Evaluating the effect of resource utilization decisions on energy consumption in construction projects Conference

Sheykhi, R, Orabi, W. (2014). Evaluating the effect of resource utilization decisions on energy consumption in construction projects . 1616-1625. 10.1061/9780784413517.0165

cited authors

  • Sheykhi, R; Orabi, W

authors

abstract

  • Evaluation and optimization of energy consumption in construction projects are key to reducing the environmental footprint of construction and project direct costs. Construction projects consume energy in different forms and for various purposes including equipment and tools operation, material embodied energy, and jobsite maintenance. Previous research studies on the environmental effects of construction focused on evaluating greenhouse gasses or total energy consumption assuming average fuel consumption rates. Therefore, the effect of resource utilization and other planning decisions on energy consumption is not fully understood. In addition, most of these studies focused only on material manufacturing or building maintenance with minor focus on evaluating energy consumption during the construction phase. This paper, therefore, presents the preliminary stage for developing a new framework to evaluate the effect of several planning decisions (e.g., resource selection and productivity, construction methods, overtime working policies) on fuel and energy consumption during the construction phase. The proposed framework is designed to identify the main variables affecting energy consumption and their practical ranges, schedule construction projects for different resource utilization scenarios and calculate the associated energy consumption, and evaluate the energy performance of these scenarios to identify the most efficient ones. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.

publication date

  • January 1, 2014

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 13

start page

  • 1616

end page

  • 1625