zone. However, the overall U-value of this scenario is lower than the typical wall leading to lower cooling load requirements.

OUTSIDE

plaster

pair bricks

air gaps

gypsum

Fig. 5. Cross-section of double layer walls with cavity.

Table 3 Thermal properties of enclosure materials for baseline case and selected scenarios Type of model and material Walls Baseline Lightweight bricks Double walls gypsum (DWg) Lightweight bricks Air gap Gypsum Double walls bamboo (DWb) Lightweight bricks Bamboo sheets Bagasse bricks (WBb) Plaster Window glass Clear glass standard (92% transparency) Glass 70% transparency Double glazing [Overall] U-value (W/m2 K) 1.58 Time lag (h) 3 110 1.12 4 110 50 10 0.77 3.5 110 20 2.72 2 110 10 950 950 1600 1250 0.27 0.031 0.765 0.431 840 2095 1000 1088 950 1.3 1100 0.27 5.56 0.65 840 1004 840 950 0.27 840 Width (mm) Density (kg/m3) Conductivity (W/m K) Specic heat (J/kg K)

5.44

2300

1.046

INSIDE

836.8

5.44 2.71

6 6

2300 2300

1.046 1.046

836.8 836.8

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Table 4 Thermal properties of windows glass material for the baseline and the scenarios Thermal properties Clear glass 92 0.72 5.44 G70 70 0.55 5.44 DG 38 0.42 2.71

OUTSIDE

INSIDE

Transmittance (%) SHGC U-value

plaster bricks

bamboo sheets pair bricks plaster

Fig. 6. Cross-section of double wall with bamboo sheets in the middle.

Scenario DWb: Using double layer brick walls lled with bamboo, and a combination between one pair brick layers (pasangan satu bata) and quarter pair bricks (see Fig. 3). The pair bricks are used for structural/strength purposes, and the quarter bricks are used for creating the double wall within which the bamboo sheets can be placed (as shown in Fig. 6 below). Scenario WBb: Using bricks made from bagasse with the typical cross-section shown earlier in Fig. 4. Bagasse is abundantly available as residue from sugar mills in Asian countries [1416] use of which reduces emissions since most of this material will go to landll or be burnt. Bagasse/sugar cane ash bricks have thermal properties such as conductivity of about 0.7651 W/m K at density 1600 kg/m3 [1416]. The specic heat is higher than regular bricks [14], suggesting potential to replace regular clay based bricks. This material also has a minimum tensile strength of 4050 kg/cm3 which is sufcient for structural walls (the average Indonesian bricks are 30 kg/cm3) [14,15]. Another interesting characteristic of this material is its low embodied energy (1597 MJ/m3) [14] in comparison to the regular bricks (5614 MJ/m3), as it does not require a ring process because the main material consists of 4050% clay and <10% cement and the remaining 40% is bagasse or sugar cane ash. The energy outlay during transportation should also be taken into account. This information is not available in the reference papers, however, to reduce energy during transportation the production of bagasse/sugar cane ash bricks should be located near the sugar mill factory. However, choosing building materials based only on low embodied energy levels would not be sufcient since building materials will also have a signicant impact on the cooling load during the use phase. These effects are included in the subsequent calculations. Scenario G70: Using single tint glass (70% transparency) is an option to replace standard clear glass, as it has the same thermal properties compared to the clear glass except having less transmittance and SHGC (solar heat gain coefcient) as seen in Table 4 above. Moreover, this type of glass is available abundantly in the local market (commonly 6 and 8 mm). The price is around 195,000 Rupiah/m2 (21.43 USD/m2), an increase of 65,000 Rupiah/m2 (7.14 USD/m2) compared to regular clear glass. The scenario will use 6 mm thick less transparent glass and simulate the energy reduction on an average monthly basis. The embodied energy of tint glass is 1.86 MJ/kg higher than clear glass. Scenario DG: Using double glazing. This is similar to scenario G70, with the addition of a second layer of glass to the base case. The thermal properties for this option can be seen in Table 4. Both sheets of glass are 6 mm thick with an air gap in between (nonvacuumed). However, the additional glass layer inside may cause condensation, therefore a special design needs to be introduced, such as creating an opening to the inner layer glass allowing the gap to be cleaned, and also allowing air circulation in the gap

