Life Cycle Cost and Energy Analysis of Roof Systems for a Single-Family House

Abstract

In this study, the life cycle cost (LCC) and energy consumption of a residential home were evaluated to find the lowest LCC among 12 roof systems. EnergyPlus 8.3 program was employed to estimate the annual cooling requirements of a two-storey house with total area of 240m 2 . The analysis was carried out for four types of roof insulation (aluminum foil, fiberglass, polystyrene and polyurethane)and three types of roof tires (concrete, ceramic and fiber cement).The concrete roof tiles without insulation were set as the baseline case. Results show the concrete roof tiles with fiberglass insulation provide the highest energy saving in the air conditioning system at 10.98%. However, the roof using fiber cement roof tiles with polystyrene insulation was found to be the most cost effective roof system. It shows the lowest LCC with the reduction in LCC by 3.31%.