Energy use during the life cycle of buildings: a method

So far, research has mainly been concentrated on the energy use for buildings during their period of use, that is to say, the energy needed for space heating, hot water and electricity. But what about the energy use for a building during its life cycle? This paper presents a method on how to calculate the energy use during the life cycle of a building. In the companion paper “Energy use during the life cycle of single-unit dwellings: examples” [Building and Environment, 1997, 32, 321–329] the method is applied on three single-unit dwellings built in Sweden in 1991 and 1992.