(reducing the likelihood of trapped humidity). The material costs as well as embodied energy would be double that of the baseline. The option of double low E-value vacuumed glass in Indonesia is unlikely to be used as it is difcult to nd in the market and, when available, only at a relatively high cost. Scenario WWR: Reducing window to wall ratio; the typical single landed houses in Semarang have a WWR of 0.45 by using two large glass windows. Removing one window will lower the WWR to 0.22, and has potential also to reduce the heat gain. The change in embodied energy reduction compared to the baseline resulting from the removal of one window frame and its glass and its replacement by wall area (more bricks and mortar will be used) is also considered in this scenario. The wood frame will be reduced by 5 m (as the frame dimension is 0.05 by 0.07 m) reducing embodied energy by 0.82 MJ. The embodied energy from window glass will reduce by 258 MJ (1.5 m2 less windows area). However, the brick wall area will increase as the bricks and mortar will replace the missing window area (an additional 926 MJ). 2.3.3. Combined option Scenario COMB: Using a combination of the most energy conserving scenarios (either contractor or designer inuence). It is necessary to compare whether a combination of scenarios is viable in terms of installation costs, or whether initial costs are too high thus making the option impossible for the owner/developer to implement. The combination would be that of double walls with cavity and gypsum, lowering WWR (from 0.45 to 0.22), installing double glass with 70% transparency and introducing air barrier and improving craftsmanship. All the scenarios above will meet the criteria of human comfort outlined in the human comfort diagram [21], the relative humidity (RH) for the comfort zone is between 40% and 60% with a temperature range of 1826 C. This comfort zone will be used as input in the simulations. The baseline room temperature thermostat, provided by the AC system, is set at 24 C and 60% RH. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Embodied energy, cost saving and energy saving The baseline model is based on real measurements as shown by normal energy demand, initial cost and embodied energy in the typical clay brick single landed houses in Indonesia. The typical energy demand for the typical enclosure materials for the baseline case is represented as zero (X = 0, Y = 0) in Fig. 7. The gradient diagram above (Fig. 7) shows the average energy saving per month for the scenarios on the Y-axis and additional embodied energy for each scenario (added or reduced) including embodied energy during construction (X-axis). The diagram is divided into four areas. The rst zone is the most energy saving per month as well as the least initial embodied energy. The second zone shows high energy saving but with high embodied energy. The high embodied energy is caused by high energy consumption during the production phase and initial energy consumed during construction and transportation. The third zone shows the least energy reduction and also the least embodied energy. The fourth zone

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additional embodied energy [MJ]

WBb (3000.00) (2000.00) (1000.00) -10 -5 0.00 1000.00 G70 Crf WWR DG 2000.00 3000.00 4000.00 5000.00

average energy saving per month [kWh]

BASELINE
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Crf DWg DWb G70 DG DWb

DWg

COMB WWR COMB BASELINE WBb

Fig. 7. Embodied energy gradient diagram.

shows the worst alternative with no signicant reduction of energy use and high initial embodied energy. The glass 70% transparent (G70) has little additional embodied energy compared to clear glass windows (approximately 29 MJ/m2). These gures are similar for double walls with bamboo since no additional brick layer is introduced (see Fig. 4); in fact the embodied energy is less as each square meter of brick masonry consists of only 48 bricks instead of the 60 of regular bricks. Reducing windows to walls ratio (WWR) consumes no additional embodied energy for glass and frame, since the required quantity of glass and wooden frame is reduced. However, the initial embodied energy for WWR still shows an increase as the glass will be replaced by bricks, for which the initial embodied energy is approximately an additional 667 MJ. Another consequence of reducing the WWR is less natural daylight. This may increase the electricity used for lighting, but because of its negligible inuence, this impact is not included in the study. Double glazing (DG) seems to have less energy reduction and noticeably higher embodied energy (compared to the baseline). DG is placed in zone 3 for this alternative scenario. However, it is close to zone 4 because the embodied energy is double that of the baseline and the potential energy reduction is not signicant (8.47 kWh/month). For some reason these glass scenarios do not provide much advantage since the initial embodied energy is signicant enough for the whole life cycle of the building, except the possibility to reduce its transparency (<70%) and increase its thickness. For instance, the G70 and DG can be the 8 mm or even thicker instead of 6 mm. This will show a reduction of 0.2 kWh/ month for 8 mm thick G70, and 0.1 kWh/month for 8 mm thick DG. DWc (double wall with cavity) has high energy reduction but also high embodied energy. This is because of the introduction of a gypsum layer for the whole inner wall adding 2477 MJ only for adding gypsum board and 24.7 MJ for its reinforced frame. Double walls lled with bamboo sheet (DWb) will reduce electricity consumption by 8.54 kWh/month compared to the baseline. Moreover, the initial embodied energy of the bricks is not signicant

