Energy efficiency of window frames - Life Cycle Assessment of two wooden frames in the Italian window industry.

The paper presents work done in collaboration with ENEA, and one of the leading Italian wooden window companies, in order to formulate a LCA of two different window frames, a simple version with lower transmittance (S1) and a thick frame with higher performance (S3). L.C.Inventory included the use phase, proposing an assessment of the heating energy required by a hypothetical house to keep the internal temperature at a constant level. Software used was SimaPro6.0 e 7.0 with different assessment methods: Eco-Indicator99, EPS2000, EDIP/UMIP96, 97, 97 Resources only, and IMPACT2002+. The final results show the impact of the different phases, and in particular how the wood quantity makes the difference in terms of environmental impact due to the high impact of land use and energy consumption in the production phase (higher for S3 then S1). In addition, the results show how the use phase has a relevant contribution to the LCA of the frames (higher impact on S1 use than S3), revealing roughly the same values for the total impact of both frames (in terms of impact on human health, ecosystem quality, resources, etc.). The use timeframe of the respective frames then becomes the determining factor in each product's ultimate durability