Residential buildings consume a large share of world energy with comparable CO₂ emissions. This article has undertaken a comparative Life Cycle Energy Analysis (LCEA) using a new approach. This involved classifying the LCEA outputs of a case study house as material groups to see the contribution made by polymers used in the building industry, most of which currently depend on oil for their production. The article discusses how some polymers, such as the thermoset polymer polyurethane foam (PUR) insulation material, can be replaced with materials with lower embodied energy and CO₂ coefficients, leading to a lower overall energy use over the life of the residential building. However, there are some types of polymer, such as the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used for insulating electrical wiring that cannot be replaced easily. The article also discusses the importance of considering the source of energy for both manufacturing materials and for operating the house during its life span. The results show over 50% of the life cycle energy and close to 90% of the life cycle CO₂ emissions of the case study house come from polymers, mostly in the form of the insulating materials used for improving the energy efficiency of the house.

住宅建筑消耗世界能源的很大一部分，且具有可比的CO ₂排放量。本文使用一种新方法进行了比较性的生命周期能量分析（LCEA）。这涉及将案例研究室的LCEA输出分类为材料组，以查看建筑行业中使用的聚合物所做出的贡献，其中大多数目前依赖于石油生产。本文讨论了如何用具有较低内含能和CO _2的材料代替某些聚合物，例如热固性聚合物聚氨酯泡沫（PUR）绝缘材料系数，从而降低了住宅建筑整个生命周期的总体能源消耗。但是，存在一些类型的聚合物，例如用于绝缘电线的聚氯乙烯（PVC）不能轻易更换。本文还讨论了在建筑材料的使用寿命以及房屋的使用寿命中考虑能源的重要性。结果表明，案例研究房屋超过50％的生命周期能量和近90％的生命周期CO ₂排放来自聚合物，其中大部分以绝缘材料的形式用于提高房屋的能源效率。