because the number of the bricks does not increase signicantly (by introducing a combination of one pair and quarter pair brick layers to cover the gap without adding any additional brick layers). The additional initial embodied energy only comes from bamboo: 500 MJ is needed to produce 1 m3 of bamboo in developing countries [13]. The gradient diagram in Fig. 8 shows the energy reduction during the operation phase versus the additional cost (material as well as construction cost) invested for each scenario. The rst zone is the most energy saving per month as well as the least initial investment cost. The second zone shows high energy saving but with higher initial investment. The third zone shows the least energy reduction (even no reduction or more electricity consumption) and also the least initial cost. Most of the alternative scenarios are located in this zone as a consequence of little effort producing minimal results. The fourth zone shows the worst alternative with no signicant reduction of energy use (similar with third zone), and the initial investments are huge. The craftsmanship (including additional rubber/sealant insulation) and reductions of WWR are both in the same zone (3). This means these scenarios have less signicance in terms of reducing electricity during the use phase (less than 10 kWh/month) and have more initial investment cost (more than 10 USD). Changing from clear glass to 70% transparency glass increases the initial investment to almost 60 USD and only reduces electricity consumption by 0.34 kWh/month. Moreover, double glazing is similar but has better electricity reduction per month (8.47 kWh). The best electricity reduction is shown by DWg or double walls with cavity and gypsum (30.36 kWh/month). However, this alternative has an effect on the price as the initial cost reaches 76.10 USD (zone 2). The least investment cost, while achieving quite signicant electricity reduction is that of double walls with bamboo (DWb). Introducing bamboo sheets in the middle of double walls results in a reduction of 20.50 kWh/month: a good example of reducing electricity use while keeping a low initial investment cost (21.76 USD).

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additional extra initial cost [USD]

WBb (60.00) (40.00) (20.00) -10 -5 0.00 20.00 G70 Crf DG 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00

average energy saving per month [kWh]

BASELINE
5 WWR 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Crf DWg DWb G70

DWb

DWg

COMB DG WWR COMB BASELINE WBb

Fig. 8. Initial cost gradient diagram.

3.2. Break even point (BEP) Compared to the baseline, most of the model scenarios are located in gradient zone for embodied energy and initial cost, or in other words most of the possible model scenarios will not deviate much from the baseline (0, 0). Moreover, some scenarios have high energy saving together with a high initial investment for example the double wall with cavity and gypsum DWg and combined scenario COMB . To have a better idea of the relative gain in energy, the study also compares the possible energy break even point of the various scenarios. This ratio shows the energy payback or time taken for the initially increased embodied energy to be recovered by the electricity savings from reduced cooling load. A similar calculation has also been done in terms of cost and the results for both are presented in Table 2. The table represents the cost BEP scenarios for the initial cost of the materials divided by the potential reduction of electricity per month. The energy saving (kWh/month) is multiplied by the average electricity price for a medium house with a 2200 W electricity capacity installed (390 Rupiah/kWh or 0.043 USD/kWh). The cost BEP for G70 scenario shows that more than 75 years are required to reach the break even point, due to very low energy saving 0.34 kWh/month (0.01 USD/month) and relatively high initial cost for investment (13.01 USD). This option is not economically feasible and may not be considered by designers. The best BEP in terms of introducing additional material is DWb (24.7 months or 2 years, as seen in the gure above) since it has a very low initial investment cost and large reduction of electricity consumption (21.76 USD and 0.88 USD/month, respectively). WWR in this case shows an initial cost that is 10.3 USD cheaper and a monthly saving of around 0.31 USD/month compared to the baseline, meaning this option is saving money right from the start. As seen in the gradient graphs (Figs. 7 and 8) the DWg has a low embodied energy as well as high monthly energy saving. However, the energy BEP shows that DWg has longer BEP than DWb and combined option. The low energy BEP for DWb is due to the low embodied energy installed 316.80 MJ and the signicant effect on the energy reduction (20.50 kWh/month) compared to DWg
Table 5 Break even point (BEP) for selected scenarios compared to the baseline Scenarios Initial BEP (years) Energy Craftsmanship and air barrier Double wall cavity and gypsum Double wall bamboo Bagasse bricks Glass 70% transparency Double glass WWR reduction Combined option Crf DWg DWb WBb G70 DG WWR COMB 2.74 0.70 0.13 1.73 1.91 1.03 0.77 0.67 Cost 8.20 4.87 2.06 7.84 75.49 11.49 2.73 4.19

(2501.64 MJ and 30.36 kWh/month, respectively). The gures also occur due to the lower embodied energy for bamboo compared to gypsum: 3162477 MJ, respectively. G70 has the largest energy and cost BEP due to high embodied energy consumed as well as very small monthly electricity reduction. The WWR moreover shows that the initial embodied energy is 667.13 MJ higher than the baseline, including the energy consumed during construction. Bagasse bricks (WBb) is a special case where the embodied energy from the substitution is lower than the base case and so is the cost. However, the energy consumption during the operation phase is higher than the base case and hence, so is the cost. Thus, in this case, the there is an initial gain of embodied energy and cost which is offset by the increased energy use and cost during operation phase. This case is especially interesting because it is currently being promoted in Indonesia due to the low initial cost consideration. However, Table 5 shows that the initial cost benet is already offset in 8 years after which a higher price is paid for electricity. 4. Conclusions and discussion The use of local material to reduce the energy expenditure during the use phase is a wise decision since it will also reduce the initial embodied energy as well as cost, especially transportation cost. Low energy housing is not always about using high tech material

