A detailed analysis of the embodied energy and carbon emissions of steel-construction residential buildings in China

• Embodied energy and carbon emissions of three steel-construction residential buildings are evaluated.
• Embodied energy consumption of steel members, concrete and cement account for more than 60% of all building components.
• Embodied energy and environment issues of steel-construction buildings is sensitive to building height rather than building volumes.

Some previous studies on the embodied energy of the residential buildings in China show that the percentage of embodied energy in the building total energy use varies from 20% to 50%. It is believed that the accuracy of data acquisition, the differences in the definition of the embodied energy boundaries and the lack of building life cycle inventory (LCI) standards contribute to the large variation in findings. Often researchers should acquire data through typical process technology (national average level), engineering estimation and the professional judgments. There is a need to further study on embodied energy and carbon emissions of building, in this study, an embodied energy consumption and carbon emissions of the residential buildings model was created to study three steel-construction residential buildings in China. This model includes the materials production phase, transportation phase, construction phase, recycle and demolition phase as well as upstream of energy. The direct materials and energy consumption of these three residential buildings with different volumes are investigated on site. The results show that the embodied energy consumption of steel members, concrete and cement account for more than 60% of the total energy consumption of all building components, the proportion of energy consumption of steel members increases with the increasing of the floors, while the proportion of energy consumption of concrete and cement decreases, the embodied energy and environment issues of the building components of the steel-construction buildings is sensitive to building height rather than building volumes.