| Abstract | Exterior solar shading systems are a widely adopted strategy to mitigate indoor overheating and reduce cooling energy demand, particularly in warm or mixed climate zones. Despite their prevalent use, the effect of this system on decarbonization has not been fully addressed wordwide, especially for cold climate zones. In addition, the cost effectiveness and return on investment are important concerns for building owners that intend to adopt this strategy as a means to reduce their energy bills, given that conventionally in cool and cold climates, the cooling energy demand is less than the heating energy demand, and as such, building owners are not as motivated to install exterior solar shading systems on their buildings. Nevertheless, with the increase in extreme heat waves and their anticipated rise due to climate change, the adoption of exterior solar shading is expected to grow. Therefore, it is worthwhile to assess the cost effectiveness and the return on investment of the system under changing climate. In this paper, a typical exterior shading system- exterior fabric screen that are commonly used on residential homes was investigated. The investigation used a life cycle carbon and cost assessment (LCCA) approach. The increase of the embodied carbon of this product was estimated using data from Ecoinvent database, and the reduction of the operational carbon was estimated through the energy modelling. The cost effectiveness of this product was determined from an analysis of pay-back period, and net present value at different cities in Canada by considering projected future climate. The results of this paper show that the life cycle carbon/cost performance of the exterior fabric shading used in single-detached homes are not only dependent on the climate conditions and the thermal performance of the buildings, but also on the carbon intensity of electricity grid and the electricity rate plan in different cities. |
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