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or technology, but knowing the local materials and their characteristics, which can lead to a possible life cycle energy saving for the house through reducing cooling loads. However, some households seem to neglect the option to have low electricity consumption, as the electricity price is considerably low ($390 Rupiah/kWh or 0.043 USD/kWh) because of the subsidy from the government [3]. To achieve public awareness towards reducing electricity consumption by adjusting or retrotting the envelopes, government support is needed (either by push factors or pull factors), such as increasing the price of electricity in certain areas to avoid an impact on lower income families. For instance, the energy consumption for households with a 2200 W capacity installed (mostly used by middle class families) could have a lower subsidy compared to those who have 900 W installed (push factor). Another way is developing building code which encourages only material with thermal property values that are benecial to the hot and humid climate, therefore reducing heat gains. From all scenarios, reducing the window to wall ratio has the lowest embodied energy and is reasonable enough in terms of energy reduction compared to the baseline. Moreover, the gures for both energy and cost break even point show that low WWR (but still maintaining the potential of daylighting) will reduce electricity consumption caused by cooling loads quite signicantly and have negative BEP, as it does not need any additional material to implement (rather it has a lower material requirement resulting in reduced cost and reduced embodied energy). Double wall with bamboo is promising as it has low embodied energy as well as low cost. In Indonesia, bamboo (as a native plant) is abundant and easy to grow, therefore the price is reasonably low, and with no complicated production process reducing the initial embodied energy (except for transportation). In the case of Semarang, the city is surrounded by rural areas which are a source of bamboo. However, the cost of bamboo can increase in line with high demand. Since bamboo is not bulk farmed, but harvested from its natural habitat, future price increases are inevitable. Therefore, it is necessary for the government and private sector to industrialize the bamboo plantations in the near future. Based on the strong resistance of bamboo to shear load and pressure [13], walls lled with bamboo can also survive earthquakes which are common in Indonesia due to its location between the Eurasian and Australian plates. Double walls with cavity are being used in case studies in many countries, and can be implemented in Semarang. However, gypsum is not relatively cheap and is therefore located in the second area of the diagram gradient. Even so the energy saving per month is considerably low, even in comparison to double walls with bamboo. The initial embodied energy is high compared to other alternative scenarios. This is because the gypsum production process is energy intensive. By utilizing the bagasse or sugar mill waste such as ash as building materials will increase the eco-friendly value of the material, and denitely reduce its embodied energy if the process has lower energy content (such as ring). The use of waste material, in this case bricks made from bagasse and/or sugar mill ash, that avoids the ring process not only reduces embodied energy (see Fig. 7) but also reduces potential degradation of the natural resources, in this case the good quality of clay soil which is also commonly used for paddy elds. Avoiding the ring process also reduces fuel consumption: the traditional ring process for clay bricks mainly uses wood chip, rice husk and wood as these materials are very limited and in some cases are expensive. However, low energy and environmentally friendly material will not always be the best option for the life cycle of the building. As seen in Table 2 the energy BEP of the model lasts more than 20 months meaning the low embodied energy will be paid off by the higher electricity consumption during its utilization, and after that this material will not gain any benets. Therefore, this option should be neglected.

The most rational way to choose the best model (by additional materials, and not reducing WWR) is to compare which zone they are in and then compare their BEP (energy and cost). By doing this, it is found that DWg, DWb and COMB are the three options located in gradient or zone 1 and 2 which have reasonably low embodied energy and a high potential of electricity reduction compared to the baseline. Moreover, if we look at the BEP table it shows that DWb (double wall with bamboo sheets) has about 1.6 months for energy BEP and need around 25 months for the cost BEP. These values are relatively low compared to DWg which has an energy BEP more than ve times higher, and is more than double in terms of cost BEP. By locating the scenarios on the gradient diagram we can nd the best possible enclosure design in terms of choosing material at a point where costs are not too high and the initial embodied energy is also relatively low. The possible scenarios will not only consider the locally available materials, but the designer can choose any materials available in the global market and locate on the gradient and expand its X- and Y-axis depending on the maximum and minimum scenarios values. The idea is that the designers, by locating their options into this gradient diagram and then comparing the energy BEP and cost BEP, will get a better overview of the option they have chosen without calculating the whole life cycle energy or life cycle cost. This should be done as a rst screening of the building envelope materials. References
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