Life Cycle Assessment of Residential Heating Systems: A Comparison of Distributed and Centralized Systems

With increasing awareness of the importance of thermal comfort, occupants, even those living in a mild climate, show rising demand for space heating. The question remains which heating system has a better environmental performance when it is utilized to meet moderate heating need. This paper presents a comparison of distributed and centralized heating systems with respect to the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. The heating systems are sized for a typical apartment in Hangzhou, China, where daily average low temperature is above 0 °C. Results show that air-source heat pump renders lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to centralized heating.