Determining economic and environmental impact of insulation by thermoeconomic and life cycle assessment analysis for different climate regions of Turkey

In this study, economic and environmental impact of thermal insulation have been determined for building wall in the cities of Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, and Erzurum, located in different climates of Turkey. Three different realistic scenarios have been determined and the analysis have been carried out through these scenarios. The calculations have been made considering four different insulation materials, expanded polystyrene (EPS), glass wool (GW) rock wool (RW) and extruded polystyrene (XPS). Environmental assessments have been carried out by the life cycle assessment (LCA) method for all scenarios. Environmental analysis were carried out by combining 17 environmental effects with the ReCiPe method. The novelty of this study is the determination of environmental payback periods by combining 17 environmental effects using the ReCiPe method. As a result, economic payback times for all scenarios have the lowest value for RW. While the lowest environmental payback period was found as EPS, the highest environmental payback period was found as XPS for all scenarios. The highest economic payback time was assessed at XPS for all scenarios. The thermal insulation material with the highest economic payback period was found as XPS for all scenarios. It has been observed that thermal insulation is more effective in colder climates in terms of economic and annual avoided environmental impact. In all scenarios, environmental payback period was found to be considerably lower than economic payback period.