The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and SAR Engineering, have developed a computer program called "Optimize" that is designed to estimate the embodied energy, lifecycle energy, and environmental impact of a house.
The creators of the Optimize program estimate that for a "standard house in Toronto with a 40-year life," the total embodied energy is 2,352 Gj (one gigajoule is equivalent to about 1 million Btu). The total operating energy over 40 years is 9,060 Gj, which results in expected operating energy of approximately 226 Gj per year. This means that a typical house will exist and operate for ten years before the total operating energy starts to outstrip the embodied energy contained in the building components.
And an estimate made by Tracy Mumma, "Reducing the Embodied Energy of Buildings," Home Energy Magazine Online, January/February 1995, is that the energy used to make and transport the materials to build a conventional house in Vancouver is 948 million btu, and that the annual energy consumption to heat that house is 101 million btu.
[Sources: World Watch and Home Energy Magazine]
