[Greenbuilding] embodied energy was Polyiso strength on roof

John Salmen terrain at shaw.ca
Tue Dec 9 09:49:14 CST 2014


I've tried to work with embodied energy figures in design and it is really
difficult to get accurate units and make truly defensible decisions.
Cellulose for example does not use the energy of making the newsprint or the
wood it came from - and if it is removing paper from the recycled paper
stream then it has to share that cost or simply be calculated as if it were
a virgin material. EE of paper making is about 9300 btu/lb and the wood
itself 7700 btu/lb so 17000 btu/lb. Total life cycle on paper has been
calculated at 19400 btu/lb. 

 

EE is calculated in terms of weight and cellulose can be 2-3x the density of
foams so total density in a home can be significant in comparison to foam
usage - so I'm not sure what is being greenwashed. This is not a defense of
EPS just a comment on how difficult it is to determine the correct usage of
a material.  My suspicion is that mineral wool (given the absence of wool
wool in the market) might be realistically the lower EE product but produces
significant CO2.  The following article supports rockwool as consuming less
energy than paper wool in production
http://www.rockwool.it/files/RW-IT/LCA/StudioComparativoLCA-2parte.pdf

 

Dogs breakfast

 

 

 

 

From: Greenbuilding [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]
On Behalf Of Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn
Sent: December-08-14 3:39 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Polyiso strength on roof

 

Although the greenwashing on EPS is strong. It has huge amounts of embodied
energy. I have not done the calcs (vs. wood and cellulose for example) but
that very large amount of embodied energy needs to be mentioned and taken
into account.

.         Cellulose: 600 BTU

.         Mineral wool: 2,980 BTU

.         Fiberglass: 4,550 BTU

.         Polyisocyanurate: 14,300 BTU

.         EPS: 18,000 BTU




Gennaro Brooks-Church
Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231

 

On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 5:34 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn
<info at ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:

, ErgoDesk <ergodesk at gmail.com> wrote:

Build the entire House from EPS http://goo.gl/bpmmmJ 

 

I love this. Amazing.  

 

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