REDUCING THE COST OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY INTEGRATION IN HOUSING CONSTRUCTION THROUGH PREFABRICATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Sauder, Eric Michael Parrish
- Graduate Program:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- July 08, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Dr David Riley, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
David R Riley Ii, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- residential construction
prefabrication
assembly
modular
sustainability - Abstract:
- Concerns over global climate change and rising energy costs have motivated the innovation of energy efficiency and renewable energy products and technologies for the residential market. Although many of these technologies, such as advanced controls and energy feedback systems, offer great promise to dramatically reduce the energy demand from houses, few homeowners can afford the associated initial cost. Applications of industrialization in the housing and automobile industries demonstrate the potential for factory prefabrication to enable significant cost savings. This research evaluates the quantitative and qualitative impacts of prefabricating residential energy systems through both a first cost and monthly cost of ownership. Assessment of the prefabrication strategy is completed through quantitative cost analysis, interviews with prefabrication leaders to collect qualitative data, and the design of a prototype prefabricated hydronic heating system. The result of the research was a decision-making tool to organize and analyze the impact of increasing levels of prefabrication and advanced technology integration on the initial and lifecycle cost of ownership. The tool showed a significant difference between the cost of systems when viewed from an initial cost and lifecycle cost. The advanced prefabrication case, incorporating renewable energy increased initial costs by 191%, but lifecycle costs by 40%. The in depth analysis of hydronic systems indicated that prefabrication can reduce labor costs by 17-30%, and monthly cost of ownership by 4-16%, compared to site-built hydronic systems. The research also highlighted the importance of energy costs on the affordability of advanced systems. Qualitative data was collected to organize effects of prefabrication that cannot be assigned quantitative values. The qualitative data indicated that the factory environment offers the potential for transformative change in the design, procurement, manufacturing, construction, and operations of prefabricated systems.