Alternative Building Materials Analysis for Different Residential Buildings Considering Embodied Energy and Material Cost

Building material's embodied energy contributes significantly to carbon emission and is an important aspect of the study under climate change and sustainability. A specific study area is suggested from the literature and hence a study area named Hamirpur is taken wherein predominant residential building classifications are identified from secondary and primary data. Also predominant building materials and their alternatives used under three categories namely structure, skin and finish are identified from the data and prevalent practices in the area by selecting representative residential buildings for heights upto four storey. An average value of manufacturing embodied energy and transportation energy is calculated from various sources including market survey. Further a cradle to site embodied energy of each identified building material is calculated by adding manufacturing and transportation energy. Also the material cost of all identified materials is taken from the prevalent Schedule of Rates or from market survey. Total embodied energy and construction cost for each representative building is calculated and compared to existing construction and for various identified alternative building materials. It is concluded that Pozzolana Portland cement and crushed sand are better alternatives under structure category; hollow concrete block for walls and RCC frames for openings under the skin category and cement slurry and ceramic tiles for flooring, white wash for painting and wooden handrail under finish category.