Verein Deutscher Ingenieure

Cumulative energy demand - Examples
 N VDI 4600 BLATT 1

Annotation

The cumulative energy demand KEA is an aggregated characteristic. The individual amounts from which its calculation results may arise at highly different times and within highly divergent spatial balancing boundaries. Some of the elements of the assessment can be measured directly, and others calculated by indirect methods. In some areas of unavoidable assignment and attribution, it is also impossible to classify methods as clearly wrong or right. Accordingly, the terminological stipulations of the standard VDI 4600 consciously refrain from specifying every detail. The alternative methods applied are fundamentally illustrated on the basis of different possibilities. In the final analysis, their selection by the user is determined by aspects of plausibility within the framework of the actual question to be answered within the study. Opportunities for further methodical development are also consciously left open.

The examples presented in VDI 4600 Part 1 are intended to provide a practical aid to potential users of the standard on the basis of selected products and services, indicating how the definitions can be used systematically in a result-oriented manner. It must be clearly pointed out here that the methodical approach is in the foreground, rather than the topicality of the data and results.

The collection of examples presented here shows the diversity of ways in which the cumulative energy demand of commercial goods can be determined, and how the various procedures are applied together. It makes clear how necessary the room for discretion in calculation and assessment incorporated in the standard is. It becomes apparent that, even in the life cycle inventory analysis, elements which cannot be finally and objectively quantified occur, e. g. the primary energy assessment of waste and residues, or indeed the demarcation of balancing boundaries in space and time