Building & Construction
From residential homes to commercial buildings, and from hospitals to schools, architects and designers rely on plastics to help maximize energy efficiency, durability and performance. In addition to potentially lightening a structure’s environmental footprint, properly installed plastic building products can help reduce energy and maintenance costs over many years.
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news and highlights Plastics Make it PossibleSM Many homeowners are looking to save energy—and save money—in the process. Plastics can help maximize those efforts. Key Role for Chemical, Plastics Industries in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions A new study confirms a key role for the chemical industry in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and highlights the important role of plastic products, such as building insulation, packaging, auto parts, and pipe.
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Energy Savings: Adding It All Up
A one-year study1 found that the use of plastic building and construction materials saved 467.2 trillion Btu of energy over alternative construction materials. That’s enough energy saved over the course of a year to meet the average annual energy needs of 4.6 million U.S. households, or all of the households in 11 states: Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, Maine, Indiana, Hawaii, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas and Wyoming. Savings vary by material and products. (Source: Franklin Associates, Ltd., U.S. DOE and U.S. Census Bureau).
Following are some examples of plastic building products that promote the efficient use of energy and other resources:
Roofing
- Roofing systems made with spray polyurethane foam (SPF) offer durability, energy savings and moisture control. This foam can be used to cover an existing roof, helping to reduce the amount of building materials sent to landfills.
Walls
- In walls, the use of structural insulated panels (SIPs) made with expanded polystyrene (EPS) can help homeowners save hundreds of dollars annually on heating and cooling bills. Savings vary by material and products. EPS starts out as a plastic pellet and ends up as nearly 95 percent air, a very effective insulator.
- Vinyl is increasingly found in durable, easy-to-clean vinyl wall coverings and requires only half as much energy to manufacture as the same amount of paper wall coverings.
Windows
- Plastics also rival traditional materials for windows and frames. For example, polycarbonate—a material also used in eyeglasses—is used in windows. These lightweight, shatter-resistant plastic products have low thermal conductivity, which can help to reduce heating and cooling costs.
- Vinyl window frames save the U.S. nearly 2 trillion thermal units of energy per year, helping reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy generation—all the while cutting maintenance time, materials and costs.
Piping
- Polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) pipes and fittings, offer excellent fusion integrity for continuous pipeline systems, helping to eliminate potential leak points where water could be wasted.
- In residential use, cross-linked polyethylene piping (PEX) is effective in manifold systems—due to its flexibility, lightness, and ease of installation—allowing multiple feed lines throughout a house, which allows hot water to arrive more quickly to a sink or shower. This can significantly save water.
Decks, Fences and Railings
- Lumber made from recycled plastics or plastic-wood composites can outlast traditional materials, often require less maintenance, and are resistant to peeling, cracking, splintering or fading.
Plastic House Wrap
The advent of plastic house wrap technology has reduced the infiltration of outside air into the average home by 10-50%, helping to drastically reduce the energy required to heat or cool the home. These plastic films have helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by as much as 120 to 600 million tons of CO2 since 1980 (assuming that all homes built since 1980 have some form of plastic barrier).
For homeowners, this means that the energy saved by the use of house wrap can surpass the energy used to make the plastic product in less than two months after installation. The greenhouse gas emissions avoided due to reduced energy use can surpass the emissions released in the manufacture of house wrap in three weeks or less.
For each of the above examples, energy savings can vary. Find out why in the seller’s fact sheet for these plastic building products, which include house wraps, foam insulation, sheathing insulation and sealants. Check to see if your local retailer offers fact sheets on individual building products.
Learn more about plastics in the built environment:
1 Plastics Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings Using Rigid Foam Sheathing Applied to Exterior Walls of Single Family Residential Housing in the U.S. and Canada – A Case Study. Franklin Associates, Prairie Village, KS, 2000.
(See: http://www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/s_greenbuilding/docs/800/771.pdf)
